No business like show business

An area in which China has yet to see as much development as its overall economy is the business of entertainment and culture.

This is a symptom of, as commentators often call it, "the GDP fetish" meaning that officials are only enthusiastic about chasing higher numbers in infrastructure building and manufacturing, while caring for little else.

An irony is that culture does generate GDP. In a broader sense, what people call "entertainment" has the potential to generate huge amounts of money in a nation of 1.3 billion.

Economists would be wrong to suggest that Chinese lack a propensity for fun and entertainment.

From the black-and-white photo taken by our photographer at a rural temple fair (a mixture of business and folk art) you can tell how people would try to watch a traditional opera. At least, that was the way it was in 1987 in central China's Henan province.

The crowd was so dense then that our photographer Wang Wenlan could not squeeze himself in to get a view of the performers, who were neither from Beijing or Shanghai, nor from Hong Kong or Hollywood - just a small group of local artists.

Nonetheless, the event broadcast over loudspeakers, was strong enough to continuously draw people toward the stage and some young people even climbed trees to get a view of the performance, themselves forming an interesting view.

Development of the arts since then, has been far from encouraging. The size of performing arts in China declined through the 1990s. Even as recently as 2006, as shown by figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, more than half of the performing arts companies continue to operate in the red and still have to depend on financial handouts from the State.

Compared to the huge investment in highways and power grids, the money that goes to cultural development is meager indeed.

With increasing numbers of rural young people moving to the urban areas for jobs, the state of many local operas, and their expert performers, have become rather deplorable. In some cases, as shown in the color photo taken in a village not very far from Beijing, they can only entertain themselves.

On the two pillars flanking the stage, the Chinese characters read: "I can change my face once I'm on the stage - so come and have a look," and "You can forget your worries when you watch our show - so please do spend some time with us". But their only audience is a young girl.

Fortunately, overall public opinion has never favored such a tendency. The development of the economy has given rise to more color and more choices. Otherwise the significance of so much development would be lost.

Countless words have been written about culture in China's recent development programs.

At the same time, more entrepreneurs are also trying to define their future opportunities in similar directions. Indeed, what else can bring more value to a people already well sheltered and well fed? Culture and entertainment will be the next frontier of the Chinese market.

(China Daily 06/23/2008 page1)