HONG KONG - China is extending a ban on
television stations broadcasting foreign cartoons
by an additional hour during prime time in a bid
to protect the domestic animation industry.
However, observers believe Beijing should do more
to boost the development of the domestic industry,
instead of solely blocking foreign cartoons.
The State Administration of Radio, Film
and Television's (SARFT) posted a circular on its
website on February 19 informing viewers that from
May 1 all foreign cartoons will be banned on all
domestic TV cartoon and children's channels from 5
pm to 9 pm.
Only domestic cartoons
censored by the provincial broadcasting
authorities or the SARFT can be aired between that
time. Cartoons co-produced by domestic and foreign
firms will have to
get
approval from the SARFT to air during these
prime-time hours, the circular said.
The
media regulator also demanded TV stations observe
a daily broadcast ratio of 7:3 for domestic and
foreign cartoons, which means at least 70% of
cartoon programs aired must be domestically made.
The move was said "to create a favorable
market environment for the domestic cartoon
industry".
Since Japan's Astro Boy, the
first foreign cartoon imported to the mainland,
was broadcast in 1981, the cartoon industry was
dominated by Japanese, American and South Korean
products.
A pupil studying in a primary
school in Beijing's Fengtai District said he did
not like domestic cartoons which were too boring
for him.
"My classmates and I talk about
Superman, Crayon Shin-chan and Digimon, and the
toys we bought are the characters of these
cartoons. But domestic cartoons are too boring and
childish," the fifth grader said.
Crayon
Shin-chan and Digimon are popular Japanese cartoon
programs and merchandise. The former follows the
antics of a five-year-old boy and his parents and
friends while the latter is monsters of various
forms living in a "digital world".
Liu
Huasen, who lives in Yunfu city in south China's
Guangdong province, said that he liked to watch
The Monkey King when he was small. This story,
also known as the Journey to the West, is a
renowned classical Chinese folktale.
"Now
I seldom watch cartoons as most of them are
domestic, which are childish. The latest cartoon I
watched is a movie - Ratatouille, featuring a rat,
which teams up with a new kitchen boy to become
top Paris chefs," said the 11-year-old boy.
Yu Chu-mei, Liu's mother, cast doubts over
the success of the ban imposed by the SARFT,
saying children like Liu could have access to
foreign cartoons via the Internet, VCDs or DVDs.
Some industry players welcome the
administration's move, saying it will help the
sales of domestic cartoons.
Xu Ling,
marketing director of Hong Kong listed-Global
Digital Creations (GDC) Holdings, said as the
cartoon and children's channels are forced to find
more domestic cartoons to fill airtime, there will
eventually be more opportunities to domestic
cartoon makers.
She said the country's TV
stations prefer foreign cartoons, which are
distributed all over the world, as the prices of
these guaranteed dramas are usually lower when
compared with domestic cartoons.
"China's
cartoon industry is still in its infancy since it
was viewed as an industry by the administration
only three years ago, so it really needs such a
policy support. The administration ban will leave
the channels with the task of buying more domestic
cartoons," she said.
Li Shilei, president
of the Shanghai Toonmax TV Channel, said they will
abide by the administration's rules to broadcast
foreign cartoons outside the prime-time slots.
"Given the administration's tightened
controls on foreign cartoons since 2006, only one
foreign cartoon, Japan's Prince of Tennis, has
been approved. We have been relying on the
'replay' of old foreign cartoons, which has had a
bad impact on the channel's advertising revenue,
so the new rule will not have an impact on rating
with limited prime-time slots," he said, without
giving the figures.
In 2000, a SARFT regulation required local TV
stations to get approval from the administration
and set quotas for imported cartoons aired on TV.
In 2004, the SARFT issued a second regulation
that said at least 60% of cartoon programs aired
must be domestically made.
In September 2006, the SARFT first slapped the
ban on foreign cartoons during prime-time hours
between 5 pm and 8 pm.
With the government
policy in place, China's cartoon industry produced
about 101,900 minutes of animation last year, up
23% on 2006, according to the SARFT.
Meanwhile, some industry players said they
will be under pressure to provide more domestic
cartoons due to insufficient support for the
cartoon industry.
Ye Chao, vice director
of Haha TV, a dedicated children's channel in
Shanghai, said there were bad as well as good
domestic cartoons, which could not satisfy demand
from the audience and the market, so there was
pressure for them to fill the airtime if no
high-quality domestic cartoons were available.
Instead of entertaining the audience, the
channel broadcast children's programs rather than
cartoons during prime-time hours.
Xu from
GDC called for the administration to offer
subsidies to domestic cartoon makers in a bid to
help them produce quality cartoons.
It
became a vicious cycle that the prices offered by
the TV channels for domestic cartoons were so low
that many domestic cartoons turned out low-quality
products.
Citing her company's business as
an example, Xu said to survive in the market, they
have changed their business strategy to accepting
OEM (original equipment manufacturer) orders and
co-producing cartoons with overseas partners.
With a total investment of 130 million
yuan (US$18.3 million), five years in the making
and involvement of more than 400 animation
workers, the Institute of Digital media Technology
(Shenzhen), a wholly owned subsidiary of GDC,
produced the first Chinese full-length
three-dimensional (3D) animated feature film
Thru the Moebius Strip in 2005. The price
offered by TV channels was only 600,000 yuan
($84,000) after earning 3 million yuan at the box
office, she said.
The film tells the story
of a young lad who traverses through the Moebius
Strip to a planet 27 million light years away,
where his father is prevented from returning by
giant aliens. During their adventure they become
entangled in a royal conspiracy and finally help a
prince reclaim his throne.
Aside from the
weak or old-fashioned plot, the movie was
criticized for having many similarities to
Hollywood blockbusters despite its breakthrough in
3D animation technology.
Shi Minyong, from
the animation school of Communication University
of China, said the country's animation industry is
lagging far behind overseas competitors in every
aspect.
As traditional Chinese animation
plots have been based on either legends or classic
literary works, it has not only made the stories
too fake for even grown-ups, but also put
animation technology under strain, he said.
Shi said many animators had been producing
cartoons in a rough and slipshod way.
Jin
Guoping, China Animation Society chief and former
general manager of the Shanghai Animation Film
Studio, said the biggest problem facing the
country's animation industry is a lack of good
marketing mechanisms. According to Jin this is why
the animation companies have no idea how to
promote their works.
Liu Bo from Shenyang
Hippo Animation Company, believed another
challenge for the country's animation industry is
the protection of intellectual property rights
(IPR).
Citing his work 100 Love Magic as
an example, he said once the cartoon was put on
the market pirated copies immediately came out.
This seriously hurt the creators' economic
benefits and undermined foreign investment
confidence.
"China's inferior products and
minimal IPR protection have locked the overseas
investment away, so China needs to improve its IPR
protection to improve the investment environment,"
he said.
Olivia Chung is a
senior Asia Times Online reporter.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
