Breaking Free: Can Dongguan’s Trendy IP Escape the City Limits

Original title: Dongguan Chaowan IP seeks a way out of Guan

Workers Daily-China Industry Network reporter Zhao Siyuan

From October 24th to 27th, at the 14th Comic Expo held in Dongguan, reporters learned that Dongguan’s local IP, with both opportunities and challenges, is striving to “go global” with its vivid originality and the advantages of industrial agglomeration. , explore more possibilities.

Fang Qinglin runs a factory whose main business is toy OEM. In recent years, with the turbulence of the international economic situation, the decrease of new customers and the increasing cost of materials and labor, the original three to five hundred workers have to work overtime even on weekends. The situation has gone forever, and the OEM orders received have become increasingly sporadic. “The annual turnover of toy OEMs used to be around 50 million, but has shrunk by four-fifths in recent years.”

In times of difficulty, Fang Qinglin decided to change the passive situation of pure OEM work and lack of autonomy. This year, as a trendy toy manager, he participated in the exhibition with his original IP “Rabbit Ji Monkey”. To his delight, “Rabbit Extreme Monkey” has gained a lot of attention with its cute and lively image and fashionable and avant-garde design style. “The Taiwanese exhibitors purchased more than 100 bags of peripheral product sets at one time, which is a great encouragement to me.”

“In Dongguan, there are many toy OEMs like us who are trying to independently design IP and seek industrial upgrading and transformation.” Fang Qinglin said frankly that if IP in Dongguan wants to find an independent path, in addition to “self-help” in terms of original content and quality In addition, “other help” is also very necessary. “Establishing transformation support funds, creating a fair competition environment, and building more platforms for industrial docking and trade exchanges all play an important role in the healthy growth of Dongguan IP.”

With rhythmic and dynamic music and youthful and cheerful dance, the inspirational music animation “Wanlan Starry Sky” exhibition area attracted many fashion enthusiasts to stop and watch. “We spent 9 years creating more than 20 original songs, which were integrated into the 16 episodes of the first season.” Chief Director Li Gang told reporters that “Wanlan Starry Sky” will “never forget the original intention” and “face difficulties” Positive energy labels such as “Shang Shang” are molded into characters of different styles, serving as inspirational guidance for young people.

“The long wait always pays off.” Li Gang said that during the Spring Festival this year, “Wanlan Starry Sky” released a promotional song on its video account and gained more than 10,000 fans in just one week.

In Li Gang’s view, many local IPs currently tend to have similar plots and images during the development process, which narrows the choices for young people and lacks the ability to “make fresh moves”. “We firmly regard original music as the soul of this animation, and we also plan to ‘leap’ out of the fields of animation and fashion and hold theme concerts and musicals based on reaching a certain number of audiences.”

In addition, Li Gang also said that IP brands in Dongguan should change their thinking, unite and cooperate, change “my family’s IP and your family’s IP” to “everyone is Dongguan’s IP”, and strengthen their efforts in content originality, figure design, OEM production and other fields. Linkage, maximizing their respective advantages through industrial cooperation, reducing the occurrence of involution, and creating a healthy environment for Dongguan IP to “go global”.