According to figures provided by the Institute for Cultural Industries of Peking University, the economic performance (turnover) of the Chinese cultural industries has reached a record high of 487 billion euros (four trillion Yuan) in 2012. Cultural industries turnovers rose by 2.6% compared to the previous year 2011 (475 billion euros). This was revealed by the Annual Development Report of Chinese Cultural Industries, which was presented at the 10. Forum on International Cultural Industries, China on 5 January 2013.
Compared to the German culture and creative industries, which achieved a turnover of about 143 billion euros in 2011, the economic performance of the Chinese cultural industries would be more than three times higher. Even if the Chinese definition of culture industries (which is much wider and includes, among others, tourism and educational industries with a share of 63 per cent), were reduced to a comparable core of the German culture and creative industries, the Chinese culture industries would still achieve 176 billion euros in 2011, which is significantly higher that the German figure. This comparison is also confirmed by data provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers. According to these, the German entertainment and media market achieved a turnover of 99 billion USD in 2011, while the Chinese corresponding figure surpassed it by 10 billion USD and amounted to 109 billion USD.
Our conclusion: if these figures are reliable, we have to acknowledge that the Chinese cultural industries change much faster than we assumed in 2010. Back then we assumed that the Chinese cultural industries would reach the level of the German culture and creative industries only in 2015/16.
The question is: did we underestimate the pace of growth in China, or do we overestimate our own culture and creative industries?
The Office for Culture Industries Research has started an exchange of information with the Institute for Cultural Industries of Peking University in order to develop a reliable foundation for the trends in culture and creative industries over the next years.
