Commodification of culture in China’s new cultural industry

Abstract

This paper is based on research done in 2014 investigating the commodification of culture in China’s new cultural industries, including interviews and research at the Institute for Cultural Industries at Peking University (ICIPKU), founded in 1999 as a think-tank to develop a National Research Base for Cultural Industries Innovation and Development. The paper makes use of the ICIPKU model for assessing cultural industry planning and implementation [technology, education, art (T–E–A)] as the critical apparatus for evaluating five different expressions of cultural industry. The expressions of Chinese cultural industry focused on in this study are the Shangba Fine Arts Development Group; the Wanda Group’s tourist city development in Wuxi and Wuhan; the recreated cities of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and the Hengdian World Studios, known as “Chinawood”; the Impression West Lake pageant; and Songcheng, Song Dynasty participatory park. I argue that not all cultural industry expressions measured up well under the T–E–A assessment model. The Songcheng Group approach excelled in its genre, as did the Shangba Group in its model and the Impression West Lake as a presentation of culture through a pageant performance. Beyond the T–E–A model, I hold that all three of these groups took seriously cultural transmission, interpretation, and education while not neglecting the essential business interest of profitability.