Private arts troupes struggle in under-regulated market

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Private arts troupes struggle in under-regulated market

By Wang Wen and Nick Yates (Xinhua) 18:38, October 17, 2013

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Just over 10 years since major Chinese reform gave private enterprises greater play in the arts industry, such companies are struggling to survive in a sector that they say is under-regulated and dominated by state-run troupes.

As the ongoing 10th China Arts Festival focuses attention on this field, private troupes are reporting that despite the industry's boom, lack of oversight is allowing unscrupulous operators to stage cheap, shoddy productions. These both make greater profits than quality shows and drive disappointed audiences away from the arts.

Undercut by their copycats, upmarket private arts enterprises are meanwhile finding it hard to compete against better-funded state-run groups.

"Performance management companies usually survive for no more than three years. That's even shorter for private troupes," says Li Xiaojie, general manager of Shenzhen-based Oriental Charm Culture-Transmitting Co., Ltd..

Li and her husband have run their private performance management firm for 10 years, a period in which its registered capital has been raised from 500,000 yuan (82,000 U.S. dollars) to 10 million yuan.

The company's development reflects China's decade-long cultural sector reform that began in 2002. At the 16th Communist Party of China National Congress in November 2002, non-profit cultural undertakings and the commercial cultural industry were separated.

The government initiated a reform of printing houses, film studios, newspapers, radio and TV stations as well as arts troupes, bringing those formerly government-affiliated agencies to the market.

The cultural industry has since become a new growth point for the country's economic development. In 2012, the industry's total output value exceeded 4 trillion yuan, with exports of cultural products amounting to 21.73 billion U.S. dollars.