The little red fox that has enthralled millions

After 10 years of life on the page, a beloved character will soon jump out onto the big screen

Xu Han has published three picture books since 2009 about Ali, a little red fox wearing shorts. Three million copies have been sold, and in many online bookshops the books are the bestseller in its category.

The red fox has millions of fans in China, mostly female, apparently drawn by the warm, fairytale-like stories of Ali and his animal friends.

Xu's fourth book, Carrousel Garden, was published in March, and he says a full-feature movie starring Ali will be released next year. Xu is writing the script and directing the film.

"It's a great challenge for me to produce a film," says Xu, wearing a cap, black-framed glasses and a black T-shirt. "It's a turning point in my career."

Path to success

The path to fame of Xu with his red fox is one typical for a successful cartoonist in China: from picture book to short film to emoticons and emoji online or via instant messaging apps to a Taobao shop and physical shops across the country that sell Ali-the-fox merchandise, and finally to the big screen.

Wang Biao, founder of 12 Buildings, a Beijing company that employs about 20 cartoonists, says: "Over the past 10 years Xu has always been in the right place at the right time and has made the right decision whenever there was a new trend."

It is common for cartoonists to produce characters that become widely known quickly online, but many fizzle out within a year or two. Xu's red fox, on the other hand, first appeared online and in magazines in 2006.

In 2009, Xu set up Beijing Dream Castle Culture Company with a partner and published the picture book Ali's Dream Castle. He later began to create emoticons for QQ, the popular Chinese instant messaging service, and then for Renren.com, a Facebook-like social website popular among college students.

It was not until Ali became the first emoji of cartoon images on WeChat last year that his popularity began to cover all age groups, Xu says.

During the Spring Festival in February, downloads of emoticons of the red fox celebrating the traditional festival topped the list of emojis sent by users to wish their friends or relatives a happy New Year.

"I guess that's because Ali is a red fox," Xu says. "Red is a lucky color that suggests everything will flourish the following year. Emojis have given great exposure to my little red fox. But it's more important to write stories that attract audiences."

Telling stories

In making a film, telling a good story is the big challenge, he says, which takes Xu to a story of his own: how his red fox came about.

He created it in high school to win over a girl sitting in front of him, he says. From then on, he kept drawing short stories that he passed on to adults who appreciated fairy tales.

In the picture book that came out in March he recounts tales of Ali confronting characters from Western fairy tales such as the Little Prince, Pinocchio and the Ugly Duckling. Some stories are inspired by his daily life, he says. For example, one story tells of Ali's father bidding him farewell as he embarks on a journey. That, Xu says, reflects his experience when he left home to attend college.

China has never had an established cartoonist or cartoon image that has been recognised outside the country, and Xu says he hopes Ali will go some way to rectifying that.

But the animation and cartoon industry in China lags behind its counterparts in the West and in Japan, which has produced many comic books that have influenced countless Chinese cartoonists and aficionados of comics, he says.

Even if many Chinese cartoonists can gain exposure for their works through the internet and the mobile web, he says, building up an image for a cartoon character is difficult.

Even for someone as successful as Xu the way ahead is not at all clear.

"I won't continue to publish picture books of Ali," he says. "Perhaps I will draw books for children. Right now I'm 100 percent devoted to making this movie."