A Talk with Sichuan Animation Special Committee of Cultural and Creative Union

Sichuan has been known as the “Land of Heaven” since ancient times and is the gateway to western China. It is also an important economic, tourism and cultural province in China. Sichuan has a long history and splendid culture. It’s not only famous for face-change of Sichuan opera, mahjong, hot pot, panda; and it’s also famous for its Art schools and animation and game companies.

Today, we will talk about Sichuan’s animation industry with Wu Honglian, the head of the Sichuan Animation Special Committee of Cultural and Creative Union and the GM of Sichuan Hongyao Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.

Wu Honglian, the head of the Sichuan Animation Special Committee of Cultural and Creative Union and the GM of Sichuan Hongyao Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.

CGGE： Can you briefly introduce the situation of Sichuan Animation and Comic Industry?

Most of the Sichuan animation companies are in Chenngdu, which develops very fast during recent years. “Nezha”, the animation feature with the top box office was produced by Chengdu Coco Cartoon. “One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes”was also produced by Chengdu company, as well as the “Monkey King”, which was co-produced with Chengdu company.

Including animation companies, there are a lot of game companies in Chengdu as well. The big game companies have their branches here, including Tencent, Ubsoft , Vitas etc.. There are also many voice companies here, who took part in the voice for “Nezha”,“The Legend of Qin”and “Buliangren”.

There are also many colleges and universities in Chengdu, lick Sichuan University, Chengdu University, Sichuan University of Media and Communications, and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

However, there is still a certain gap between the overall development of Sichuan’s animation industry and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou or other coastal cities. The closed loop of the complete animation industry chain has not yet been formed from content creation and development, product design and manufacturing sales, cross-border authorization, and commercial scene sighting.

CGGE: Why did the Sichuan Animation Special Committee of Cultural and Creative Union be established? What is its purpose? How does it serve for enterprises?

The purpose of the establishment of the animation commission is to promote the exchange and cooperation of animation companies in Sichuan Province, to develop together, and strengthen the animation industry in Sichuan Province, and promote the formation of a closed loop in the upstream and downstream of the animation industry chain in Sichuan Province.

The service generally includes:

1. Promote to link the companies and take advantages of each other; and achieve mutual cooperation between upstream and downstream of animation companies, including: creative cooperation, technical cooperation, production cooperation, and sales cooperation.
2. Cross-border authorization and docking: collect and organize the province’s animation enterprises, organize local characteristic products to connect with excellent animation IP, and jointly build a Sichuan cultural tourism characteristic product line.
3. Connection of product sales channels: organize tourist attractions, tourist goods stores, museums, etc. to connect with animation companies in Sichuan to customize and purchase animation derivatives and enhance the characteristics and quality of cultural tourism products in the province.
4. Connection to broadcasting and media publicity platforms: Promote the docking of enterprises with resources such as content broadcasting platforms, publicity channels, and media platforms to increase the spread of outstanding animation products in the province.
5. Cooperation between schools and enterprises; and achieve a win-win situation for animation companies and universities.

Ms Yang Rong, President of Chegndu Gongfu Animation Co.

CGGE: Compared with animation associations or organizations in other regions, what are the characteristics of the Sichuan Animation Special Committee of Cultural and Creative Union? What are its advantages?

We focus more on enabling member companies to realize their own business interests.

Oure advantage is the animation commission is affiliated to the Sichuan Cultural and Tourism Creative Industry Alliance. The members of the alliance include cultural and tourism enterprises in Sichuan, many of which are upstream and downstream animation companies. To realize docking with tourist attractions, museums, and non-legacy units in the alliance, thereby enabling member companies to achieve cross-border cooperation, sales cooperation, IP authorization cooperation, and offline commercialization

Mr. Li Hangyu, GM of Chengdu Huanyu Wuxian Techology LTD

CGGE: In terms of cooperation between animation companies and universities, what are the substantive initiatives of the Sichuan Cultural and Creative Union Animation Special Committee to help companies and universities win-win?

1. The animation commission set up a section for colleges and universities, and the person in charge is responsible for promoting cooperation between colleges and animation companies.
2. Entering colleges and universities to provide courses and project training for animation majors students, which are in line with the actual needs of animation enterprises, so that students can participate in the production of enterprise commercial projects before they graduate, effectively improving students’ practical capabilities.
3. During the training process, the company and the graduates can also get to know each other, which is convenient for the enterprise to choose the best candidates, and at the same time solve the problem of enterprise talent demand and the difficulty of college graduates’ employment.

CGGE: With the continuous development of cooperation between China and overseas regions, does the Committee have any plans for cooperation with overseas animation companies or organizations? How to promote the integration of Sichuan’s animation industry with the world and cultivate world-class animation enterprises?

The Committee plans to organize the China-Japan Animation Summit Forum to export Chinese high-quality animation IP and, introduce excellent Japanese animation IP and help look for partners in China, and promote the exchange of creative arts between China and Japan.

We will also try to organize members of the Special Committee to participate in international animation exhibitions, broaden the horizons of local animation companies, increase opportunities to connect with the world; and show local excellent works to world counterparts.

By:Sophia