Once considered kid's toy and rebellious teenagers' heartthrob, cartoons and graphic novels suddenly hit China's mainstream culture as the country realized creativity is profitable.

    In a large hall of the National Art Museum of China, the country's top gallery for fine art, the poster of a cartoon goat, very popular on TV this year, is put on show.

    Downstair, there displays oil paintings of China's realistic artists, including a portrait of a young girl in Mao's suit, wearing a badge of Chairman Mao Zedong on her chest.

    Visitors to the exhibition of animation and manga on the third and fifth floors included Li Changchun, senior state leader in charge of publicity and culture. He watched the exhibition on Nov.5.

    Gan Yujie, 60, who frequented the museum almost every week, told Xinhua that she never imagined the graphic novels like "Romance of the three Kingdoms" could make it to the halls of the national art museum.

    "I was excited to see the works there," said professor Liao Xiangzhong, dean of the Animation School of Communication University of China.

    "The exhibition in such a museum means that animation and comic arts have been recognized by the government as 'real' arts," he said.

    Organized by such ministries and organizations as Ministry of Culture(MOC), Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Science and Technology, the show covers a wide range of categories in the field of animation and cartoon, including animation films, animation TV series, Iconic cartoons, comic books, mobile cartoons.

    Chinese animation germinated in the 1920s and the first animated feature film "Tie Shan Gongzhu," or "Princess Iron Fan" screened in 1941.

    Cai Wu, minister of culture, said Chinese animation and comic arts were attracting more attention than ever in the country with unprecedented opportunities ahead.

    "After so many years of accumulation, Chinese animation has been fully fledged for a take-off," said Liao.

    He owed the growth to the governmental support and dissemination work.

    He said Chinese government had been fully aware of the value of creative works of traditional culture and is trying to find a more effective way to communicate those values to its young people.

    "We should look at the animation industry in a new way," said Ouyang Jian, vice minister of culture. "It's an industry which can bring happiness and dreams to people, especially for the adolescent."