Companies in the GBA | A Budding Industry that Is Blossoming Overseas - Guangdong Animation

南方财经全媒体记者杨雨莱 广州报道

Now that it’s halfway through 2024, which animated movie do you think will win top accolades at the box office worldwide? It is an easy guess –DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda 4.” The second in place, however, might be a surprise. It, too, is related to a “bear.” The new movie of the “Boonie Bears” series produced by Fantawild, “Boonie Bears: Time Twist.”

Over the years, among all the animated movies released in China, there are six out of the top 20 nationwide box offices are from the Boonie Bears series. The three major animal IPs in Chinese animated films, which are the Boonie Bears, GG Bond, and Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are all produced by Guangdong-based enterprises, with the latter two produced by Winsing Animation and Creative Power Entertaining, respectively. Animated features produced by these companies have been childhood mainstays of young Chinese for generations.

The new series coming to prominence in recent years, “I Am What I Am” and “Huang Pi,” are produced by Yi-Animation from Guangzhou and Yuankong Entertaining from Shenzhen, respectively. Some distinctive Guangdong cultural symbols have become the key to fame. For example, “Shadow of the Void,” produced by Winsing, featured the ancient city walls from the Song dynasty in Zhaoqing, “I Am What I Am” was directly inspired by the Lion Dance culture in Nanhai, Foshan.

Apart from creating phenomenal IPs domestically, Animation enterprises in Guangdong have garnered influence overseas. Take the Boonie Bears series as an example. It currently has 6.2 million subscribers on YouTube, ranking first among all Chinese animation series channels, and becoming phenomenal in countries like India and Turkey. “GoGoBus,” the educational IP produced by Winsing in 2019, also released internationally, being seen by audiences in 15 countries and regions worldwide. “I Am What I Am” went viral after being released in Japan, And secured favorable reviews from world-renound Japanese animation directors, including Kunihiko Ikuhara and Makoto Shinkai.

The budding and blossoming of those enterprises, were cultivated by the favorable industrial environment in Guangdong. In 2022, the output value of the animation industry in Guangdong Province exceeded 60 billion yuan, accounting for roughly one-third of that of China. There are over 200,000 animated firms in the province, almost 13% of the total amount of the country. For every 3 animated movies produced in China, there is one from Guangdong. 

For Guangdong to become the leading province in the animation industry, in addition to its huge talent base, there are certain innate advantages. To start with, Guangdong is a major manufacturing province, with toy hubs including Dongguan and Chaoshan, providing inspiration for the the animation industrial chain to extend. Dongguan, in particular, manufactures a quarter of animation derivatives worldwide, and 85% of fashion toys domestically.

In the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the elusive mascot, Bing Dwen Dwen, hails from Dongguan. Secondly, the venture capital circle with Shenzhen and Guangzhou as its center, brings more capital to the local animation industry. As of November 17, 2023, the number of listed cultural enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao with a total market cap of over 4.9 trillion yuan.

From May 23 to May 27, the 20th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair will be held in Shenzhen, many Guangdong-based IPs are introduced, with over 381 local enterprises participating in this event. With the boost of the fair, the cultural industry in Guangdong Province has topped in output for 20 consecutive years nationwide, and tells more stories of the Lingnan culture to the world.

出品：南财国际传播中心 21新媒体中心 创意互动中心

策划统筹：于晓娜 丁青云

内容统筹：谭婷 陈思颖

责任编辑：黄欣然

执行统筹：黄欣然 

设计统筹：林军明

视频统筹：白宇航

监制：施诗

英文翻译&配音：李莹亮

海外运营监制: 黄燕淑

海外运营内容统筹: 张伟韬

运营支持：曾静娇

审校：陈晶晶 黄志明