Recently, the winners of the American Muse Design Award were officially announced . Sun Lijun , a second-level professor at Beijing Film Academy and a leading talent of the “Jinglangya” program, and his team won the gold award in the Public Art and Installation category of Architecture Design, for their public art installation “Sleepy Cat” . This has become a shining example of original Chinese public art on the international stage.
Sleepy Cat Outdoor Photos
Since its debut at the 4th Beijing Animation Week in 2025, “Sleepy Cat” has quickly become a viral sensation online, becoming a popular urban landmark for citizens and tourists alike. Its online reach has surpassed 1 billion views, earning it the title of a phenomenal public art piece. With its heartwarming core, the work resonates with all age groups, deeply integrating Eastern freehand aesthetics with modern technologies such as digital modeling, AI design, and inflatable sculpture. After hundreds of iterations and optimizations, it ultimately presents a lively expression and a warm texture, infusing urban spaces with delicate emotional warmth. Widely reported by numerous authoritative media outlets, it has become a benchmark for the cross-cultural dissemination of Beijing’s animation IPs.
Sun Lijun’s “Sleepy Cat” won the American Muse Award
Winning the Muse Gold Award, often referred to as the “Oscar of the design world,” is not only a high affirmation of the artistic level of “Sleepy Cat” by the international industry, but also an authoritative recognition of China’s innovative capabilities and international expressive power in original public art.
Sleepycat Outdoor Setup
To continuously strengthen the industry’s talent base and stimulate innovation, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television has comprehensively enhanced talent cultivation and ecosystem development, and has successively launched the Beijing Big Audiovisual “Jinglangya” Talent Special Selection Program and the “Jinglangya” Master Studio Project, providing special training and funding for selected talents and studios.
Professor Sun Lijun was selected as one of the first batch of “Jinglangya” Leading Talents in 2024 and one of the first batch of “Jinglangya” Master Studios in 2025. He has dedicated decades to the field of animation and digital art, achieving fruitful results and earning a renowned reputation in the industry . He consistently adheres to the contemporary expression of Eastern aesthetics, using universally resonant healing emotions as a bond to convey the relaxed, inclusive, and harmonious Eastern philosophy of humanity and nature . His classic works , such as Little Soldier Zhang Ga and Legend of the Rabbit Warrior , break down cultural barriers in a gentle way, exploring a replicable and emulating path for Chinese culture to go global. Simultaneously , he is deeply involved in art education, cultivating a large number of outstanding animation and digital art talents, building a virtuous cycle of renowned masters leading and young innovators, and continuously injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of Beijing’s animation industry.
In May of this year , the Huairou Great Wall International Animation Valley will officially open. This 19.3-meter-tall, currently the world’s tallest outdoor inflatable orange cat will take root as the image ambassador of the animation valley, linking Beijing’s animation IP cultivation, international dissemination and talent ecosystem construction, vividly writing the Chinese story of upholding integrity and innovation.
Sleepy Cat Manuscript
With “Sleepy Cat” as the core IP, Professor Sun Lijun’s team will further promote the development of the entire industry chain, and successively launch diverse content such as animated films, short dramas, picture books, toys, and games. They will promote this public art installation to upgrade into a super original IP with global influence, continue to use art as a bridge, deeply cultivate Eastern aesthetics and digital innovation, and enable more original Chinese IPs to have both artistic height and market vitality, and steadily move to the center of the world stage.
The “Jinglangya” Talent Program is the first talent development brand in Beijing’s broadcasting and television industry and a crucial support for the “Beijing Big Audiovisual” system . It is divided into three levels: renowned figures, leading talents, and young innovators, covering five major areas: news and publicity, artistic creation, international communication, business management, and science and technology engineering. The first selection was completed in 2024, with 17 outstanding talents chosen. In 2025, building upon this foundation , a talent incubation project featuring renowned figures’ studios was established. This program aims to support high-level talents in conducting major, guiding, innovative, and forward-looking research projects in the broadcasting and television field, producing a number of key creative and research achievements, promoting the application of new productive forces in the broadcasting and television industry, and gradually building a complete, integrated ecosystem for the development of broadcasting and television talents.
