Can China Export More of Its Culture?

Profile of China’s cultural trade

China’s modern cultural trade began with small scale in the mid-term of the 1980s. The real export of cultural products started in the mid-term of 1990s. The national export of cultural products and services occupied less than 1% of the total export merchandise at that time.

However， the cultural export trade in China has been increasing rapidly over recent years. China Media Capital is holding the share of the four largest businesses of Star TV， which was originally wholly owned by the News Corporation subordinated to Murdoch， an international media giant. It is engaged in exporting a variety of shows which represent modern Chinese culture like China Talent to other countries. The private enterprise named Beauty Media Inc. has purchased International Audio-Visual Communication， Inc. of the U.S. Also， China Heaven Creation International Performing Arts Co.， Ltd.， subordinated to China National Travel Service (HK) Group Corporation， has purchased the White House Theater in Branson which is the third largest performing center of the U.S. Shenzhen Huaqiang Culture Technology Group Co.， Ltd.， one of the top 30 cultural enterprises in China in 2011， and has invested to construct a Theme Park in Iran. All of the above events encouraged other culture enterprises in China.

Challenges that China is facing

Small proportion and unreasonable structure

Nowadays， 50% of global cultural trade is concentrated in developed countries such as Japan， the U.S.， Germany and the U.K.， while China only contributes a very small proportion to the world cultural trade. The total value of two main cultural products import and export is US$ 436，987，500. In the same period， the one of commodity is US$ 1422.12 billion. That is to say， the total value of cultural products import and export trade only accounted for 0.031% of the commodities.

The cultural trade structure refers to the proportion of the cultural product and services export out of the whole export trade in volume. From 2000 to 2009， the cultural products export in China was always accounting for around 99.7% of the whole export volume. Most of those were traditional products. New media publications only occupied a small proportion. The traditional cultural publications refer to books， textbooks， newspapers， periodicals. New media publications mainly include phonograms， audio and video products and electronic publications. Compared to the traditional ones， the proportion of the new media publication is almost negligible.

Large trade deficit

The cultural trade in China is mainly the cultural products trade. However， the core cultural products trade in China is in deficit status in the most situations. Except for recording tapes which are totally exported and digital laser discs， the other kinds of cultural product almost rely on the import. Even worse， there are only software and TV programs import trade in the copyright without any exports. The import volumes of periodicals copyright are 374.5 times of the export ones.

Cultural Discount

Cultural discount is the phenomenon that the cultural factors incorporated in cultural products. Chinese cultural product has suffered “cultural discount” in the international market. For example， Chinese TV plays and movies cannot be accepted or understood by audiences from other countries. The value of products is hereby reduced. It leads to the poor position of cultural trade in the global market.

Since there are too many contents related to ideological form and nationality in Chinese cultural products， especially in the movies and television products， the foreign audiences cannot understand and accept the value， the belief， the history， the social system and the behavioral modes included in those products. It has significantly decreased the attractive of the works.

Weak international competiveness

China still lacks famous cultural enterprises with international influence. The cultural enterprises are small in scale and slow in development. Lack of international marketing experiences and competitiveness for cultural trade are the main causes of cultural trade deficit in China. The reason why the U.S. has great competitiveness in cultural trade is that it has famous international enterprises such as Disney， New Media Corporation and Time Warner. They utilize the information， production and sales network around the world to allocate the global cultural resources and then sell the cultural products globally. As a result， the U.S. became the main body of the global cultural trade.

According to the theory of “Smile Curve”， the phases of promoting the brand of knowledge creation and cultural product and developing byproducts have comparatively higher additional values in the cultural trade. The cultural products exports in China are mainly hardware including games， cultural， educational， entertainment and physical education equipments， apparatus and etc. The software trade content of cultural service is empty and lacks creativity， so the additional values are comparatively lower.

How to improve·

More “going global”

The cultural enterprises in China should not only “bring in”， but also“going global”. With “going global”， the enterprises should attach importance to Chinese traditional culture， and meanwhile develop new culture. We should establish our own development channel abroad， and found “China Cultural City” overseas. Peacock Gallery， a private-owned enterprise in Shunde， Guangzhou Province， is a model enterprise which has adopted the concept of “bring in， going global”. It was recommended as “the one of the most Important Enterprise for National Culture Export” and rewarded the Prize of “Excellent Enterprise”by the Ministry of Culture for several consecutive years.

More Cultural Tariff-Free Zones

The existing traditional markets， such as movie festivals， art festivals， exhibitions and auctions， can no longer satisfy the need of cultural trade competitiveness among countries. A new round of competitiveness in forms of bonded zone and tariff-free zone came up.

According to the investigations， certain scales of tariff-free zones have been established in Switzerland， London， New York and Singapore. France is also planning to set up a tariff-free zone.

Shanghai Waigaoqiao National Foreign Cultural Trade Base was planned to be opened by the Ministry of Culture and Shanghai Municipal Government mutually in November of last year. On March 11， 2012， the foundation ceremony of Beijing Tianzhu Comprehensive Tariff Zone is formally held.

More Chinese origins

Over the 5000 years of history of development Chinese people have created brilliant national culture and made great contributions to the world civilization. The cultural products in China should be effective carriers to spread the national culture and promote the national spirits. We should use the service trade of cultural products to promote the national culture image. Many popular movies produced in the U.S.， such as Kung Fu Panda I II and Mulan， all covered the Chinese cultural resources. Therefore， we should explore more about the pith of Chinese culture， and then create our own cultural brand， as well as enhance the protection of intellectual property at the same time.

The influence of Chinese culture on the world is expanding， and the number of Confucius institute established in foreign countries is increasing. The study of China is growing vigorously. Chinese culture taking Chinese Kungfu， Chinese subjects and Chinese factors are gradually formed all over the world. The international image of China is gradually recognized and appreciated by global people. All these are the necessary conditions for establishing full culture confidence. However， these are not the only conditions， we should also transfer these advanced cultural ideas and cultural resources into more practical cultural forces in various fields.

(Author: from Economy College， Shenyang University)