A lister Jing Boran stars in Monster Hunt. Photo provided to China Daily

Beginning his career in a Hong Kong studio, Hui moved to Canada in the 1980s and the United States in 1989 to work for a California-based animated studio.

An enthusiast who has devoted his career to the animation, Hui finds China has a large number of animators, but they are short on "time and money", he says.

Hollywood studios such as DreamWorks usually take years to produce good movies, Hui says, adding that he worries that Chinese movies－mostly produced at a rate of one every three months－might be short on creativity.

"The education system is also different. When I was a student in Hong Kong, I was taught to follow the rules. But teenagers in foreign countries are encouraged to make their own rules," he says.

Cultural differences have also brought more innovation to making cartoons in the West, he adds.