Kung Fu Panda broke box office records this month, becoming the first animated feature film to surpass 100 million yuan (£7.3 million) at the box office. One of the previous biggest blockbuster draws was Transformers, a film that remains hugely popular. Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse are also contending for places in the hearts of Chinese audiences – but Postman Pat need not be daunted. In the fight to win over the Chinese, pre-schoolers and pensioners alike, he has (a huge) trump card: the likely support of China’s propaganda tsars.

The authorities are so concerned about the dominance of Japanese characters such as Hello Kitty and Doraemon, and of Disney’s stable of familiar faces from Mickey Mouse to Donald Duck, that they banned foreign animations from television between 5pm and 8pm. Children were not pleased. Surveys have shown that 80 per cent of Chinese children prefer foreign cartoons.

Those authorities want to set aside slots for China’s own struggling animators. The Southern Metropolis News called the decision “a worrying, shortsighted policy” that “will not solve the fundamental problems in China’s cartoon industry”.

But Postman Pat may score on two counts. First, his down-to-earth manner and his consideration and care for others is a message that gels with the one that Beijing is trying to preach. Secondly, Postman Pat is a character to whom many Chinese children can relate.

He may drive a red postal van, while his Chinese counterpart drives a green one, but in China the postman is a popular figure everywhere. He cycles to remote villages, knocking on doors to deliver packages and post in a country where the mail remains an important means of communication. He cycles down narrow city alleys, or whirs along on his electric bicycle with mail bags in his basket. Everyone recognises the dark green uniform of the postman with the distinctive yellow China Post zigzag logo.

Nor would he be breaking new ground. Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po – the Teletubbies, or “tianxian baobao” (antenna babies in Chinese) – were a huge hit in China a few years ago, a coup for the BBC and Ragdoll Productions, makers of the series.

Nevertheless, foreign imports have been pushed out of the “golden hours” of Chinese evening television in favour of such home-grown classics as The Monkey King – for centuries a favourite with Chinese children. Monkey may be home-grown, but he is hardly a paragon of virtue and it is thought that his mischief and trickery may be seen by the propaganda chiefs as needing a homely counterbalance. Pat Clifton, originally a postman in rural Greendale, may be the man for the job.

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