China's animation industry produced more than 81,000 minutes of animation this year, nearly doubling last year's 42,700 minutes, Zhao Shi, deputy director of SARFT, according to XINHUA.
By August, China produced more than 50,000 minutes, which more than 1993 through 2003 combined. As for exporting animation, China sold 65,100 minutes to 17 countries.
Since 2005, 15 national animation companies have been formed, including the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, the Sunchime Cartoon Group and China Film Group Corp. Nearly 5,473 animation studios operate in the country.
SARFT has sanctioned cartoon channels on Beijing, Shanghai and Hunan TV stations and more than 30 kids' channels.
For animation education, 447 universities offer animation courses while 1,230 universities offer professional training for cartoonists.
"Some 64,000 students majoring in animation have graduated from universities and 466,000 were studying in colleges at the end of 2005," Zhao said.
In August 2006, the SARFT outlawed foreign-produced cartoons from primetime (5:00 to 8:00 pm).
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
