A scene from Ne Zha [Photo/1905.com]

The ACG (animation, comic and games) industry in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, has an annual output value of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.42 billion) in 2018, and a growing number of Xiamen ACG firms have expanded abroad to explore global markets.  

With the Chinese box-office juggernaut Ne Zha hitting big screens across China this year, Xiamen's Sothen Animation, who worked on some of the movie's special effects, has seen a strong boost in its domestic reputation. The company has also done special effects work for renowned films such as Crazy Nian and Kunta.

Xiamen was one of the first cities in China to implement policies specifically to bolster the ACG industry. In 2008, the annual output value of Xiamen's ACG industry was about 500 million yuan, and by 2018, it exceeded 10 billion yuan. The city is now home to 134 municipally-recognized ACG enterprises and 22 nationally-recognized ones.

Many ACG firms in Xiamen are also looking to expand overseas. In 2018, Xiamen's video game industry generated 164.39 billion yuan in sales in the domestic market, up 17.6 percent year-on-year, while overseas sales revenue rose 15.8 percent to 9.59 billion yuan. The main export markets are Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan.