Future

Despite having 90% of the market dominated by Japan and the US, the Chinese animation industry is in a unique position. The industry is growing significantly for the first time since the pre-cultural revolution days. The number of kids in mainland China exceed the US by about 80 million, and the technology gap between home and professional studios is narrowing. An example of a 1-person production with a successful fan base would be the 2002 Japanese anime Voices of a Distant Star. While this has been proven possible in Japan, China needs to figure out better ways to economically equip their youth, especially in a generation that might later be dominated by user-generated contents.

On the contrary, colleges in China are producing animation graduates and postgraduate students, but not in large numbers. China needs 150,000 talented animation experts for film and television and 100,000 for game animations, but there are just 300 animation majors graduating each year. SARFT have also announced it has opened up domestic cartoon industry to private investors as of late 2004. By 2005 the division has approved 15 animation production centers in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Dalian and other cities. Other trends like cosplay are picking up in animation festivals around mainland