Poster of the 2015 movie hit Monkey King: Hero Is Back.[Photo/Mtime]

3. Animation industry and online games

Due to the supportive government policies and the various emerging internet-based new media channels, Chinese animation industry is now experiencing an unprecedented growth. According to a report released at the China International Cartoon and Animation Festival this year, animated movies earned 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) at China's box office last year, or around 15 percent of the national total and the figure was up 45 percent from 4.5 billion yuan in 2015.

In recent years, Chinese animation films and series are trying to break new ground. The 2015 animation film Monkey King: Hero Is Back, which was an adaptation based on the classic novel "Journey to the West", became the highest-grossing animation film (950 million yuan) in the country before Zootopia came out the following year, making it a landmark in China's animated film history.

And in 2016, another animation movie Big Fish & Begonia, rooted in Chinese mythology and inspired by ancient architecture, took 560 million yuan. Although challenges from powerful foreign players still exist, the rise of domestic animation movies in the two or three years clearly indicate that the country is increasingly interested in cartoons and has the right talent and creative potential to satisfy the audience.

The robust growth of Chinese animation industry is not manifested in the development of animated films, but also in the derivatives market such as animation toys and online games. Online entertainment has witnessed an unprecedented market boom as an entire generation has now grown up immersed in the ever more realistic virtual worlds brought about by the gaming industry, which is deemed as a revolutionary force in the new entertainment era propelled by technological advancements.