How Ne Zha 2 shattered box office records
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Chinese animated film Nejia 2 has made history, becoming the first Asian film to break into the top 20 of global box office rankings after reaching 10 billion yuan or about 1.4 billion US dollars as of Tuesday. What are the key factors behind this remarkable success? Welcome to Road Today, the panel discussion with Miike Anna in Beijing.

China's box office has maintained its strong spring festival momentum, with Nezha 2 dominating the charts for the second consecutive week.

In the process, this animated sequel has shattered multiple records. It became the highest-grossing film in China's history and surpassed Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens in North America, making it the biggest single-market box office champion of all time. With No.2 now crossing the one billion mark, what does this reveal about the future trajectory of China's movie market? To delve into this and more, let's have...

Helen Han, co-founder and secretary general of Beijing Club for International Dialogue, Mao Keji, fellow at the Harvard Yanqing Institute, and Professor Qu Qiang, fellow of Belt and Road Research Center at Minzu University of China. Welcome to our discussion today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Before we delve deeper, I'd like to ask our three panelists, I assume you've all watched Noja 2 or at least heard about this movie, right? Because, spoiler alert to our listeners, I'm really curious which scenes left the most profound impression on you. Helen, let's start with you.

Well, the paternal love for me is really striving because this is kind of an evolution of the first sequel. So the second one, you know, it strikes the very personal touch to me is that Nezha's love, he's not just a boy out of nowhere. He has mother, he has father who devoted himself

he tremendous love to him and supported him all the way through, you know, conquering the devils and everything. Professor Chu, what's your take on the movie? Which scenes or highlights stood out to you the most? Well, to be very honestly, I didn't go to the theater to watch it right now because I want to save the best for the last. Right now, this is a really hot topic because everybody rushes to the theaters to

I'm really a very picky person, so I wouldn't want to spoil this great movie with crowds of people, like 200 people in one theater, chattering and mumbling. I only can get one of the not-so-best seats in the theater. I don't want to do that. I want to be, you know, when this whole heat just passed by, and I am just one of few people in a theater, and I sit in the very best, you know, golden angle seat,

feat to watch the whole movie. That's what I'm planning to do. But according to the spoilers alert, we have already been watching from the internet. And I think, well, I'm very, very familiar with the number one theory of whole Noja movie. And what I know is that Noja is very touching is because it shows the a little bit rough

rabble character of Chinese people. We don't believe in so-called the destiny from the heaven, the order from the God. We believe in ourselves. That is actually a very good epitomization of what Chinese people are achieving in the past 70 years since the founding of the new China. We've been defeated to the empirical list. We've been defeated to the colonist. We have been starting everything from scratch.

The whole new China now, leading manufacturing power, a leading player in science and technology, and more than 400 million people are getting out of the grinding poverty. Well, I think in Neuja is actually one little boy, the rebels actually reflected what China it is.

and where it's going to go. And also, like my dear colleague just mentioned, this friendship, this brotherhood, assembling the Chinese people as a solidarity is actually also the reason why we're achieving so much because we're united as one. Always fight forward. We don't

want to accept the fate, but we deny it. We try to fight forward and for your own. Although you haven't watched it, but your point is spot on because I can understand many people enjoy the tranquility that comes after the noise.

Now, you watched this film in the United States, right? Let's have a short one-on-one discussion here to delve into your viewing experience, because I believe it must differ significantly from watching it in China from the perspective of a member of American audience. Could you please share which scenes left the most lasting impression on you?

I actually watched that in Boston just two, three hours ago, literally. Yeah, I just watched that freshly. So from the opening to the end, the moment was at the end of the movie. There was a very obvious hand clap for the movie. So there were cheers for the movie.

Yeah, it is in the United States, but I would say most of the viewers are Chinese American or at least Asian American. I would guess most of them are Mandarin speakers because it's an English subtitle.

I think it's in general, I asked several of them. I think people are generally very impressed by the computer generated special effects of the movie. I guess it's as good as those from Hollywood or it's even better than that.

So I asked several of them, they were all really impressed by that. As you mentioned, I believe it will attract more people from Chinese community as well as those interested in Chinese culture or those with a deeper understanding of China. Then Helen, what's your view on the American market's response to this film? I think it's very market-oriented. The U.S. market as a whole has been the number one market for so many decades.

So it has its own values. It has its own arrangements. And I think most of these arrangements are very business and market oriented. So Hollywood, for example, for a blockbuster, they have their different scheduling and their arrangements towards this cinematic arrangement.

So when a movie is really welcomed, they will just increase and enlarge the scale of the movie screening and the movies showing in different movie chains in the market. So when Nezha is welcomed in the U.S. market in the past week,

I witnessed the increase of the scheduling and arrangements of the film from one time in a day to maybe 10 times in a day for one single cinema. So this indicates the welcoming and the performance of Nezha itself and its market reaction.

towards the players to arrange the film according to the market reaction. So it is very encouraging and I believe in the US market, which is a single very good market in particular, will generate more revenues for Nezha's box office overseas.

We are excited to see Chinese films getting recognition in the U.S. market. But also, as Mao mentioned, many viewers are still limited to the Chinese community. How do you see the potential for attracting a broader audience of this movie? And what other challenges do Chinese films face in going global from your experiences?

Still take this film as an example, as Mao just mentioned, that most moviegoers are still Chinese or Chinese-Americans. I think it is totally understandable because for the big markets like the Boston, the New York, the San Francisco, Los Angeles, these are regarded as the most promising movie markets, even for a Hollywood movie. So these markets, we have seen that Ne Zha 2 has already entered into this

individual and also interconnected markets already. And these markets happen to be for the Chinese or Asian Americans to be resided in these markets for most of the population. So it's understandable that the first batch of the moviegoers must be, you know, people who can generate the resonation of this film, a film created, produced in China with deep Chinese traditional and the culture.

So it's very understandable, maybe I can imagine, for the first two weeks of the movie release in the US market. But I think it spreads because of the marketing. It has its own logic spreading by the piece of mouse, spreading by the marketing strategy and tactics.

that used by this film in particular because it has already engaged in the world distributor for the distribution in overseas market. So the distributor will see, will watch, will observe the performance of this movie. And then I think this movie will gain more attention from non-Chinese background moviegoers. I'm very promising and confident about this.

But on the other Chinese made films, it is still a long way to go because you need to build up some cultural resignation for the overseas moviegoers to understand the Chinese culture in the first place.

And at this point, Nezha 2 can play a role like a pioneer role for the moviegoers overseas to understand the Chinese culture through this film better and then pave the way for the other Chinese films to go into a more larger market.

That's interesting. Let's touch a bit on the cultural recognition. Because Mao, in America, we can imagine that audiences' familiarity with traditional Chinese culture varies, right? But based on your observations, how did Americans today understand and accept the story and cultural elements rooted in Chinese mythology, not only presented in the film, but also in the games like Black Myth Wukong, for example?

I've seen a lot of discussions online for the movie. So far, most of them are talking about how come this movie became the single largest cinema success in Chinese cinema history, film history. They are having quite a lot of discussion about that.

So they're asking why this movie got so popular all of a sudden. I've seen several very interesting posts online talking about the character. Why, you know, normally people have impression that Chinese people are obedient or even like sheepish. But in this movie, they turn out quite rebellious.

And that triggered an even larger discussion about the history of China and the culture of China. You know, we had a lot of peasant rebellion in the history, Chen Sen and Wu Guan, that kind of thing. That thing was quite interesting and really impressed me. Professor Qu, have any of your friends outside of China shown interest in the movie or share their experiences after watching it? Well, I think the question is,

Do you have any friends who are not interested in that or has not watched this movie yet? I think everybody has been watching this. Even for me, my choice is I have to wait for the perfect timing to watch it in a perfect way. I think everybody around me has been watching Noja, including my parents. Well, they have got loads of free time, so they went to the movie earlier than me. I think everybody, you know, in their heart have their own explanation of Noja.

probably for a lot of international friends listening to our program you are not quite familiar with this little boy or the demigod he is a boy uh you know used to suffer from unfair fate so he has been injected with the uh the evil pearl but he didn't accept the fate he don't he didn't want to turn evil

He decided to use his power in a correct way to help people, help his friends, a family. So he is a little rascal, a little rebellionist.

you know person in a fight against the you know the destiny so i think that's what i explained why it epitomized the whole the chinese spirit especially in you know past 70 years where we want to fight our own way through our fate but even under this very large uh description with this uh

A main threat or a main guideline, I think everybody still have their own hamlet and their own explanation. Some of my friends love this movie because, as my dear colleague just mentioned, they love this friendship because in China right now, we are living in an atomic situation. Everybody – they just go to work and go back to home.

sometimes don't quite remember how they're going to take one for other friends and enjoy this friendship. And now they're very constant about this friendship, which is one of the most important national spirit of China. And also many people understand that we're going through a slowing down period of time. And also internationally, we're facing a loss of turbulence. It's not easy for most of the people, not only in China, but also in the rest of the world in the past three years.

So people want to, you know, there is a voice in China. It's called lay back. Okay. Lay down and lay back. I know I cannot control the world. So I probably should lay down and, you know, chill and, uh, you know, don't work. Don't put any effort in the things I'm doing and, uh, you know, just get by. But no, I actually are telling people, no, you shouldn't do that. Do not walk into that. Good night. Uh,

do not sleep your life away and you should fight. Make your own version of your life. And many people just get inspired by that spirit and they say, yes, why not? Because you probably do not know that Nezha, even though at such a headwind, he decided to fly off. And I think Nezha is also reflecting its creator, the director Yang Yu or the nickname Dumpling.

He himself used to be a so-called quote-unquote loser, you know, stay-at-home loser, and tried just to create this movie for many, many years until just one day he made it. He lost his father at a very early age and only, you know, depends on his mother.

and stay at his home garage studio to create this movie. And he made it and became one of the most successful directors in the whole Chinese movie history. He himself is known as one of many other Chinese normal, losing Chinese person, ordinary person. And they learn from the spirit. And also some other people think this is actually a very joyful movie, you know, cheering up. I do. Well, you should watch it. It really makes you giggle a lot. So

So I think everybody have their own version watching this movie. And I think I will also have my version after watching that. I'm pretty sure about that. Fight for your own fate, a value that could resonate strongly with international audiences today. Then let's talk about the values presented by the movie. Recently, many online bloggers have been comparing the new and old versions of Nezha

And I think each generation has its own Nezha and reflects different values. The older version depicted Nezha challenging paternal authorities, with his father being more strict and rigid. In the new version, as Helen mentioned, we see a much deeper love from his father, also the themes of self-growth and defiance against fate.

So Helen, in a global context, how do you view this transformation and how does it resonate with international values? I want to share with you, I was actually hugely involved in the film industry when I served as vice president of News Corp China. So at that time, I represented 20th Century Fox.

to discuss with Chinese counterparts about co-production, about film imports and exports, about the quota system, etc. So even including the high-tech and management of a film production, such as story writing, storytelling, marketing, branding, as well as casting,

all are really crucial to the success of a film, especially when the film is about to enter into a global stage. And at that time, Hollywood is always proud of its value, its value exports, its high tech in films, especially in animated films and even the dubbing. We have to turn to, you know, for Chinese film, you don't realize that.

that the Chinese film at that time had to turn to Thailand for the solution, for the dubbing itself.

So Nezha really stands out, including its predecessors like The Wandering Earth, like other films produced, created and made in China, really stands out on the global film stage by leveraging our own Chinese culture values, family values and modern cinematic techniques after almost 20 years of this evolution.

I totally understand. And I was even touched by, you know, the bloggers and the moviegoers, you know, when they go to the films to watch the Chinese animated films, Mezha. And also they compare, you know, the different values of the sequel, the different values of the whole Western Hollywood blockbusters with Chinese ones.

So I think the transformation of Nezha in its new version, it's a significant evolution in its own of the storytelling approach of how it resonates strongly not only with the Chinese audience but also with international viewers about the paternal love

as I just said, the themes of self-growth and the defiance against fate. I think this is a well-received value in a global context.

In my imagination, and I believe not only from the stock price of the producer of the production companies worldwide, but also the first batch of the theater performance from the Hollywood estimates and their statistics that it touches on a universal human emotions.

and the struggles. I think at its core, I still love the movie's exploration of the paternal love at its most. It adds certainly a layer of emotional depth that makes the character of Nezha itself more relatable. It's not only a mythological figure from a Chinese classic, but it's a human being who wants to grab his own destiny.

And this echoes the same of the paternal love, the parenting support for his struggle and his fate fighting. And also it echoes the self growth and that the defiance of fate speaks to a very fundamental aspect of the human experience. So I think it's

These are timeless themes that can be appreciated across cultural boundaries, especially in this fast-changing world, when the only certainty is uncertain as the context of all cultural products. Still, I would like to highlight

the values globally are really highly relevant, especially the paternal love in particular. It is a theme that resonates universally because it transcends the culture and the national borders.

You can see from the movie the love and the sacrifices from the father, from a mother to their child. This is something that audiences around the world can emphasize with very easily, regardless of the cultural background, even regardless of the very good animated techniques.

I think this theme aligns with international values because it emphasizes the family, the love and the sacrifice among the family members, which are central to so many societies, not only in the United States, not only in China, but in many other countries, in many other societies with different civilizations.

And also I think in the movie, the narrative, the storytelling of Nezha as a child, his self-growth and the challenging fate, his determination to challenge fate can also easily find a resonation in a global stories of overcoming enemies, whether in Western, Eastern or other cultural context.

In the West, this is reflected also in the context of the heroes, especially in the individual heroes, how his or her journey can be elaborated in a storyline that centers around a personal growth.

and overcoming obstacles. So I think it speaks to a very universal value of self-growth empowerment, not only by himself, but also by the context, by the family members, the loved ones around him. So it really can resonate in many cultures, in many societies about this traditional value.

Maokai-ji, what's your take? Because during our growth, I think you've experienced several versions of Nezha, right? How do you view the values represented by this one? When you think a movie is a great movie, normally you will have a lot of things to resonate with the movie because that kind of triggered on something. For example, it's like a shared memory or shared value of the movie.

To me, this movie is something like a movie about personal development. So, you know, people from lower tier of the cities moving to the big cities or people like grassroots people, they try to find their way into some higher earning jobs, things like that.

I find in the movie, you see a lot of different kind of like a monster or the magical creatures. They try to make their own way, become a god or something. So that kind of thing really resonated with a lot of people because young people, they are trying so hard to get into higher social status.

So when they see the movie, they will really feel resonated with them. So I think that kind of thing could be at a personal level or could be at a national level. There were a lot of internet bloggers. They tried to make a microphone for the foreign movie with the international community. So those like global South who tried to cultivate them into the gods,

It's something like people from the global south. So I think that's really interesting multiple. But it's kind of a little bit far-fetched, but still interesting thing. Let's have a short break. Coming back, we'll continue our discussion on the unprecedented success of Nezha 2 and its implications for Chinese movie market. You've been listening to Road Today with me, Ge'enna, in Beijing. To revisit this episode or catch up on previous episodes,

You can download our podcast by searching Road Today. Stay with us. Welcome back to Road Today, the panel discussion with me, Ge'Anna, in Beijing. Now let's dive back into our discussion on the remarkable success of the Chinese animation Nojia 2 and what it means for the future of China's movie market.

Professor Chui, when analyzing the domestic success of Nezha II, many experts have highlighted cultural confidence, which was emphasized by President Xi in 2016. He said that cultural confidence is more fundamental, deeper, and lasting strength in a nation's development.

This perspective has led various industries across China to re-examine the value of 5,000 years of Chinese culture that lead to the rise of Guo Chao, Chinese fashion and culture reinterpreted in modern context.

and the revival of certain film characters like we are talking about today. So how do you view the role of cultural confidence in driving the film industry today? Yes, I do think so. Culture confidence is a very important keyword that has been repeatedly discussed about in Chinese society recently. Look, China is a country in the form of a nation, but actually it's a civilization, a whole different civilization.

We are the only civilization in form of a nation or a state which has been never interrupted for 5,000 years. Meanwhile, on the other hand, other civilizations in form of a state like old Egypt, like ancient Rome, they're all gone. Today's Italy is different from ancient Rome. Today's Egypt is never the same like ancient Egypt is.

It's different even in India, the old India, today's India is basically two things. But China, you know, if Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, you know, get revived and look at today's China, he will not be so surprised because this is basically the same China.

he lived in. Similar characters, similar people, similar territory. So China is still the same China. That's, I think, one of the reasons leading to this continuity in our nation is our culture. Confidence means something you believe in yourself. I don't think we need to believe in ourselves because it is here. We will believe it. Everybody will believe it. It goes without saying. That's the reason why we always be in China.

We don't need other people to believe in us. We don't need to convince ourselves to believe it because our culture, it is here, so powerful, vigorous, and long-lasting for the past 5,000 years. We can say the culture is actually bigger than each and every individual of ourselves. That's what I strongly believed. And also, I think China, as a whole society, we used to see some setbacks, especially after the OPN war.

When the West has been dominating the world with science and technology programs and financial powers and also the ruling military presence on the ocean, Chinese people used to hesitate and doubt a little bit about our own culture. We think this 5,000 years culture deposit can be the factor which is dragging down China's development in like 200 years ago.

Later, as we do more and we do better in our own progress, we find out what we call the double combination is very, very important, which means we find out one of the most important tool, a spiritual tool to guide China forward in a modern period of time, which is a Marxism and a Mao Zedong theory, which is very, very important for Chinese people to stand up on their own feet for the independence of China.

and to become a stand-up country. But also we need our traditional thinking, traditional culture, like our mythologies, like Confucius' teaching doctrines, like Taoism and Chinese localized Buddhism, all this together. Like President Xi Jinping has mentioned, this double combination forms the new gross pattern of

paradigm of China right now. And I think what we're doing right now and a witness right now and a rise of Nezha and Wukong is absolutely a perfect proof of what President Xi Jinping has mentioned that Chinese culture, traditional culture is not a dragging down. It's not a dead weight.

But it's a great potential. It's a pull of wisdom. Can prop up our development into a higher level. Go beyond the framework used to be preset by the Western countries. Find out a new path of Chinese people our own. So I think right now with Chinese people and Chinese economy, Chinese everything.

everything, sports, you know, athletes and everybody else is achieving more. People start to realize what's actually behind us, supporting us to do all this achievement. I think Chinese culture is

That is. So young people, especially the millennium generation, Generation X, they started believing in, started to love older tradition more and more. I still remember baby boomers when they are still, you know, try to look up to the Western culture.

But this millennium generation, we're looking flat to our counterpart cultures. Or even some, well, I don't should say that, but some young people even look down upon the other so-called the mainstream Western dominating cultures like the Hollywoods. We think we are second to none. So I think this is a major change in the Chinese culture, right?

realm and i think this trend is going to continue for a very very long time but i think eventually we're going to hit some balancing point which is as president xi jinping has mentioned value our own beauty while appreciating appreciating others learning from each other with mutual respect i think that is very very important to comment on this so i think in the future that is we love our own culture

But we always appreciate the other people's culture and we will always enjoy learning and watching the cultures and all these products on each side. I like the point that we don't need approval if others' self-confidence and improvement is more crucial. Helen, what's your perspective on the role of cultural confidence in today's China in order to integrate elements like

Sanxingdui bronzes and Dong Ethic songs into its narrative. How has this cultural confidence-driven film creation transformed the domestic film market today? Yes, cultural confidence is not only a reflection of national pride, but also a very vital driving force for development down the road.

I think in the context of the film industry, it has sparked a very great shift from imitating Western models to embracing China's rich cultural heritage and the very unique storytelling traditions. Case in point,

is my favorite classics of mountains and seas or Shan Hai Jing in Chinese. It's imaginative accounts of hybrid creatures like the night-tailed foxes and other legendary tales like Kua Fu chasing the sun or Jing Wei feeling the sea, in my personal opinion, can always be produced into animated films or other, you know, dramas or other genres, you

you know, in the modern way, in blending, you know, the modern techniques, especially the Chinese modern techniques into this film creation. So I think these cultural confidence, in my opinion, especially when we face a market, when we talk about the storytelling performance and the blockbuster revenues, we need to discuss and taking the

the current market into mind and just like you know professor tree mentioned about the new driving force the new audience is the generation x or even younger audiences

Not only to mention, we want to weave this old or traditional or the culture with long history into the new modern society, facing the new modern audiences. So we might need to take care of in a very business way to take the cultural confidence and its practices to make it a valuable and a unique asset.

for us, for the movie makers, for the industry players, and also to bring this asset more practical to the audiences, even to not only to our own audiences, but to the global audience. So in this sense, I think the cultural confidence can play a more and a very potential and a very promising role down the road. Not only, as you mentioned, the Gorge Hall, the rise of Gorge Hall, this trend celebrates the homegrown product

and the traditional values, but in the realm of entertainment industry first, in clothing next, in photography, and probably in other products that can be blended into Guo Chao trend and very well. So I think this film is really a breakthrough for us to maybe to well blending, you know, the cultural confidence into the daily practices.

Indeed, I think our 5,000 years of history can provide a powerful source

of inspiration for today's film industry. Mao, as the youngest among four of us, I think, and also an international student and a researcher in the United States, you've experienced firsthand the cultural exchange and clashes between China and America, right? So how do young people perceive the Guoqiao trend and also the elements in the Nezha II? And how do overseas students view this type of cultural exports? Well,

First of all, I would like to share some of my own views as a researcher for industries and economics. Actually, I would like to say that cultural confidence is something closely related to economic power or industry power. You know, there are a lot of countries across the globe, they have very rich traditional culture. But the thing is, they are not that attractive

by themselves. Why is the reason? Because they don't have enough economic resources to promote those traditional cultures, right? They have a lot of legacies, which are really good. Then those things go ignored by the global community. So the very good thing is because of the splendid economic achievement, very good economic performance,

Now we have a robust economy, very large consumer demand. You know, we can have the power to purchase all those cultural products. And with the legacy, now you can have a very, very large cultural market. The best you can get from the legacy, now you can promote them to a wider global audience. I think that's the fantastic thing.

So the cultural confidence is not only a result of the traditional culture and the legacy, it's also a result of the splendid economic performance. And from an international student myself, I feel cultural confidence is slightly different from most people I would say. I'm really proud of my own culture.

But I would not confine culture to the traditional things. You know, the thing I value the most as Chinese culture, I would say it's daily life in China, the lifestyle in China, instead of those like legacy stuff. Legacy stuff, they're good, but

They are not that representative, I guess. For example, Peking Opera, they're all right, they're really good, but you don't go to the theater on a daily basis. You can be really proud of them, but you don't actually practice them. But for me, online games, the TV series, all those modern things, actually, they are more symbolic as modern Chinese culture. So, you know, I can take the cultural confidence in that way.

For example, the recent blockbuster video game, Black Mesa, right? It's a computer game. It's a really good combination of the legacy and technology. It's a combination of the tradition and the latest, you know, the trend online. So that kind of thing, I would like to pay a little bit more attention to the modern part instead of the legacy part. That are excellent points. I couldn't agree more with the point that

the rise of soft power is closely tied to the economic power. Now let's examine the tech advancements in China's

film industry today. No.2 brought together nearly 140 Chinese animation companies and over 4,000 animators to complete its special effects. Then, Professor Chu, what breakthroughs and exemplary significance does this large-scale collaborative model have for China's film industry today?

Well, actually, you've been asking the right question. A lot of people think in America they're leading, well, especially for this kind of entertainment and culture industry, Americans play a leading role.

Which is true, but not 100% true. Actually, you have to understand behind every Marvel movie, Pixar movie, Disney movie, and Netflix series, there are the Chinese forces, Chinese presence. Actually, Chinese animation slash movie slash audio and video effect industry has been devastating.

developing very very fast in the past 20 years if you remembered uh in the 2008 beijing olympic games there are many cgs on the opening ceremony and that was been provided by one of the iconic chinese cg companies called the crystal stone and that company just one teeny tiny example of how chinese movie industry i'm not saying movie but chinese movie industry are

are integrating into the world culture and entertainment industry supply chain. They've been providing what we call the after service or the editing services for many Hollywood, for example, in all the big movies, blockbusters, you name it. There are many of the CG special effects like Star War, like the –

the dinosaur movie like the Titanic and everything. Chinese CG makers and Chinese audio and video effect makers are everywhere. They're providing high quality top notch but also very efficient and cost efficient services for all the Hollywood studios. And more than that, they are providing the animation services for Japanese anime industry. So everybody knows the animation industry.

The leading player is Japan. And if you watch the past 10 years, just to watch any important Japanese animation movies, you just drag to the last part to watch all these producers, nameless, the UFOs, they're all with Chinese studios, Chinese animation scientists in there.

So right now, I think they decided to walk from the backstage to the front stage. They decided, hey, we got all this technology. We have a huge supply chain from the audio to the video to the CG to the animation to the engine making and everything. We have it. Why do not make our own movie? What we lack of is our own story, is our own brand, is our own studio. And guess what happened? Chinese ancient culture pops out.

And when this modern, what we call the movie wizard, the CG wizard, movie digital wizard, trying to look around, they find that, hey, we have a super rich deposit of culture of our own. We do not need a Spider-Man. We do not need the Superman. Just take a look at the one past the 60 years. You only have this man or that woman. You only have this kind of zombie or that kind of vampire, superhuman.

Boring! Everything is about the same thing. But in China, we have a humongous universe of gazillions of different gods, demons, and all these mythologists. And also, even for the modern creations, we have our own sci-fis like the three body problems.

And then they get shocked. Hey, why are – what we're doing here? We got this top-notch technology and we have top-notch stories in our own pocket. But do we just walk by and ignore this whole fact?

The whole wealth and all along just trying to be other movie theaters, movie studios, outsource worker. That's a shame. We should do something about our own. And I think that's the reason why starting from 2015, lots of studios, game companies, movie producers, they just don't get waken up. And then they decided to do something on China on their own.

And then they made it. Right now, if you take a look at the Wanderers, if I take a look at the Black Moth Wukong, and then today's Noja, and also more than earlier than that, we have the Mihoyo, we have the Genshin. Genshin is actually one of the phenomenon game has already been conquering the gamers of the whole world. And that is representing not only the highest digitalization or visual industry, visual effect industry of the whole world,

world in the movie industry, but also the storytelling art, the top-notch ones in the whole world as well. So that's how you see the China movie industry are forming a rather three-dimensional, holistic supply chain already. Helen, what's your take? Because in order to create the nearly 2,000 special effects,

The production team even developed a system called Dynamic Ink Rendering Engine. And there is a background story of this because the director initially approached foreign teams due to his high standards. But after unmet expectations, he turned to Chinese teams to complete the work. And we can see the result is remarkable.

So how do you analyze the significance behind this case? And how far is China's animation industry transitioning from outsourcing to technology export?

We don't need outsourcing anymore from the success of Nezha. I don't know whether you have noticed in the past, even when a Chinese film, not only to mention the Hollywood film, but the Chinese film is towards the end of the film when the screens of the credits pop up. For the Chinese film, it only has a few names, like the major production companies and the major contributors.

But for a Hollywood movie, it will have like pages to pages, you know, credits to all the participants into this film. So its comparison indicated at that time the difference, the huge difference between

in terms of its marketing, in terms of the branding and also industrialization of the difference between a Chinese film and a Hollywood film. But for Nezha, I'm really surprised, a happy surprise, I have to say, that I find at the end of the film, it is not only we have some trailers for us to continue curiosity about the next sequel, but we...

very happy to find that there are so many contributors, animators, animation companies, individual contributors like the songs and the scripts.

I think it's a collective effort and the result, a very good outcome for Nezha and for the Chinese film industry to highlight the influence of even a small and medium-sized animation studios and individual contributors in China to show their ability to produce together a high quality content, not only from the storytelling, but from the high techniques.

that can resonate with the audiences. So the whole production process of this film actually empowered many smaller enterprises.

and to participate into a huge blockbusters production and also encourage innovation, encouraging a diverse and more competitive ecosystem in the film production chain, in particular in a Chinese film industry. So I think down the road, it certainly demonstrates the potential for collaboration, not only between larger studios,

and the smaller players, but also driving the whole industry's growth and contributing to the overall Chinese film industry and animation sectors in particular development in a collaborating manner. So it's showing the collective efforts and the collective efforts down the road can be a very strong guidance and support to the film's healthy development.

Even though we certainly have obstacles and challenges down the road, I believe, like, you know, the marketing tactics. And for this season in particular, the government subsidy plays a very important role in its broadcaster and in its performance.

But having said this, I think the sustainability of a film production, especially in the animation industry and animation sector, has been built up through Nezha's success. Mm-hmm.

Mao, from an economic perspective, how do you assess the overall technological advancement of China's film industry today? I'm very, very happy to say the rise of Chinese cinema industry. And there's a hidden advantage behind that, which is actually very simple. It's the advantage for the cost. You know,

Once China had a very large labor cost advantage, the assembly line worker, they have very competitive wage across global community. That was the old story. The current story nowadays is that China has the most competitive price for engineers and technicians.

So behind the production of Nezha, it actually needs a lot of professionals, including engineers, technicians, all those professionals. The thing is, when you have a very large cost advantage,

you can hire more people, you can have higher quality of the production, but with less cost. So that is really a very, very huge advantage, which means you can produce a very good movie with less input.

That is really important. In the future, I believe the Chinese studios and the Chinese companies, they will become the destiny for the Hollywood or even Korean movies. I think many of them will choose China as the country to outsource their production, right? We have like millions of very talented engineers out there waiting for them.

So that is just another advantage, purely economic, but turned out can be cultural or social. So in the future, maybe we will have the advantage of very talented and very large group of scientists. So at that time, I think we would have even larger room for imagination.

So how China can be, right? That's something quite interesting to observe. Indeed. Professor Chu, anything to add on the use of technology in Chinese film industry? Well, in my view, still technology is irrelevant to the movie industry. Well, as Marco G. just mentioned, we do have the best of engineers.

creating best of visual and audio effect for the movies. And it's great actually, you take a look at the whole world. This is probably one of the most important successful factors leading to a great ticket box. Pixar is doing that as well because their movie just took the number one ticket box of the whole world also in animation. And now is Nezha number one in China also in animation.

That's great, but I think the essence behind that is not animation. We also see many other movies with a huge investment on the CG's, on the...

digitalizations on 3D modeling everything, but still their ticket box is like a landslide failure. So with only this kind of the shiny effect, it doesn't get you anywhere in the movie. Movie is still in art telling story by using camera and audio languages.

We've been seeing some other movies by using very, very little investment. Still, they've been achieving huge success in the movie history. I think story, culture deposit, and traditional wisdom, those things are actually the most important decisive factors. And talking about technology, I think we are doing very, very well, but I have to still remind ourselves.

We are already the leading power in the movie industry, especially in all kinds of the digital factor.

3D modeling, auto and video stimulation, and all this are very important. But we are not the most advanced nation in the whole world in this regard. For example, the Unreal Engine, the very, very important 3D modeling engine in the gaming and industrial industry, this has not been invented by us.

were just using their engine and also by all kinds of algorithms, for example, to decide how much of the hair in these animated characters to make people look more natural, the animals look more natural. The top notch algorithm to decide that the coalition of all the hairs on the animal fur or on the people's head are still not in Chinese hand. It's in Disney, it's in Netflix.

So, I think we still have a long way to go. I still remember there was an interview of Dumpling, the director of Nezha, has said, when they try to create the big shot by saying that Nezha has been sending out, releasing like thousands of the chains trying to lock down the demon in order to make that splendid and majestic scene.

They've been using investment with many of the manpower through many nights, just try to get a good picture frame by frame. But I think right now, Pixar have a very much optimized algorithm to make the whole process easier and much, much cost effective. So I think, well, technology wise, we still have some long way to go, even though we've been leading. Japan is doing very well. America is doing very well.

But I think what we can do is keep on learning and creating, but also we need to dig deeper into our own wisdom and our own culture. And that is the ultimate decisive factors which distinguish our movie from the other nations.

also make our movie to be loved by the other nation's viewers. We still have a long way to go indeed. Big thank you to all of our panelists for their insightful contributions. And thanks to all of our listeners for joining us. Until next time, I'm Ge'Anna, and this is World Today.