The emerging cultural economy in Chinese cities: early dynamics

Abstract

In recent years, Chinese national and municipal governments have emphasised growth of the urbancultural economy, aiming to achieve 15–20% economic output share in the largest metropolitan regionsby 2020. There is wide variation in policy and physical approaches to growing the urban culturaleconomy, explored in Beijing, Shanghai and Foshan. Differing physical models of cultural economicdevelopment are explored: formal arts facilities, cultural preservation based redevelopment, high-techcreative zones and bottom-up clusters. Key drivers are discussed and tensions are explored – betweenproduction and consumption spaces, top-down and bottom-up approaches and between authenticity andgentrification. The authors conclude the sector is becoming a major shaper of physical form, affirm the keyrole the private sector has played and assert that bottom-up districts, driven by the producers themselves,have been among the most successful. Spatial dynamism is emphasised, particularly the emergence ofnew cultural production spaces on the urban periphery, and the evolution in the urban core of formerproduction spaces into new cultural consumption environments.