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Cartoon channel opened in Shanghai
(CRI)
Updated: 2004-12-27 13:42 From six in the morning to twelve at night, the new channel, which
opened on Sunday, broadcasts 18 hours a day. And the target audience has gone
beyond children.
Chen Wen, deputy director of the cartoon
channel said, "Our channel is not designed simply for children, we are
targeting young cartoon fans, and we are trying to attract grey-hair group as
well."
Six major media groups in Shanghai have invested a total of
150-million yuan - about 18-million dollars US - into the cartoon channel.
The programs are featured by domestically produced animated pictures.
And many new productions will debut for the first time on the channel.
Domestic cartoons have long been considered poorly made and lacking
creativity, while animated pictures from Japan and US dominate the market.
But a survey of online cartoons, shows China never runs short of good
cartoon makers.
Funny and cynical, with great imagination, the cartoon
works have enjoyed great popularity among netizens.
But these famous
online cartoon works are seldom known off line, as they have no access to larger
number of TV audience.
In Shanghai, about a dozen cartoon student
societies have been set up in universities.
In renowned Shanghai
Jiaotong University, there's a course about cartoon making. But the student's
creativity doesn't make it onto TV cartoons and the good works are often
constrained to short plays.
Yin Xiaoxiang, deputy manager of the
Shanghai Today Cartoon Making company, says the launch of a new channel will
help change the situation.
"The channel provides cartoon makers a
platform to display their talents. Cartoon is a very important industry in the
world, and its importance is not at all inferior to movie industry. There is no
reason that we can't develop it. The future of the industry is bright."
The program schedule indicates a lot of changes from previous cartoons.
Hong Kong kungfu star Jackie Chan will dub the cartoon series in his
name, and Shaolin kungfu has been made into an excellent play with the help of
computer techniques.
There's also a program titled "Academic Report",
which will showcase student cartoon makers.
Earlier this year, Beijing
and Hunan province also launched two cartoon channels.
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