 |
Cultural Industries Eager to Find Profits
The Sixth China Art Festival, which just ended Friday, has taught Chinese that organizing cultural events can be as profitable as running the Olympics.
The huge population in China provides great potential economic returns for cultural industries.
However, frigid administrative mechanism in the field in past decades bundled the creativity of performers as well as their sales agents.
When the State enters the World Trade Organization (WTO), its cultural industries will try to get rid of their outdated philosophy that the government should cover all their expenses and perks.
Nowadays, nationwide art groups are ordered to make their own ends meet.
"The fledgling cultural industries must be further cultivated by the whole nation," said Fang Tongde, performance coordinator of the art festival's organizing committee. "People who are used to getting free tickets would not buy them themselves."
The 105 outstanding performances during the art festival, which runs between September 28 and October 13, not only provides audiences with enjoyable entertainment, but also economic benefits to organizers.
The organizers collected about 60 million yuan (7.23 million U.S. dollars) for the art gala, which was used to renovate theaters in Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Yangzhou, all in east Jiangsu Province.
While participating in competition during the festival, 62 nationwide groups must earn at least 5 million yuan from the box office.
"The well-received stage art and successful sales strategy this time made 5 million worth of income easy to reach," Fang said. Meanwhile, the art groups almost changed the national festival into a performing trade fair.
Wuxi Song and Dance Ensemble signed more than 80 contracts for its award winning pantomime "A Bing" whose music is very popular in the country, especially in east coastal China.
The song and dance performance "Ode to Jasmine," which was staged at the opening ceremony of the art festival, obtained net profits worth 2 million yuan with their 18 performances.
With its anti-embezzlement drama "Fighting Against Corrupt Imperial Member," Beijing Opera Theater of Guizhou toured economically developed Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
"We have never estimated that traditional Beijing Opera would bring us money," playwright Zhao Fanqi said.
On the contrary, some groups care little about the market and needs of the audience. They rehearse only to take part in contests. Unprofitable investments always puts them in the red.
"The only way out is to recast gold medals to famous brands," said Wang Ping, director of Shenyang Song and Dance Ensemble who successfully promoted award-winning dance performances worldwide.
Nearly 1 million people viewed the dance with features of northeast China, which has earned 3 million yuan.
Ministry of Culture released 2,600 art groups that had brought in revenues worth nearly 500 million yuan last year.
The ministry also ambitiously schemed to construct large-sized cultural companies, even multinationals, in the coming five years.
Statistics show that the added value of the cultural industries only account for 0.26 percent of gross domestic product, greatly lagging behind many developing countries.
The yearly consumption of cultural products among the Chinese people reached 65 billion yuan. Estimation indicates the sum of money might arrive at 550 billion yuan in 2005.
In This Section
|