Cultural industry in central province gets a huge liftoff

The cultural industry in Central China’s Hunan province has blossomed, with double-digit growth that has attracted wide participation of both State-backed and private funds.

The provincial government put forward a strategic decision to prioritize development of a culture-based economy at the end of the 1980s, much earlier than in most parts of the country.

As a result, the government reformed the institutional systems behind the cultural industry, energizing the sector and injecting more innovation capability that in turn has nurtured leading brands and companies.

From broadcasting and television programs to publications and performances, companies from Hunan have made waves across the country and two of them — South China Publishing and Media Group and Mango Media — have been ranked among the top 30 cultural companies of China.

Government statistics indicated that the added value of the culture and innovation industry in Hunan hit 211.2 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) in 2017, which accounted for 6.2 percent of the province’s gross domestic product.

The amount was up 10.5 percent from a year before and 10 times that of 2004.

According to the development index of the cultural industry in Chinese provinces and municipalities for 2017, issued by Renmin University, Hunan ranked seventh nationwide and first in China’s central and western regions.

The province was home to 3,395 large cultural companies as of the end of September. There are eight listed cultural enterprises in the province.

According to a 2018 statistical overview released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of such companies in Hunan and the province’s gross revenue of cultural and related industries both ranked seventh nationally.

The government supported the construction of a cluster of cultural industrial parks and handed their operation to some Stateowned enterprises, including one of the most important projects: the Malanshan video cultural innovation industrial park. With a total investment of 30 billion yuan, the industrial park aims to tap into the global video and contents production industry to be China’s top “Video Valley” with a worldwide impact.

A State fund has played an important role in the province’s industrial development. The government set up the first culture and tourism guide fund at the end of 2010, which raised nearly 2.2 billion yuan, of which almost 1.8 billion yuan was invested. As a result, three cultural companies with money from the fund went public.

The cultural industry reform of Hunan also opened the doors to private companies and individuals that made the sector more diversified.

The Hunan Cultural Chamber of Commerce for the Private Sector was established in Changsha, capital of the province, in February 2017. Some 106 private companies — whose businesses range from ceramics and sculpture to videos and audio, Hunan embroidery and handicraft to cartoons and intangible cultural heritage — have joined the chamber.

The private sector has contributed about half of the culture industrial output of Hunan, according to the chamber.

Li Zijian, an artist originating from Hunan now living in the United States with his wife, invested in an art gallery in Changsha, which has attracted more than 1 million visitors since it was opened in 2016.

The art gallery, which covers a land area of 1.02 hectares and floor area of 25,000 square meters, offers free admission to the public.