“The City of Art Toys in China” Dongguan China Chic Design Competition held its launch conference on the morning of Sept. 24 in Beijing with a call for entries. According to reports, the event was guided by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province, co-sponsored by the Publicity Department of the CPC Dongguan Municipal Committee, Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, Dongguan Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and Shipai Township People’s Government, and implemented by Chengshi (Dongguan) Culture Technology Co., Ltd. with support from the AIM International Design Competition. The event also provides a great opportunity for spreading the charm of Dongguan as the “Capital of Art Toys in China”, and to discover the trendy life styles of this young city.
Art toys are reshaping Dongguan, presenting a fast-changing new city to the world
As introduced by Yang Jia, deputy-director of Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports, Dongguan, the 15th city in China to have a GDP of over one trillion yuan and a permanent population of over 10 million, is a very young and dynamic city with an average population age of 34. Today, Dongguan hosts over 4,000 toy makers and 1,500 upstream and downstream supporting businesses, making it the largest toy export base on the Chinese mainland. Dongguan produces mascots for many events, including Bing Dwen Dwen for the Beijing Winter Olympics, La’eeb for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the giant panda Rongbao for the Chengdu Summer Universiade, and Jiangnanyi (Memories of Jiangnan) for the ongoing Asian Games Hangzhou. Besides, most products from top art toy and animation brands, such as Pop Mart, 52Yoys, Marvel, and Bobby are also manufactured in Dongguan.
In the past few years, with the birth of self-owned art toy brands in Dongguan, many original art toy brands such as Toycity, Motor Nuclear and Piececool have been created, receiving much attention from fans. As the industry expands rapidly, art toys are well on its way to reshape the city and present to the world a trend-setting Dongguan in constant change.
When promoting the “City of Art Toys in China” Art Toys Center Project, Zeng Qingyun, a member of the CPC Shipai Township Committee, said that Shipai town has the largest number of art toy enterprises and own brands in Dongguan, and the Art Toys Center Project will be built into the Utopia for art toy designers, the R&D base for art toy IPs, and the ideal art toy destination for the Generation Z.
It is hoped that the event will help connect art toys with new types of consumption, inject more vitality into the talents, communities and content in Dongguan, empower the future of the “City of Art Toys in China” with collective wisdom, and eventually make Dongguan the byword for global art toys, said Wang Xu, chairman of the AIM International Design Competition’s Organizing Committee.
According to information, participants can take part in the competition by submitting either Chinese style designer toy IP designs or China chi specialty designs. With a total prize money of 285,000 yuan, the competition will be held from September 19 to November 25, while the awarding ceremony will be in December. The offline design work camp will be launched in Dongguan in October as well.
The deadline for submission of design works is November 25, 2023. For more information about the competition, visit the official website of the AIM International Design Competition at
