Animation industry booms in Hubei

At the 18th CPC national congress, President Hu Jintao put great emphasis on developing a strong socialist culture in China. And in recent years, Hubei province has witnessed a booming animation industry, one of its most important cultural sectors. Those in the industry say they are confident about its future development after the congress.

With one click of the camera, a shot of Mr. Cookie is made.

This is a claymation studio at Jiang Toon Animation. Founded with a start-up fund of 15 million yuan, it has grown from an obscure company to one with considerable market clout over the past decade.

Zhu Youlan, CEO of Jiang Toon Animation, said,"Our company's annual production capacity reached over 8,000 minutes. Premier Wen Jiabao once visited us and supported us to make more and more Chinese animation. That's one of our drivers to develop the company. "

Jiang Toon is lucky to be operating in a good environment with favorable policies. The local government has been reducing taxes, while pumping more money into the industry. In order to encourage more companies to create great animation, a variety of competitions have been held, with winners receiving very generous rewards.

Xia Ruixue, Wuhan, said,"I remember when I was young, the cartoons that I watched were mostly from Japan or America, like Doraemon, Donald Duck, or Transformers. Even the story of the most famous traditional Chinese heroine, Hua Mulan was made into an animation movie by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998. But in the past decade, things have changed a lot in the cartoon industry in China. More companies like the Jiang Toon Cartoon Company have emerged, creating an increasing number of interesting animations."

In 2011, the animation industry's output volume reached 2.68 billion Yuan, a 283% rise from 2007. And annual production capacity has risen from 3,200 minutes to 12,000 minutes.

Wang Jianhui, deputy director-general of Hubei Provincial Department of Culture, said,"After the 18th Party Congress, we are going to put those guidelines into practice. We plan to expand the animation industry's production scale to over 10 billion yuan. More animation companies are going to be encouraged and supported to become the national animation industry base in two or three years. "

President Hu Jintao emphasized during the recently concluded 18th Party Congress, the importance of inspiring the cultural creativity of the whole nation. And the government is expected to create a vast cultural arena for the people and encourage the free flow of cultural inspiration from all sources. Thus, an even more prosperous animation industry will be expected in the future.