Media
01.24.18
China’s Animated Underbelly
from China Film Insider
A tousled-haired young man in a third-tier Chinese city is desperate to fix the botched plastic surgery done on his fiancée’s face. At knifepoint, he steals a satchel of one million yuan from a local gangster, setting off a chain-reaction of greed...
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11.28.17“Coco” Looks Like a Surprise Hit in China—Where It Technically Should Be Banned
Quartz
Coco, Pixar’s latest animated movie, beat two superhero films to top the US box office over Thanksgiving weekend. It could also become one of Pixar’s top-grossing films in China—a country where the studio has struggled to win over audiences.
Culture
08.18.15
Has Chinese Film Finally Produced a Real Hero?
“This Is an Era That Calls for Heroes”—the boldface Chinese characters scream from a publicity poster for the Chinese animation film, Monkey King: Hero is Back, which made headline news in July for breaking the animation box-office record in China...
Culture
08.11.15
Japan’s Soft Power Leader in China is a Fat Blue Cartoon Cat
On July 28, costumed in vibrant colors, throngs of fans flocked toward the early morning light of Victoria Harbor, queueing outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center for the last day of the 17th Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong. The...
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06.09.15China Blacklists 38 Cartoons, Violence, Porn Cited
Hollywood Reporter
Among the banned are a 2014 animated TV series set in a Tokyo after a terrorist attack has destroyed the city.
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06.01.15Chubby Blue Cat Hints at Thaw in Ties Between China and Japan
New York Times
In September, three Sichuan newspapers attacked the animated cat Doraemon as a tool of Japan’s “cultural invasion.”
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04.05.15China Escalates Hollywood Partnerships, Aiming to Compete One Day
New York Times
Chinese studios are moving up the value chain, helping to develop, design and produce world-class films and animated features.
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10.21.13Chinese Censors Crack Down on Cartoon Violence
Washington Post
In May, two young brothers from Jiangsu province were badly burned after being tied to a tree by a third boy and set alight – allegedly imitating a scene from the popular cartoon “Pleasant Goat and Big, Big Wolf.”
Conversation
04.25.13
Hollywood in China—What’s the Price of Admission?
Last week, DreamWorks Animation (DWA), the Hollywood studio behind the worldwide blockbuster Kung Fu Panda films, announced that it will cooperate with the China Film Group (CFG) on an animated feature called Tibet Code, an adventure story based on...
Culture
03.06.13
Lei Lei: A Sketch of the Animator As a Young Man
Lei Lei, a.k.a. Ray Lei, 27, is one of the best-known animators in China. Unlike many other smart kids of his generation who graduated from China’s top universities, he went off the beaten path early in his career and never turned back. In a country...
Caixin Media
08.09.12
Subsidized Cartoons, Comics Tickling Too Few
Breaking into the animated film industry usually requires a basic plan for blending colorful images and clever storytelling in ways that entertain the public—and make money.Since 2006, however, animated film start-ups in China have done quite well...