Southeast Asia Information Port (www.dnyxxg.com) – The "Animations of the Greater Bay Area" exchange activity for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao animation artists was launched on the 26th at the Guangzhou Yangcheng Creative Industry Park.
Many animation artists from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, including Hong Kong cartoonists Wong Yuk-long and Lee Chi-ching, Cao Xue (chief designer of "Bing Dwen Dwen"), and cartoonist Jin Cheng, attended the event. Following the launch ceremony, the group of prominent figures in the animation industry embarked on a four-day tour to explore the Greater Bay Area's cultural exchange and technological innovation achievements.
Lin Haili, editor-in-chief of the Yangcheng Evening News Group, stated that Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao share geographical proximity and cultural ties. The animation industry, as an important component of the cultural and creative industries, is experiencing unprecedented development opportunities. The "Animations of the Greater Bay Area" series of activities uses animation art to open a new path for observing the Greater Bay Area's diverse cultural integration and high-quality development. It will further stimulate the cultural creativity of the younger generation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, promote the incubation and dissemination of Greater Bay Area animation IPs, and help Chinese animation go global.
Wong Yuk-long stated that the rich martial arts culture of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau holds the potential to nurture the next blockbuster Chinese cultural export, similar to *Black Myth: Wukong*. He looks forward to continued collaboration and joint progress among animation artists and related professionals in the three regions.
Jin Cheng, reflecting on his decades-long career in animation, remarked with deep feeling: "The Greater Bay Area is fertile ground for entrepreneurship and a blessed land for animators."
Li Zhiqing, a Hong Kong martial arts cartoonist and honorary advisor to the Hong Kong Animation and Comics Association, stated: "Hong Kong painters are part of the Lingnan School of painting. Lingnan culture has a long history and unique characteristics, while Chinese culture also has thousands of years of accumulation; these are the roots of our creation." He then spontaneously created a piece on stage. In just ten minutes, a calligraphy work imbued with the characteristics of the Greater Bay Area and the spirit of martial arts emerged on the paper, winning applause from the audience.
Cross-disciplinary artist Gao Ping, chief designer of the 2010 Asian Para Games emblem and creator of the popular IP "Cat Star," said, "An artist's cultural confidence and love for their own regional culture are our inexhaustible source of inspiration."
During the salon sharing session, several outstanding artists from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao engaged in a lively exchange of ideas. Cao Xue, chief designer of the 2022 Winter Olympics mascot "Bing Dwen Dwen" and professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, said, "We have never strayed from traditional Chinese culture, and the very essence of Lingnan culture, including the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is the spirit of daring to be the first."
Huang Tianjun, president of the Macao Comic Artists Association and vice chairman of the Guangzhou Animation Artists Association, introduced the successful "Comic Macao" series, a trilingual (Chinese, English, and Portuguese) picture book series. He believes that exploring Macao's history and culture through comics is very meaningful, as it introduces the Lingnan tradition and Sino-foreign integration embodied in Macao's local culture, conveying the diverse aspects of Chinese culture to the world in a more comprehensive way. (End)
