Animation

Ever since Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck broke the Bamboo Curtain back in the day, China has been a prime target market for Western cartoon franchises - witness the runaway success of the Transformers and Kung Fu Panda I and II.

The ever-so-slightly controversial Spongebob Squarepants (a.k.a. 海绵宝宝）also ranks up there - after debuting on CCTV's Children's Channel in 2006, it's been among China's most popular cartoon imports, with an average audience exceeding 20 million (despite a ban by authorities on showing foreign cartoons between 5-9pm to protect China's fledgling animation industry).

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The Wall Street Journal 's China Real Time Report blogs about the growing international  appeal of China's homegrown cartoon phenomenon "Pleasant Goat" (a.k.a "Xi Yang Yang" 喜洋洋) whose ubiquitous animal characters have now supplanted the likes of Mickey Mouse and Garfield as the country's number one childhood obsession.

According to the post, "Pleasant Goat" is being distributed by Disney "in over 52 markets around the Asia Pacific region" in such markets as "Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines and India with voice-overs in many different languages and dialects," and its producer boasts that many of its overseas fans "may not even know the show originated in China."

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