The 16th China International Cartoon & Game（CCG）EXPO 2020 opened on Jul.16th in Shanghai. It is the first large-scale exhibition in the cultural and creative industry held since Shanghai restored holding physical exhibitions in May.

This year visitors have to provide their ID cards and health codes after having their body temperatures taken. They also need to pass a facial recognition system to enter the exhibition. Hand sanitizer, disinfectant and other epidemic prevention supplies are offered at prominent places inside the exhibition halls. The passages are also wider compared with the past.

The exhibition covers an area of about 50,000 square meters with more than 250 enterprises joining in. It has been divided into six parts including animation, comics, games, literature, Internet community and peripheral products, among which domestic cartoon enterprises maksup nearly 60% of the total exhibitors.

In recent years, a great number of domestic cartoons have received growing popularity among the consumers such as Grandmaster of Domestic Cultivationand Glory. Thus, domestic cartoonshave become a main attraction every year at the CCG EXPO. “Shanghai is the cradle of domestic cartoons. Chinese animation started here,”said Puyun, principal of CCG. This year Tencent Video has established a special gallery displaying domestic cartoon artworks from different time periods. The leading characters in domestic cartoons are gaining more popularity like the characters in Marvel have. Statistics have shown that as of January this year, the user scale of the Chinese Internet comic market increased by 30.83%. Original domestic cartoons were much more welcomed than Japanese animation among youngsters and were listed on the top of the popular list of cartoon websites.

At the same time, major manufacturers are trying to cooperate with some popular domestic cartoons like The legend of Luoxiaohei and Ne Zha whose IP contain huge commercial potential. Cartoon fans can purchase various kinds of spin-off products such as life-sized cutouts, pillows and badges at the exhibition.

Cooperation between traditional brands and domestic cartoons also provides energy for these time-honored brands. At the CCG EXPO this year, traditional brand Threegun displays its new The legend of Luoxiaohei T-shirtsand the sales have been very good. Besides, some well-known old brands in Shanghai such as Phoenix Bicycle and Hero Pen are also trying to adopt cartoon elements into their new products.

But it’s not just the domestic manufacturers who havetheir eyes on domestic cartoon IP. Some international model manufacturers such as Namco are also aiming to make model toys for the Chinese market.“Chinese consumers prefer models which contain Chinese elements, and we are trying to put their understanding of the Chinese market and IP into our products. Our new series of models will focus on Chinese domestic cartoons and we will continue to launch more new products in the future,”said Guqingkan, senior director of the Toy Business division of Namco.

With everyone involved and associated in the Chinese domestic cartoon industries looking for win-win cooperation, the future looks bright for homegrown heroes.