An official still from the animated feature Ne Zha. [Photo/Mtime]

With the animated feature Ne Zha hitting the big screens across China, Sothen Animation in Xiamen, one of the film's special effects companies, has gained a strong national reputation.

Xiamen in East China's Fujian province is home to rapidly developing animation and game industry. The city is one of the earliest in China to introduce and implement animation support policies.

In 2014, Base FX, a well-known visual effects company, opened a branch in Xiamen. A portion of the special effects for several big-budget films such as Transformers 4 and Jurassic World 2 were created in the Xiamen branch of Base FX.

Migu Animation, the largest animation distribution platform in China, is also located in Xiamen. According to an official from the company, with the rise of mobile internet, animation content has become more and more abundant, which boosted the development of the industry.

In 2008, the annual output value of Xiamen's animation and game industry was about 500 million yuan ($72.63 million), and by 2018 the annual output value exceeded 10 billion yuan.