18 jilinspecial Wednesday, N ovember 16, 2011 CHI n a d a IL Y Experience keeping strong in animation

By Chai Hua The Mokun Culture and It has also become the most and Zhang Zhao Communication Co, which important place for train- was founded by ACG and the ing personnel, as well as for Jilin province, in northeast- Jilin Fine Arts Publishing Co, research and development, to ern , is considered the focuses on comic books and provide resources for the vari- cradle of New China’s animat- has more than 50 series. ous companies. ed film industry and has grown The Senhong And, the results have been into a national animation and Information Technology quite remarkable. One example talent development center, Service Co concentrates on is the Zhihe Animation Group, where one of the main players animation and video games a Changchun cartoon and ani- is the Jilin Animation Comic development, with a team of mation company, in the pro- and Games Group (ACG). 60 young people who cooper- vincial capital, which had sales Although ACG was found- ate with internationally known of 87 million yuan in 2010. It is ed quite recently, in 2009, it is a video game developers. They now planning an international rising star in the animation and produce online games and animation park. games industry, with at least video games for home use on Another animation com- 800 employees and 16 affili- various platforms including pany has produced 200 hours’ ated companies. It had assets of PS3, PSP, NDS, Wii and Xbox worth of cartoons and three 1.2 billion yuan ($189 million) 360. of its products were shown on last year, sales of 300 million Dramatic plays for children CCTV, China’s national TV yuan, and profits of more than are another sector the group station. 83 million yuan. covers, with a company it set up Meanwhile, the Jilin Yushuo Artists in their workshop in Changchun, the capital of Jilin, creating items for animation and comics. Photos provided to china daily Its major company is the Jilin in conjunction with the Beijing Animation and Comic Games Animation Comic and Games Children’s Art Theater, the Jilin Co produced a 4D movie that video games and entertain- more than 800 hours of foot- Co Ltd, whose largest share- Theater, and a local newspaper. was shown in the Jilin pavilion ment. age a year. holder is a State-owned com- It has put on more than 100 at Shanghai Expo. The compa- The companies have 1.2 bil- Now, thanks to government pany, which has put more than shows with audiences running ny was given a national award lion yuan in registered capital support, Changchun and cit- 8 million yuan into it. into the thousands after open- as an industrial demonstration in all and more than 47,000 ies in the surrounding area, It covers every aspect of the ing only a year ago. site. employees. Their output last including Jilin, Siping, and animation and comic games At the same time, the Yilian year was worth 6.2 billion , have industrial zones sector, from investment to soft- Industry support Culture and Art Development yuan, or about 30 percent more for developing the animation ware development and produc- To provide support for the Co has held its sixth Interna- than for 2009. industry, some of the more tion, to promotion and distri- industry, the local government tional Comic and Animation The province’s most recent prominent of which are the bution of animated and comic put 40 million yuan into it last Fair in Changchun. figures for the animation Jilin Asian Cultural Creative products, and exhibitions. year to build a technical ser- The province had more industry’s output in the first Technology Zone, Zhihe Inter- ACG has acquired five sub- vice system for animation and than 360 animation and game half of this year, show it up 26 national Animation Industry sidiaries over the past two years comic games, with production producers by the end of last percent from the same period Park, and Changchun Software that handle different parts of centers, special effects studios, year, 51 of which focused on of 2010. and Animation Outsourcing Detailed artwork in an animation and comics studio in the industry. and publishing centers. animation and the rest on Jilin’s animators turn out Park. Changchun. Chinese fan devotes an entire

Jilin Culture volume to his idol — Yanni Department head Lin Jun (right) introducing the By Zhang Zixuan Public Technology Platform for While fans of movie and sports Jilin Comics and stars like paying tribute to their Animations. The idols in many different ways, entire project of few can do what Zhang Mingyu developing Jilin’s has done for his favorite, the animation business renowned Greek keyboardist and costs 60 million yuan. composer, Yanni. Zhang, 48, is a loyal Yanni follower from Changchun, Jilin province who has spent more New park project puts it way out ahead than 13 years enjoying and study- ing Yanni’s music. By Shao Wei ready to accommodate any animation The project has had some “remark- Now, his recently published companies that are ready to go. able achievements” in innovation and book, Elegant Music and Intimate Jilin province, whose animation The Jilin project has put it out ahead professional training, Yang added, and Voice － the Hand Scroll of Yanni’s business output showed immense in China in the area of advanced equip- is providing technology services to Music, is a compilation of reviews growth in 2010, could turn itself into a ment, technology, and research, in the more than 40 animation companies in and interpretation of more than training and research center for China’s field. Its motion-capturing studio is and out of Jilin province and training 180 Yanni songs. animation industry, the head of an ani- China’s most advanced and the parks’ for nearly 1,000 people. It uses 200,000 Chinese char- mation group there remarked recently. companies use the facilities there for More than 10 cartoons were created acters to do this, accompanied Greek keyboardist and composer Yanni (left) signing an autograph The output value of Jilin’s animation free or at a minimal cost. through technological support from by photos capture the moments, for hard-corn fan Zhang Mingyu, who published a book of reviews industry was 6.2 billion yuan ($1 bil- Yang explained that his ambitious the project. in about a dozen countries, when and interpretation of Yanni’s songs, in September. lion) in 2010, a 30 percent year-on-year project has gotten help from the coun- Some, such as Shaolin Haibao, Yanni held a live concert, such as increase, said Yang Zhouxian, executive try’s animation industry policies which appeared on CCTV and the 4-D in China’s Forbidden City, and it combines natural sound effects and 2009. That was when the director and deputy general manager of have lead to a surge in both production cartoon, My Fellow Villagers, was India’s Taj Mahal . with an electronic sound created Greek artist, who had previously the Jilin Animation Comic and Games and revenues. acclaimed at the 2010 Shanghai World Zhang is similar to Yanni in by modern devices, which makes insisted on the purity of his music, Group, in a recent interview with China China produced 385 animated films Expo. It has also published more than at least one respect — he’s a self- it “much richer than new age”. as the most emotional expression, Daily. in 2010, a 28-percent increase from 150 cartoon books, including the taught musician, and has never Among Zhang’s many favorite but then, suddenly, had his popu- The group began a 60-million-yuan 2009. The industry also earned more Three Character Classic, The Monkey had any formal training. But he songs, he singles out Nightingale lar songs performed by vocalists, technology construction project in than 500 million yuan from exports King － Havoc in Heaven, and China’s is supremely confident that he as the “favorite of favorites”. That with new lyrics. Some fans were 2010, to help develop the animation in 2010, a 60-percent year-on-year Twelve Zodiac Signs. understands every Yanni song song, which Yanni composed in a state of shock and could not business in Jilin. increase, according to the State Radio, Now, to increase their service capac- and feels that the book was a nec- just for the Beijing concert, in the accept such a “betrayal”, and omi- The first-phase, which involved 10 Film and Television Administration. ity, the Jilin Animation Comic and essary project. Forbidden City in 1997, contains nously foresaw the end of Yanni’s animation technology centers and 10 Yang is optimistic and it is easy to Games Group plans to put 180 mil- “This isn’t just a review of Yan- Chinese musical elements, which career. animation service centers, has been see why: “China’s animation industry is lion yuan into the second phase of the ni’s work, but a biography, a travel many fans, including Zhang, And, Zhang was one of those completed. flourishing, but still has a lot of poten- project over the next three to five years. story, and even a Chicken Soup firmly believe hit a peak that Yan- pessimists, but, when he tried to At the same time, the Jilin Original tial. The domestic cartoon market is When it is completed, the new public for the Soul kind of book as well,” ni himself could not surpass. translate some of the new Yanni Animation Park and the Changchun enormous. You know, China has more technology project will have an extra Zhang says by way of definition. In fact, the song became so lyrics, he found to his surprise Zhihe International Animation Indus- than 370 million people below the age 100,000 square meters of space to grow It’s not difficult to see that popular in China that it was that the emotional feel and inspi- trial Park, in the capital of Jilin, are now of 16, the primary consumer segment.” into. Zhang’s a hard-core Yanni fan. He selected as learning material for ration were just as clear and con- knows all about the songs of his a junior-high textbook, Zhang sistent as ever. idol and talks endlessly of them. adds. “That’s when I made my mind He has even turned his private to analyze his songs one by one,” blog into an only Yanni zone, with Lost in translation Zhang recalls. bits and pieces of the artist’s art Still, even though the compos- and life, with a special selection of er’s music has been used exten- Payback Yanni’s songs in the background sively on TV and for televised After 13 years of becoming as the visitor browses. sporting events in China, few familiar with Yanni, Zhang was Zhang first got to know the people really recognize his name, able to finish the first draft of Greek artist when the Internet let alone the names of the songs his book in just two months and began popularizing his music being played. many enthusiasts had already in the late 1990s in China, and For Zhang, this is similar to ordered a copy while it was still says, “I’ve known some vivid life “people eating some delicious being written. An art institute in experience of Yanni through his dish without knowing who the Changchun even ordered 395 music.” chef is or even what they’re eat- copies as textbooks, in advance. One song, Felista, for example, ing”. This, he says, is a bit unfair. This September, when the book Yanni dedicated to his mother One possible reason for this finally appeared, from the Chang- and gave it her name, Zhang may simply be the language bar- chun Publishing House, Zhang explains. rier, according to Zhang, who says had a chance to meet his admired The song Standing in Motion that most of Yanni’s songs have an figure, in Beijing, just as Yanni describes a frightening earth- English name, while some are in began a new China tour for 2011. quake that Yanni experienced in Spanish or Italian. These are dif- The 58-year-old Greek musi- his hometown, Kalamata. ficult for the Chinese. cian was surprised at being the Yanni’s music has often been And, although the names have subject of a book by a Chinese fan described as “new age” by music a certain poetic beauty, the feeling whom he’d never met. Fresh and new start critics and the media, but he him- can vanish when they’re trans- “With all my respect and admi- self prefers the term “contempo- lated into Chinese. So, for Zhang, ration,” Yanni wrote for Zhang on An Guiwu (left) , head of the Jilin Tourism Administration, hands a five-star national rary instrumental”, with which restoring their original beauty the first page of one copy. hotel plaque to Gao Fuquan, general manager of the Changchun New Century Zhang agrees completely. was a major motive in compiling “I’ve benefited from Yanni’s Zhang calls Yanni’s music the book. music for many years,” says Grand Hotel at a recent ceremony. This was a first for a hotel in the Luyuan of “diverse and boundless, with A second reason was the result Zhang. “I would feel awful if I Changchun, Jilin’s capital. Gao said this award will bring more benefits to its guests. complex orchestration”, and says of the Yanni Voices tours of 2008 didn’t give something in return.”