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.