Animation industry looks to its future

Still, local firms continue to seek a local style for future animations. Hong Ying Universe is currently involved on a project with the working title of The Legend of Panda (熊貓山傳奇), which is based on Chinese ink-wash illustrations.

Other projects include The Legend of Shaolin Temple, produced by Central Motion Picture Corp (CMPC) and manufactured by Hong Ying Universe, and The Monkey King (西遊記) and Fire Mountain (火焰山), both projects of Wang Film.

Recently, the animation industry has also benefited from government support. Last year premier Yu Hsi-ku announced the expansion of subsidy and guidance programs for the digital content industry (ie software, animation and games industry), worth a total of NT$1.9 billion over the next six years.

As part of this move, the Industry Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (經濟部工業局) set up the Network and Multimedia Industry Promotion Office (網路多媒體計劃辦公室) to help promote Taiwan's multimedia products, taking several home-grown animations to MIPCOM in Cannes, France.

"We appreciate the government's recognition of our efforts," said Wang Tung. "But we need more new talent. We need the kind of rapid policy-making and efficiency that has made Korea's software industry take off in the last three years," Wang said.

Facing strong competition from animation firms in the US and Japan, and the newly powerful Korea, Taiwan's animation firms recognize that they have a tough battle ahead.