Hello, welcome to visit Shanghai Forum
Administration-oriented moderestricts function and training of talents, and nowadays, what we lack inachieving cultural development and prosperity is talent.
Reporter: Liu Xiao
Reporter: Would you pleasetalk about the “several issues concerning China’s cultural system transformation”on which you gave a speech in the forum.
Jia Baolan: As to thissubject, the public may not be very familiar with it. First of all, the conceptof cultural industry itself is not very clear for most people. The concept ofcultural industry was raised in early 20thcentury in the bookDialecticsof Enlightenmentco-written by Horkheimer and Adorno, and the Englishexpression is Cultural Industry. However, as a specific cultural type andeconomic type, different countries hold different understandings of it. UNESCOdefines cultural industry as: cultural industry is a series of activitiesincluding production, reproduction, stock and distribution of cultural productsand service, which is same as other industries. Under such definition, culturalproducts include cartoon, movie and television, entertainment, game, tourism,education, website, information service, music, drama, art museum, etc.
In <Several Opinions onSupporting and Promoting Cultural Industry Development> carried out bycultural department, September, 2003, culture industry was defined as “businessengaged in cultural goods production and cultural service supply”. Culturementioned here refers to a broad concept, including three main types: the firstone is industry producing and selling cultural products, such as books,newspaper and magazines, movie and television, videos, etc. the second iscultural service industry, such as performance of drama and dancing, sports,entertainment, plan, management, etc. the third is industry that providescultural adds to other goods and industries, such as decoration, image design,cultural tourism, etc. In <Suggestion about Fifteenth Five-year Plan onNational Economy and Social Development> passed in CPC fifteenth fiveplenary meeting in October, 2000, cultural industry improvement policy was putforward, as well as strengthening of cultural market construction and management,and promotion of concerned cultural industry development. Here the concept of culturalindustry was first put forward, and cultural industry was brought into track ofmarket construction and management. Since then, cultural system transformationbecomes main content of next stage, and cultural institution has begun toundergo a process of transformation from national governance to enterprisemanagement. Such transformation actually started in 2003. Till now, ourcultural system transformation has almost finished, yet the transformation isbasically a government-led, from top to bottom transformation.
In <Resolution of Several ImportantIssues on Deepening Cultural System Reform and Promoting Socialism CultureDevelopment and Prosperity> drew up in seventeenth six plenary meeting lastyear, cultural development and prosperity was regarded as important content offuture five-year plan, and “accelerate development of cultural industry andpromote cultural industry as pillar industry of national economy” wasmentioned, also, a series of goals and directions were also put forward todevelop cultural industry. This resolution differs from that drew up infifteenth five plenary meeting in that development of cultural industry is putforward under the precondition that China has become the second largest economybody in the world, also the precondition that there is global financial crisisand China’s economy is seeking for a new development point while facing newbottleneck. In this resolution, there are detailed description of content andgoal of cultural industry, and it also makes it clear that cultural industryincludes culture art as well as related products and service, and cultureservice includes entertainment.
Reporter: How do youevaluate cultural institution transformation and current situation of culturalindustry? Is there anything worth thinking about for us?
Jia Baolan: It is a generaltrend that cultural institution transforms to cultural enterprises, and it isonly an issue of time. In industrial age, cultural industrialization is anecessary choice. Only, I think that if we fail to pay enough attention tocertain factors, they will become restraints to cultural industry development,such as:
First, institutional barriers:pluralistic management model. Though cultural institution has alreadytransformed to cultural enterprises, it is not actually managed according tolaws of market economy from thinking mode to management mode. What is typicalis administrative management, meaning that enterprises are led byadministrative clerks instead of experts, which is definitely in contrast toreal market, and will even restrict development of enterprises.
Secondly, it is lagging behind in laws andregulations. Let’s take publishing as an example, <Regulations onPublication Administration> carried out in Zhu Rongji time is revised thisyear, yet there is still certain gap between revised regulation and currentculture industrialization. For example, our opening to market is limited topublishing, while in fact, many “studios” have already cooperated withpublishing press, and some published works are very good.
Reporter: Are there any moreproblems about China’s systemic reform?
Jia Baolan: Another problemis lack of talents and talent training mechanism. Administration-oriented moderestricts function and training of talents, and nowadays, what we lack inachieving cultural development and prosperity are talents.
Additionally, current evaluationmechanisms put too much emphasis on quantity while paying less attention to intellectualproducts. Here I mean that pay for intellectual products is very low, andflippancy permeates the whole society. Therefore, many such products suffer lackof content, too much repetition and lack of original creativity. Such problemis obvious in publishing where “grind a sword for a decade” in the past becomesso rare nowadays.
Also, when cultural institution transformsto cultural enterprises, the stock right issue is not solved, at least not inlegally solved, which is also an instance of law regime lagging behind culturaltransformation. Therefore, when chatting with friends, I tell them that I amnot in favor of “privatization of national-owned enterprises”. I am not sayingthat it is wrong, but how we can privatize national-owned enterprises has notbeen solved yet. Cultural institution used to belong to the country, andtherefore, when it becomes a corporation limited, the country, group, andindividual should all have stock right and enjoy profit, otherwise publicenterprises will in the end be monopolized by a few people, which is to someextent a rob to the majority.
Reporter: What is China likeafter ten years in your imagination?
JiaBaolan: China is a nation enjoying long history and deep cultural tradition.Apart from this, it is also a nation enjoying great wisdom. As long as oursystem is reasonably designed, I believe that our country and people’s lifewill become better and better. I think that confidence is very important forus.
Introduction of Jia Baolan
Committee member of CPPCC, executive chief editor of Readingmagazine
