Dongguan given subsidies to cultivate IP talent

Dongguan, Guangdong province, will provide subsidies for local art toys and animation companies to improve design capabilities, development and protection of original IPs and cultivate trendy talent, according to local authorities.

The subsidies are part of new measures to boost high-quality development of the local art toys and animation industry, which includes more than 4,000 toy manufacturing companies and nearly 1,500 upstream and downstream supporting businesses.

In enhancing original design capabilities, rewards from 300,000 yuan ($41,800) to 1 million yuan will be given to industrial design centers, which are recognized at national, provincial and municipal levels.

The city has developed an ambitious goal to promote a group of influential art toy brands and IPs, by issuing subsidies of up to 60,000 yuan for each State-level IP, according to the measures.

The city will also encourage higher-educational institutes and vocational schools to launch majors related to the animation and toy industry, aiming to strengthen cooperation between educational organizations and enterprises in cultivating industrial talent.

The measures were announced on Friday, in line with the ongoing three-day 13th China International Animation Copyright Fair, which runs until Sunday and displays more than 1,500 IPs of animation and art toys worldwide as well as over 10,000 related products.

At the fair's opening ceremony on Thursday, Dongguan was designated as the first "Capital of Art Toys in China" by the China Toy and Juvenile Products Association.

More than 500 exhibitors from over 40 countries and regions including the United States, France, Germany, Denmark and Canada are participating in the fair, displaying household IP products such as Pokemon, Snoopy, Kumamon, Shaun the Sheep, Boonie Bears and Dongguan's local IP Laura.

"I have seen a landscape of immense potential for common development in the international animation film and television industry," said Cristian Jezdic, vice-president of Cartoon Italia and CEO of beQ Entertainment.

The fair will play an important role for international exhibitors to learn from each other, and collaborate and drive the international animation film and television industry toward new heights, according to Jezdic.

Dongguan, a traditional manufacturing and trade hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is one of the largest toy-exporting cities in China, where Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics, and La'eeb, the mascot of the FIFA World Cup 2022, were produced.