采访幸星副总裁Becky

    By Ada Shen. Feb. 23, 2005. City Weekend. Beijing, China
    2005年2月23日登载于北京《City Weekend》杂志

    The dark of night, the Emperor Xian Feng learns of the mysterious death of his beloved consort. So begins a journey to the legendary Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuan Ming Yuan), of which only ruins remain today. But in this tale, we see "The Old Summer Palace" in all its former glory - lush and rich with a historian's eye for detail, much as the Empress Dowager Cixi herself would have seen it.
        在漆黑的夜晚，咸丰皇帝得知自己宠爱的王妃神秘去世的噩耗，就随即踏上了去往传奇的圆明园的征程。当然现在的圆明园只剩下一片废虚。可是在这个故事里，我们眼前的圆明园恢复了当时繁耀的全景，通过历史学家的视角又看到了那座奢华而且富  贾的园林精致入微的细节，而且展现得淋离尽致，和当时慈禧本人亲眼所见到的景象完全一样。
 
    This painstaking care isn't for China's latest martial-arts blockbuster: it's for a game. And un most games currently played by youths in Internet bars across China, Lotus Spring is non-violent, and centers on problem-solving while exploring an authentic imperial past. 
        这样艰辛的付出并不是为了制作中国最新的功夫类大片而是为了某个游戏项目，而且这和目前全中国年轻人在网吧看到的多数游戏不一样是《荷花仙子》是非暴力的，玩家可以在探索逼真的皇家历史的过程中，发掘出解决问题的方法，这也就是游戏的主题。
 
It is also very romantic. "I began this game while I was a grad student in Canada, and developed it for five years, " says Xing-Xing Digital president and founder Wang Lifeng....Now merely in its seventh month of operation, the privately-held company has an impressive number of projects and clients, thanks to the efforts of their dynamic duo Wang Lifeng and U.S. animation industry veteran Becky Bristow.
        这个游戏还赋有浪漫色彩。“当我在加拿大读研时，我就已经开始做这个游戏项目了，后来又进行了五年的研发工作……”这是北京万方幸星数码科技有限公司总裁也是创始人王利锋先生谈到的，现在这家公司创建时间还不到七个月，可是他们做的项目数量之多还有拥有的客户群体却让人瓜目相看， 这一切的成绩都要归功于王利锋先生还有来自美国的动画界的专家Becky Bristow的亲力合作。
 

thousands of other companies mushrooming across China's entertainment landscape in the last few years, Xing Xing looks to ride the animation boom that is rocking China's internet, gaming, wireless, TV and film industries, especially as traditional strongholds of animation Japan, Korea, and even India look to China to do their animation grunt work.
        正如近几年来在中国娱乐界中像雨后春笋般出现的其它类似公司一样，幸星的目标是借助动画产业快速发展的契机一起发展起来开拓市场，因为不论是中国的网络、游戏、无线还是影视界都需要动画的参与，而且像传统的动画强国比如日本、韩国甚至是印度都瞄准了中国作为平台去开发他们的动画市场。
 
But un their competitors, Xing Xing is also prepared to ride out the coming bust. Animating China There are some very impressive figures floating around concerning animation in China: there are about 360 million young people who are the target audience for animation, and there isn't enough animated content for them to watch. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has stated its intention to create homegrown giants for animation production to compete with the Viacoms and the Disneys of the world. It has approved a plan to add 50 TV channels in 31 provinces and municipalities for broadcasting animated content. The government of Changsha in Hunan has even set aside 200 hectares of land for an Animation Science Park.
        但是，和那些竞争对手不同的是幸星还做好了要脱颖而出的准备。对于在中国做动画项目，有一些让人惊呀的统计数字可以参考：约3.6亿的年轻人都是动画的目标观众， 可是没有足够的动画片给他们看。 广电总局已经明确表示要创建本国的动画制作巨头公司，从而和国外的Viacom（美国传媒巨擎）还有迪斯尼竞争。而且该机构已经批准了要在31个省市增加50个电视频道的计划，从而转播动画相关的节目。湖南省长沙市甚至已经把一片面积为200公顷的土地预留出来以备开发动画科技园区使用。
 
But, so many other fledgling industries in China, a number of companies have famously churned through millions of US dollars in capital investment in a very short period of time, while none have been very successful in making the money back.
        可是，就像在中国出现的很多其他新兴产业一样，许多公司都能在很短时间内吸引上千万美元的投资，以备制作之需，这样做的确名声很大，但是没有一家公司能成功的把那些投资的钱赚回来。
 
"Animation is expensive to make," says Wang. "It costs any between US $5,000 to $10,000 per minute to produce, even in China. And what does a local TV station pay? US $5 to $7.30 per minute. Right now, even with nationwide distribution, it's almost impossible to break even."
        王先生说：“动画制作是成本很贵的，每分钟的成本有可能是在五千到一万美元之间，即便在中国也是这样的，可是当地的电视台支付的费用是多少呢？每分钟5到7.3美元，目前来说，即使是在都做渠道发行的话，那也基本上无法做到收支平衡。”
 
This is because domestic broadcasters are accustomed to paying cheaply for foreign animated content. Companies Disney, Warner Bros. and Viacom covered their bottom lines on brands Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny, and The Wild Thornberry's long ago in other markets, so the cost of licensing the content to local broadcasters is kept low. Beyond covering some marketing and distribution cost, it's all gravy.
        这是因为国内的电台已经习惯了用很低廉的价格转播国外的动画节目，像迪斯尼、华纳兄弟以及Viacom这些公司在很久以前就以小熊维尼、兔八哥以及原野小英雄的卡通品牌形象通过其它市场上来弥补他们的成本开销，因此把这些动画片节目授权给当地的转播商的所需要的成本就一直比较低廉，除去要支付一些营销还有发行方面的成本以外，其实是很赚钱的。
 
But for domestic producers - most of China's largest animation houses are still state-owned and state-supported - China is the primary market. It is also very difficult for local producers to access international markets because of differences in style, culture, quality, and consistency of output.
        可是对于中国国内的制片方来说，由于目前中国主要的规模比较大的动画公司还仍然是国企而且有的支持，中国内地市场是那些制片人的首要投放市场。 对于本土的制片人来说，要和国际市场竞争是非常困难的，因为在动画风格、文化、制作质量上存在差异，而且成品产出的连贯性也是瓶颈之一。
 
And then there is the piracy problem. Although the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Radio Film and Television have announced stiffer penalties for pirating, enforcement has not proven effective beyond short-term crackdowns.
        另外就是盗版的问题，虽然文化部还有广电总局已经宣布会加大盗版行为的打击惩罚力度，可是除了短期的严打之外，实施情况证明并不是很奏效。
 
"Unless the government controls piracy," says Wang, "There is no hope for China's domestic animation industry. Or the film industry, for that matter. I think we will see a lot of producers in business today quit in the coming months because it's just too hard."
        王利锋先生说：“除非能严格控制盗版问题，否则