Report - APACA Convention, CHINA (Guiyang) 4th - 10th August

The Board Members Meeting, APACA 2009

Last night I finally caught my last flight to my present 'home base', Islamabad. China does not allow blogging so I have only been able to update this today.

I had been invited as a VIP to represent Animation from Pakistan at the APACA (AYACC) Convention/Conference in Guiyang (pron. Qooie-Yang), 2009. I had the honor of being on the jury to judge from the short listed animation entries from all around the world for their annual competition. The grand prize winner for Animation was from Japan, titled, “Rebun” by Koya Takahashi. There were several other prizes in both Animation and Cartoons.

“Rebun” by Koya Takahashi

No doubt the Chinese like to do everything BIG. But what was most impressive about the whole 6 day activity was the conclusion that the Chinese government truly acknowledges cartooning and animation not only as a powerful medium but as a revenue generating industry. It goes without saying that it will connect China to the world. There were at least 13 government organizations supporting the event and two government organizations hosting the APACA and AYACC event.

Guests from overseas included senior professionals in the field of cartooning and animation. It was an eye opener to learn that there are so many other usages of cartooning and animation than even we had hitherto been aware of. It is being used worldwide in scientific education vis a vis understanding the research, discoveries and new information in medical science. It is also being used as a training tool when precise calculated movements need to be shown to masses of people such as in the training of the performers in the Beijing Olympics. It is also being used to teach so called ‘boring’ subjects such as history in schools where once students had a low attention span now they read their books as they would any other entertaining comic book or graphic novel.

One BIG step up on music videos - Animated film with choreographed live orchestra.

With the vision of the Chinese government to support this industry there will no doubt be future Chinese cartoonists and animators to trail blaze the globe with their excellence in this powerful medium and generate revenues for their country. By meeting accomplished professionals in this field from all around the globe I realized that, whereas other countries may not always have as enterprising governments with foresight, animators worldwide make their own paths and figure out a way to create their own markets regardless. By taking courage and lessons from our neighboring friends, animation is not such a big mountain to climb in our own country as well. It will require direction, focus and above all, pure and simple desire.

- Numair Abbas


P.S.
Any interested cartoonist/animator may register for membership in CAAP (Cartoonists and Animators Association of Pakistan) by accessing the Gogi Studios website in order to avail the facilities of APACA and AYACC.