- Title: CHINA: Military vehicle replicas rattle and roll through China's film industry
- Date: 16th February 2010
- Summary: CHENGDU, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) MAN CLOSING TANK WINDOW VARIOUS OF TANK DRIVING MAN DRIVING INSIDE TANK TANK GUN POINTING OUTWARDS VARIOUS OF MAN DRIVING TANK RED TRACTOR ENGINE VARIOUS OF TANK DRIVING VARIOUS OF FOUNDER OF CHENGDU YINGMING MODEL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, LTD. WU ZHIYONG WATCHING FILM 'MY GENERAL, MY SOLDIER' ON LAPTOP COMPUTER (S
- Embargoed: 3rd March 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVAADHIMRC56AU2C3PLLDRYVD0YQ
- Story Text: Every war needs tanks, planes, and helicopters - even in the movies.
And one company in China's rural Sichuan province has found success catering to this special need.
Chengdu Yingming Model Development Company, Ltd. designs and produces replicas of aircraft, tanks, and other military vehicles from China's history for war films, as well as for display in theme parks and exhibition show rooms.
According to founder Wu Zhiyong, the company is the only one in China to produce and sell one-of-a-kind life-size replicas of military vehicles for the film industry.
Wu grew up in a small village and never received a secondary education, but from a young age had a hobby of creating small-scale airplane models, inspired by his father's occupation at a Chengdu-based airplane company.
In 1996, Wu decided to make his childhood dreams a reality, and opened his company, which started making small scale models and later went on to produce full-scale replicas.
The models are made from common materials - the tanks are powered by regular tractor engines.
The company's various models have been used in more than five Chinese patriotic war movies, including blockbuster "Nanjing! Nanjing!" which depicted the infamous massacre of Chinese by Japanese occupying forces.
The popularity of these films has proved to be strong publicity for the replicas.
"It is very difficult for us common people to see weapon equipment in parks or other places. And to see foreign military equipment is even more difficult. So we want to show the general public our airplanes, tank models, and other military equipment. We can use it as a way to teach them about national defence, but it also serves as a form of military entertainment," Wu said.
The company now employs dozens of workers, who collaborate to create the most accurate and authentic-looking models.
The process of recreating the details are meticulous and labour intensive.
The original workshop was housed in farmers' courtyards, but Wu has recently made a 20 million yuan (2,900,000 US Dollars) investment to build a new and improved one.
The company also utilizes the newest technology to create three-dimensional graphics of the models.
"We collected some original documents, for example pie charts, photos, and statistics. We built a 3D model and used the CAD program to create engineering graphics based on this information. We used digitally-controlled processing equipment to create the documents," Wu said.
China's box office sales topped over 900 million US Dollars in 2009, of which over 50 percent were domestic films.
The Communist leadership regularly promotes patriotic films that depict the country's communist history and provide a market for military props.
But while his replicas have gained success in Chinese expos and films, Wu now hopes to expand his company's reaches to the global market.
"Our goal is to introduce these special stage props to the international market. And so now we're trying to increase our scale. I hope that one day we can bring our products to Hollywood," Wu said.
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