Spring House Entertainment Inc is a Taiwanese animation studio founded in February 2000 by Micho Chang. After spending about twenty years as a television and music video director, Chang was not happy with his role in the entertainment industry. In one interview, Chang stated, "I always thought that I was an artist, but gradually I realized that I was just a subcontractor, creating for client needs rather than for personal expression." He launched Spring House Entertainment and created an animated character – a ten-year-old boy named A-kuei, who lives in the fictional town of Springfall. The studio is based in

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. Since January 17, 2008, Spring House Entertainment Inc. has operated as a subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom Company, Ltd.

A-kuei

Several short films about A-kuei, ranging in length from ninety seconds to two minutes, have been released through Spring House Entertainment's website. According to ''

Taiwan Info The Government Information Office, Executive Yuan (GIO; ) was a cabinet-level agency of the Executive Yuan of Taiwan (the Republic of China) in charge of promoting government policies and regulating domestic media. History In April 1947, the R ...

'', A-kuei first became popular in the wake of a Taiwanese earthquake when many people found his character to be comforting. His popularity extended to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

and rose as his short films spread across the internet through email. Short films featuring A-kuei use a simple visual style that Chang has compared to that of ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

''. In the early days of Spring House Entertainment, the company worked on a very limited budget. Most of its income at that time was earned through advertising and merchandising, since the internet was still fairly rudimentary in Taiwan and was not extensively used in the country. However, in June 2002, Spring House Entertainment began charging for subscriptions to its website.

References

External links

Official website

Japanese website
Computer animation studios Taiwanese film producers Mass media companies established in 2000 Online companies of Taiwan {{Taiwan-company-stub