Middle Kingdom and Quality

As we've mentioned here and there, it's not enough to be inexpensive:

... "To shift from quantity to quality is now the biggest challenge for Chinese cartoon makers," says [Chinese cartoonist Carol Liu Hong]. "There's also the problem of piracy. It doesn't do any good to have favorable policies if you don't protect the commercial strength of the producers." ...

Uh, yeah ...

Not to single out China, but the issues are as they have always been for any overseas supplier. It's not enough to run a lower budget operation, there must also be product that audiences want to see.

... China's roughly 10,000 animation studios, employing 200,000 people, churned out 260,000 minutes of animation material in 2011 -- about a half-year's worth of continuous programming. Most of it will never be broadcast.

With supply far exceeding demand, about nine in 10 animation companies are unprofitable, state media report, citing industry insiders. To get by, most studios rely on overseas outsourcing contracts and deals with toy manufacturers and other companies using cartoon figures for advertising. ...

In the years we've been posting here, a theme has emerged: Cut-rate doesn't cut it. If nobody watches the stuff, the producers lose money. Which is why there is still work in Southern California *.

* It was this way twenty years ago. I suspect it will be this way twenty years from now.