Cai Wu

Editor's Note:

According to the statistics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China's animation industry is growing at the annual rate of 97 percent. However, some insiders pointed out that over 85 percent of Chinese animation companies are still struggling for survival. How will the Chinese government help out this nascent industry? Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV (PTV) interviewed Cai Wu (Cai), Minister of Culture.

PTV: Pleasant Sheep and Big Gray Wolf was a very successful example of Chinese animation in the first half of 2009, which attracted so many children and adults. Have you watched it?

Cai: Yes, a little bit. I love to watch cartoons, domestic or overseas.

China had a fairly distinctive and glorious period of animation in the 1950s and 1960s. Baby Tadpoles Look for Mamma, Three Monks Have No Water to Drink, The Monkey King, Nezha – all these have left deep impressions on us.

The cartoons at that time were hand made. Twenty-five pictures were needed to be drawn for each frame. Now we have modern network technology, and are able to quickly produce cartoons on computer. Ideas are what we lack.

When Japanese and US animation started being imported, the domestic industry was swamped, and has been in a decades-long depression.

In recent years, due to vigorous support and preferential policies by the Chinese government, domestic animation industry has developed into a large scale sector – there are more than 5,000 animation companies, and the total annual output is over 130,000 minutes.

This year, my several visits to animation firms in several provinces really impressed and surprised me. For instance, the Zhongnan Cartoon Film and Video Company in Zhejiang Province was previously a real estate company run by an agricultural entrepreneur. Along with the capital accumulation, the owner sought to turn to another industry. Unexpectedly, he successed in the animation industry – Zhongnan is a well-known brand now.

However, not every animation firm has such strong capital funding. The production costs of two-dimensional animation are close to 10,000 yuan ($1,464) per minute. However, the return is only 20 yuan ($2.90) to 30 yuan ($4.39) per minute, if the cartoon film is sold to a television station. Many firms went bankrupt because they could not make ends meet.

PTV: Some officials from your ministry predict that 10 percent of Chinese animation firms will disappear.

Cai: Various elements may lead to such a result – an unsound market environment, industrial policies and market development. However, I personally regard the lack of innovation as the pivotal element.

A large percentage of our cartoon business is to provide outsourcing services for processing for foreign animation companies. We did the main job of animation production, but only got a bit of processing pay – the real added value was not in China.

Hollywood cartoon blockbusters, like Tarzan, Mulan and The Lion King were all once processed in Shenzhen. Now, the success of Pleasant Sheep and Big Gray Wolf has restored people's confidence in domestic original animated cartoons.

However, the difficulty that many Chinese animation firms face is that they have to survive with the cash flow guaranteed by outsourcing services, in a bid to do some original work.

In such circumstances, the Ministry of Culture, for the first time, launched a plan this year to support original animation. Altogether 101 original animation programs and teams are supported, receiving a total fund of 7 million yuan ($1.02 million). We also provide technological digital platforms for companies to produce cartoons.

PTV: Disney, Hollywood, Time magazine – almost all the large US cultural companies flourished after the Great Depression. Cultural prosperity seems to be countercyclical. Has this happened in China after the financial crisis in 2008?

Cai: Yes. During a recession, people need reassurance and consolation. Art needs to fill such a role.

During the Depression in 1930s, then-US President Franklin Roosevelt said that the US would be all right as long as it had Shirley Temple, the actress and singer. At that time, many people saved money to watch performances by Charlie Chaplin and Temple, even though they were living on government relief fund. The expanded consuming demand of mass entertainment led to the shining of two superstars.

China is witnessing a precious opportunity of cultural prosperity. Since the first quarter of 2009, cultural indexes, such as movie box offices, the expansion of publication industry and the growth rate of animation industry, are changing very quickly. The challenge is whether we can seize the great opportunity.

PTV: How should China reform its cultural system to adapt to the market economy?

China: It's a new subject for China. From the second half of 2009, the Chinese government will issue a policy concerning the cultural industry every half month – "transforming into enterprises and reforming the system" will become a key new phrase.

From August 14 to 16, hundreds of high-profile officials, provincial government leaders and enterprise heads gathered together at Nanjing to discuss the experiences of cultural system reform. Organizations at the center of this round of reform include 59 State-owned literary and art theaters and troupes. On August 20, the State Council clearly required these 59 organizations to become commercial enterprises by the end of this year.

These organizations, as art troupes of the Party and the government, are actually lacking the motivation to innovate. In theory, they have many famous performers on their rolls. However, if you ask the staff, some of these performers have never participated in a play for many years and actually work outside. Such a out-of-date system blocks development and needs reform.

The Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble was founded in 1962, with the support of then premier Zhou Enlai. It undertook special tasks as a "cultural ambassador" to meet foreign government leaders in significant occasions.

Now we repeatedly talk to both old and new artists in this ensemble, and they already agree on the reform. We have done tons of work in the distribution and settlement of human resources, as well as their social security after retirement. The ensemble will still remain as a national-level organization, as long as it remains innovative within a competitive market.