PR93076

HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 16, 2021 /Xinhua=KYODO JBN/--

A global cultural exchange event has been held in eastern China's Hangzhou

city, where creative ideas from around the world met "on the clouds". On Nov.

8, the 15th Hangzhou Cultural and Creative Industry Expo, which was held in a

different way against the backdrop of the pandemic, closed. With the theme of

"Creative Hangzhou, Connecting the World -- Culture Leading a Better Life",

this year's expo adopted the combination of online and offline exhibitions to

show over 3,000 cultural brands and enterprises from more than 30 countries and

regions including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, Japan, the

Republic of Korea and Thailand. More than 200,000 pieces of Chinese and

overseas cultural products were displayed in the online venue, which attracted

190 million views. It was a grand event of global cultural exchange and

integration, according to Hangzhou Municipal Government.

"Cloud" brings "digital wings" to cultural industry

Under the background of epidemic prevention and control, this year's expo moved

offline exhibition online. Instead of making an appointment or buy tickets,

citizens could "cloud travel" the two major exhibitions featuring creativity

and craftsmanship on TikTok.

According to Meng Wenbo, co-chairman and CEO of Dongjia, an e-commerce platform

focusing on craftsmanship, an online expo has eliminated the limitations of

offline exhibitions, opened up new ways of visiting exhibitions and new scenes

of cultural infiltration. At the same time, the integration of online

exhibitions and sales also helps businesses to continue to operate well in the

context of epidemic, and truly brings a "never-ending cultural fair" to

cultural lovers. The themed venue under the name "Song Yun Jiang Nan",

featuring the spirit of Song Dynasty in eastern China, focused on attracting

cultural and creative professionals, craft designers, new craftsmen and other

professional groups. During the exhibition, a large number of creative products

that reflected Chinese traditional culture, such as tea set gift box and blue

and white porcelain, made their debut and became instant hits.

After more than a decade of development, the expo has become a "cultural golden

name card" of Hangzhou, known as one of China's four key comprehensive cultural

exhibition activities. According to reports, though under the background of the

epidemic, Hangzhou's cultural industry still achieved 228.5 billion yuan (about

35.7 billion U.S. dollars) in added value last year, up 8.2 percent year on

year, and the comprehensive development strength of Hangzhou's cultural

industry ranks among the first ranking of large and medium-sized cities in

China. Since the beginning of this year, Hangzhou's cultural industry has shown

a strong development momentum. In the first three quarters, the added value

reached 190.1 billion yuan, an increase of 10.3 percent year on year, and the

growth rate of digital content industry reached as high as 12.8 percent.

Digital technology has gained integrated application and innovation in the

field of cultural industry, thus providing "core" support for cultural industry

on the "cloud". At this year's expo, over 3,500 online exhibitors and brands

participated, and nearly 240 theme live broadcasts, special auctions and other

activities were held. Citizens could buy global cultural products without

leaving home. The event has showcased latest achievements in the development of

Chinese cultural industry to domestic and overseas merchants on all fronts,

strengthened international cultural industry exchanges and cooperation, and

further enlarged the influence of the Hangzhou expo.

"Cultural expo of ideas" brings everlasting cultural splendor

Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo is a creative exhibition of life

aesthetics, a grand event of economic and cultural exchanges, a platform for

in-depth collision of ideas and a front for industry foresight. During this

year's expo, several latest research results of industry development index were

released to further enhance the brand influence of an "expo of ideas".

At the Cultural Industry Summit, Xiong Chengyu, a foreign academician of the

European Academy of Sciences and director of the National Cultural Industry

Research Center of Tsinghua University, published the Development Index and

Evaluation Report of China's Digital Content Industry (2021) online, and

evaluated the development index of China's digital content industry from five

aspects: industrial scale, social contribution, value creation, development

environment and industrial competitiveness. According to the research index,

Hangzhou ranks among the first tier in the development of digital content

industry in China and is the representative city in the industrial circle of

the Yangtze River Delta.

According to Xiong, Hangzhou, with its good industrial infrastructure, is an

important city in China's digital economy. Hangzhou not only pays attention to

the cultural industry itself, but also goes hand in hand from supporting

policies and industrial cluster development. Therefore, Hangzhou's digital

content fields such as animation, games, e-sports, film and television are

developing well. In addition, digital content has been integrated into all

aspects of social life, spanning national boundaries and fields. He hoped that

Hangzhou will bring original digital content with Chinese characteristics to

users all over the world.

Wu Xiaobo, a Chinese financial writer, said that Hangzhou has always been a

consumer city throughout history, and young people are the most important

reason why Hangzhou's cultural industry can maintain a strong development

momentum. In all cultures, young people are the most important participating

force and fermentation factor. Especially in recent years, the net inflow rate

of talents in Hangzhou continues to rank first in China, which brings rich

cultural industries and strong consumption capacity to Hangzhou.

Source: Hangzhou Municipal Government

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   Caption: The 15th Hangzhou Cultural and Creative Industry Expo