Cultural trends under the spotlight as experts look to the future

An international cultural industries forum in Beijing, gathering policy makers and researchers, examined future trends and the vitality of the ever-growing sector.

The annual forum was hosted by Peking University last weekend, and experts discussed the future development for China's cultural sector.

Themed as "New Mission: Culture and Creative Development in the Well-off Society of China", it featured a dozen sessions, panel discussions and academic seminars.

The forum gives policy makers, researchers and practitioners from home and abroad the opportunity to discuss the high-quality development of China's creative cultural sector in the new era, vice-president of Peking University Wang Bo said in his opening speech.

Mei Song, director of the Beijing Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Center, spoke from a policy-making perspective: "Among the recurring keywords of cultural policies in recent years, we found that the most frequently used are 'intellectual property'. Without the protection of intellectual property, cultural and creative industries cannot make progress."

Therefore, the next step to promote China's cultural industries, Mei said, is to work on cultural legislation and innovation to stimulate the vitality of the industries.

Researchers and professors at the forum also view education as an important factor to boost cultural creativity.

Dean of Shenzhen University's Institute for Cultural Industries, Li Fengliang, said that he always advocates sending students on exchanges to other Chinese or overseas universities.

"The cultivation of creative cultural talent should not take place in the classroom only. They should also practice in enterprises and industries," Li said.

Fan Zhou, dean of the School of Cultural Industries Management, Communication University of China, said that with hundreds of thousands of international students now studying in China, they are the best medium for promoting Chinese culture and telling true China stories.

In tandem with the forum, Peking University's Institute for Cultural Industries, in conjunction with the National Research Base for Cultural Industries Innovation and Development, also released a preview of their yearly report on China's cultural industries.

The report, comprising 5 sections, analyzes 14 cultural and creative sectors, cultural industries by regions, and listed the major industrial trends and phenomena.

The preview published 10 keywords and 10 features for China's cultural industries in 2019, and predicted the trends for 2020.

According to the report, the top 3 keywords for 2019 are the integration of culture and tourism, digital cultural industries, and "5G plus culture", referring to the innovation brought by 5G technology in promoting culture.

The report holds a positive outlook for the new year, predicting that cultural legislation will continue to advance, the cultural market system will strengthen, and public cultural services will steadily improve.

The cultural industry is also predicted by the report to become an important factor for rural revitalization and, echoing the viewpoints of Mei, copyright will become a focus of the cultural industries.