The development of modern economy and society has endowed the cultural industry with many new forms. China attaches great importance to the cultural industry and has built a number of national cultural export bases.The Blue Book of Culture: Report on the Development of China's Cultural Industry (hereinafter referred to as the Blue Book), edited by Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Chinese Cultural Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, tries to summarize the development trend of the international cultural industry and provide reference for China's cultural industry.
According to the Blue Book, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought about an era of creative economy 4.0, which has lowered the barriers to entry for businesses.Traditional creative content such as music, film, television and literature is created, distributed and stored digitally.Digital formats make it cheaper for creators of creative content products, helping them expand and invest more easily.Business involvement is deeper, with artificial intelligence and machine learning based on data analytics making it easier to reach specific consumers, and cross-border distribution.The borderless nature of the Internet allows ideas and businesses to reach a wider range of customers without the geographic or financial constraints of the past.It is becoming easier to do business across borders and across regions, and cloud-based applications allow companies to access business opportunities in other countries or regions.The ability of customers around the world to access creative products digitally will also influence those creative products in turn, which will benefit consumers.Consumers have more, more convenient and cheaper choices.Consumers can now listen to music or watch movies on their phones without the need for radio or television.
Although cities will continue to be the main driving scene for the development of cultural industries, the Blue Book observes that there is an open relationship between cities and the creative economy, rather than a one-way dependence.Cities based on cultural heritage can increase their income and improve their hardware environment by developing cultural tourism.Under the background that various cities and regions actively attract foreign investment, cultural and creative industries bring urban brand and promotion effect.In addition, creative cities are often more tolerant of various cultural expressions and create a more harmonious and colorful living environment.Beijing, for example, joins UNESCO's Creative Cities Network as a design capital, while Seoul and Tokyo are more likely to be associated with film, television, games and the Internet.With capital transfer and industrial restructuring, the new cultural economy will occupy a larger share of the major cities and regional economies of developing countries.The policy concept of promoting creative economy and creative cities needs to change from a "fast policy" thinking to a "patient policy" thinking.
Emerging technologies bring challenges as well as dividends.Digital revenues will continue to grow as a share of the industry as online advertising and data consumption grow, according to the Blue Book.While there are many positive digital dividends, there can also be negative and unbalanced outcomes across the population as a whole, such as the displacement of unskilled workers, the imbalance between companies with and without Internet access, and the possibility of certain individuals using the Internet to establish monopolies.While new technologies and business models offer opportunities for greater efficiency and revenue, faster innovation, new markets and other benefits, new challenges are emerging as supply chains, labor markets and certain industries are disrupted.For example, there is no perfect match between talent and position.In Nashville, Tennessee, there is an abundance of talent for music production and broadcasting skills, but a shortage of people with IT infrastructure, systems administration and network programming skills.