TOTAL LICENSING chandising opportunities. Now they are catching up very quickly. Animated Chinese films also performed well in terms of licensing. During the Spring Festival, Boonie Bears: The Wild Life, the seventh film in the series, was enjoyed by many families, and continued the positive reputation that it has built up since 2012. The producer, Fantawild, one of the top local licensors in the Chinese market, is strong in terms of theme parks, cartoon series, animation films, and licensing. Another Chinese animation film Nezha Rebirth, produced by Light Chaser Animation, also became also widely known in licensing. Nezha Rebirth
and China’s popular art toy company POP MART produced several sets of designer toys for the movie. What is interesting is that POP MART, listed on the Hong Kong stock market last winter, was also one of the movie’s production companies. The line between licensor and licensee is becoming vague. And the most popular movie entitled Hi, Mom set many records at the box office, and also led to an industrial zone area in Hubei Provence, where the film was shot, to become a popular tourist destination. Over 10 thousand tourists came to visit the factory every day, a perfect opportunity for local themed tourism, which has become a hot topic in recent years.
Traditional Chinese culture became popular on social networks A dance program entitled Palace Banquet in Tang Dynasty hit the headlines quickly after it was performed at the Henan Province Spring Festival Gala
2021. It was hotly discussed by audiences on social network because of its traditional cultural creativity. The creativity of the characters in the show comes from the Tang Dynasty artifacts collected in the museum - named the Tang Dynasty figurines which have a history of nearly a thousand years. The actresses in the show imitated the ancient sculptures from the museum and added dramatic body language to them. What’s more, the program applied AR technology to integrate many national treasures and cultural relics into stage background, such as a famous Chinese painting Thousands of Miles of Mountains and Rivers with a history of more than 900 years. After years of encouraging Chinese museums to explore the potential of the licensing business, more and more museums have started to tap into licensing industry. As a result of the popular discussion about the dancing program, Henan Museum initiated a Palace Banquet in Tang Dynasty HandPainting Contest on social network, in which many Tang Palace characters were created by talented citizens. Many amongst the dance show’s young audiences also left floods of messages on social network, asking Henan Museum to produce or license more cultural products based on the Tang figurines. On request, Henan Museum acted very quickly and launched a mystery toy box set for collectible figures, themed around Palace Banquet in Tang Dynasty, two weeks later.
dia methods as well as licensed products, can all mix together to bring an experience to the modern generation. Both movie and art licensing are trendy and fashionable in China, and more high-end consumers prefer to choose those products to identify with their lifestyle and taste. Licensing is a promising industry in China and, of course, so is the China Licensing Expo. From October 19th to October 21st, licensors of animation, films, museums, art and other categories will gather again at the 15th edition of the China Licensing Expo at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in order to promote the continued development of the licensing business. After fifteen years of development, China Licensing Expo is widely recognized as the most effective channel to understand the licensing market, promote brands, and expand a licensing business in China and Asia.
During the Spring Festival this year, Chinese features and content raised further attention from the public. Chinese cartoons, animation, films and traditional Chinese cultural content, modern technology and multiple me-
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