Scholars explore how best to develop cultural industry
A primary school student watching a live concert online in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province Photo: XINHUA
Culture is the soul of a nation. In recent years, more quality research has been conducted, which has set the stage for the innovative development of the cultural industry. Looking ahead, we need to enhance the theoretical research and discipline construction of the cultural industry, and we need to drive integrated innovation in the industry and other industries related to it. We need to do all we can to write a new chapter of development for the cultural industry in the new era.
Currently, China’s academic research in the cultural industry focuses on countermeasures, and they are usually based on existing theories from the West. More localized and systematic theories from China still await summarizing and refining. We need to base our theoretical studies of the cultural industry on China’s national conditions and local practices. We need to explore a system of theories featuring Chinese characteristics and in which Chinese values are manifested.
Zhang Zheng, deputy director of the Institute for Culture Creativity at Tsinghua University, said that we need to build theories about the cultural industry with Chinese characteristics. Academia should actively come up with topics for discussion, innovate with theoretical tools and research methods, and deepen research in the industry as well as its subdivisions.
Zheng Zili, director of the Cultural Creative Industry Research Office under the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, said that China still lags behind in cultural industry theory. Its cultural theories are unable to meet the demand of the fast developing industry. To advance cultural industry studies, we need to summarize and refine the practical experience that China’s cultural industry has gained since the reform and opening up.
Zheng added that we need to deepen our understanding of the tendencies unique to China’s cultural industry and focus on solving the prominent problems of the industry in the new era. We need to draw from the essence of Chinese history and culture, and we must continue to improve the academic discourse system of the cultural industry with Chinese characteristics.
Wu Chengzhong, director of the Culture and Leisure Industries Research Center of the University of International Business and Economics, said that to build a theoretical system for the cultural industry with Chinese characteristics, we need to closely follow trending topics in global research and make use of the fact that the industry is interdisciplinary. We should adopt different kinds of research methods, summarize local practice and encourage original theoretical research.
The researchers in China’s cultural industry need to dig deeper into fundamental topics, such as ethics and incrementalism in the industry. Meanwhile, researchers need to advance the special studies of fields such as the cultural market and policies in the cultural industry, so that we can contribute our Chinese perspective to the practical development and academic research of the world cultural industry, said Wei Pengju, director of the Cultural Economics Institute with the Central University of Finance and Economics.
As a new interdisciplinary subject, the cultural industry is split across different institutes in different colleges and universities, which, to some extent, has limited its construction and development.
After over 10 years of development, Wei observed that, majors related to the cultural industry have begun to appear for both undergraduate and graduate students. However, many issues have also emerged. The most pressing task at the moment is to clarify the first-level discipline above the cultural industry.
The key to the discipline construction of the cultural industry lies in talent cultivation. The focus of undergraduate education in this regard should be to teach the research logic and methods, while graduate students in this major should be trained with relevant practicable skills. As for doctoral students, they must be cultivated with the ability to innovate theoretically, said Wu.
Currently, the pace and features of discipline construction of the cultural industry in China varies from place to place. It is not yet possible for institutions to march ahead at the same pace. The discipline development of the cultural industry needs to refer to disciplines such as public management and pedagogy, and it must start to steer its undergraduate and specialist education towards vocational and professional training. Meanwhile, the discipline should start to infiltrate other subdivided industries such as art, design and media, said Zhang.
As we head into the new era, we need to further push the deep integration of the cultural industry with technology, tourism, finance, traditional manufacturing and more. In so doing we can steer the industry toward continuous prosperity and development.
As one of the economy’s pillar industries, the cultural industry is important because it is able to work with other related industries in achieving high-quality development, said Wei.
Wu pointed out that we need to start with governments and enterprises to promote the integrated development of the industries. On the one hand, governments should transform the industrial management system, adjust industrial policies, enhance the construction of the market legal system, and establish service platforms for the integrated development of the industries. These measures can function as a strong guarantee for industry integration. On the other hand, enterprises should innovate more by making use of China’s rich cultural resources and seizing the historic opportunity of the rapid growth of intelligent technology.
Zheng said that the key to accelerating the integrated development of the cultural industry and technology is to increase the application of emerging technologies in the cultural industry, advance systematic innovation in the mode of production, dissemination, and the consumption pattern and profit model of cultural products. We should create cultural and technological products with Chinese characteristics, which can help the country improve its international competitiveness and reception.
To encourage the integrated development of the cultural industry and the tourism industry, we need to work on management efficiency, tourists’ cultural experience, special services and the public health system around tourist attractions.
So as to stimulate the integrated development of the cultural industry and the traditional manufacturing industry, we need to let the cultural creative industry fulfill its role in leading the transformation of the industrial structure and production mode of the traditional manufacturing industry, said Zheng.
edited by WENG RONG