Table Of ContentUnderstanding China
Hardy Yong Xiang
Patricia Ann Walker Editors
China Cultural and
Creative Industries
Reports 2013
Understanding China
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Hardy Yong Xiang (cid:129) Patricia Ann Walker
Editors
China Cultural and Creative
Industries Reports 2013
Editors
Hardy Yong Xiang
Patricia Ann Walker
Institute for Cultural Industries
Peking University
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
ISSN 2196-3134 ISSN 2196-3142 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-642-38156-0 ISBN 978-3-642-38157-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-38157-7
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This report series is a tribute to all those
engaging to promote global partnerships
in the Cultural and Creative Industries
“Problems cannot be solved at the same
level of awareness that created them”
Albert Einstein
Forewords
Lord Tim Clement Jones
London Managing Partner DLA Piper, Chairman of DLA Piper China Desk,
former Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Culture Media and Sport House
of Lords, London, UK
Creative employment in the UK provides around two million jobs, in the creative
sector itself and in creative roles in other industries. In recent times employment in
the sector has grown at double the rate of the economy as a whole.
Something very important for the creative industries is also happening in China.
In business the emphasis is now on creativity. This is very much refl ected in the
12th fi ve-year plan that is underway and marks an important new approach where
creative and artistic skills are being highly valued.
At the same time I have seen a great interest in China in creating partnerships
with British creative industries and creators, particularly in games and new media,
publishing, architecture, design, fashion, animation, music, fi lm, radio, television
and advertising, especially after the spectacle of the Olympic and Paralympic
ceremonies and the success of the British pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.
We now have great opportunity for creative and artistic partnership between
China and the UK. There is a real role for collaboration between us in helping
developing creative industries clusters in China.
These reports will be invaluable in helping British creative industries develop a
strong understanding of where they can develop partnerships in China, and I very
much welcome Prof. Patricia Ann Walker and colleagues’ initiative in putting such
a comprehensive publication together.
Lord Tim Clement-Jones
vii
viii Forewords
Professor Dr. Malcolm Gillies AM
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, London Metropolitan University, UK,
musician and author
The last decade has witnessed huge shifts in power relations in the world. The
emergence of China as the world’s second economic power, and with a continu-
ing upward trajectory, has exposed just how unknowing much of the rest of the
world still is about the fundamentals of the Chinese economy. While there is
understanding of more traditional areas of Chinese growth in recent decades,
such as manufacturing or mining, the growth in other, less tangible areas remains
substantially under-exposed, if not misunderstood.
The very concept of creative industries, itself a concoction of recent years to
express a particular mindset towards production and performance, cross-cuts many
time-honoured subject and methodological classifi cations. Through including
media and architecture as well as fashion, games, design and older-style “arts”
(music, dance, art, drama), the creative industries capture a vital facet of that less
tangible side of China’s burgeoning growth. The intersection of distinctive issues of
digital, social and legal behaviours poses signifi cant new questions concerning
intellectual property and ownership, the changing nature of trade, and evolving
cross-border models of business.
China Cultural and Creative Industries Reports , expertly edited by Patricia Ann
Walker and Yong Xiang, presents over a dozen fresh perspectives by younger
Chinese commentators, many based at Peking University. It builds on recent “East
Meets West” meetings of cultural and creative industries groups which underscore
the need for understanding of emerging models, networks and approaches. Through
this series of reports we learn why the editors consider this a “golden age” for
cultural and creative industries in China, and what the prospects are for these fi elds
in the years ahead.
Malcolm Gillies
Paul Owen, Managing Director BOP Consulting, London, UK
To the rest of the world China is an object of wonder: the miraculous rate of
economic growth, the emergence of its new megacities, its increasing investments
in foreign markets, its opening up to new cultural and economic infl uences. The
re- emergence of China is certainly a staple of academic papers, newspaper editori-
als and dinner conversations across the globe.
The cultural and creative industries are very much part of the ongoing discussion,
with the main facts well-rehearsed. The sector is growing fast and makes up about 3 %
of China’s GDP, with the fi gures as high as almost 10 % in some of the bigger Eastern
seaboard cities. The Chinese government has made these sectors a priority for growth
now in three successive fi ve-year plans. Hundreds of ‘creative clusters’ – which in
China mostly means a collection of buildings designated for cultural and creative
production and consumption – have sprung up across the country.
Forewords ix
Markets are burgeoning. The latest example is that China has just overtaken Japan
to become the second largest fi lm market and is predicted to overtake Hollywood by
the end of the decade: box offi ce receipts jumped 30 % in 2012 $2.7 billion. The
country has 277 million mobile web users almost half of whom use their devices to
download content. E-commerce is set to treble by 2015 to a predicted $420 billion.
Such fi gures are bound to generate wonderment. But underneath the fi gures,
how much real understanding is there outside China of their cultural and creative
industries? Of the challenging social, political and economic context for creative
production? Of the lives and sensibilities of artists and creative workers? Of the
intellectual discussions about traditional culture and modernity? Of the critical
debates about culture and society? Of informal grassroots, creative trends and
movements? Which is why these reports are so important?
By making the latest thinking on culture and creative industries from Chinese
intellectuals and cultural commentators available in this way, the editors are provid-
ing the opportunity for the rest of the world to develop a new, fuller understanding
of what is happening in China’s creative industries. It is to be hoped that this publi-
cation is the fi rst of many, so that we can move from a state of passive wonderment
to more active and imaginative state of understanding and engagement.
Paul Owen
Professor Peter Williamson
Professor of International Management, Judge Business School, University
of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Chinese cultural and creative industries play a key role in China’s next phase of
economic and social development. China’s economic growth will increasingly
depend on the capability to provide innovative and higher-value products and ser-
vices. Flourishing of Chinese design will be an important ingredient in enabling this
shift to happen, and distinctive, appealing design often draws its inspiration from
vibrant cultural and creative industries. Building Chinese brands will be another
important ingredient in the next stage of China’s economic development. Here again
the cultural and creative industries have an important part to play. Powerful brands
often embody the aesthetic of local culture, while they gain strength and wide reach
through support from dynamic advertising, media and broadcasting activities. In
addition to supporting the development of other sectors, the cultural and creative
industries also provide important economic benefi ts in their own right. They are a
large and valuable part of a modern economy creating jobs and demand.
The contribution of China’s cultural and creative industries, however, does not
end with the economic benefi ts they provide. These industries also play a key part
in the development of society, enriching the lives of citizens and bringing joy and
fulfi lment to millions of people. Cultural and creative industries can also make an
important contribution to our legacy: the shared heritage of humankind that is our
gift to future generations.
