The WTO entry, on the one hand, brings to the fore the weak points in the development of China's cultural industry. For example, management and market orientation of cultural enterprises lag far behind those in advanced countries. There is inadequate private sector subsidization of the arts and little consumer support of local arts; there is instead a clear bias in favor of performances and audiovisual works that feature foreign stars. Challenges facing China's culture industry include that the cultural economy is too small in scale, and local artists lack protection of the rights to their own works. 

On the other hand, the WTO entry creates opportunities for China's culture industry because its challenges may also serve to stimulate the cultural development. Therefore, we'd take the initiative to regard challenges as hard-won opportunities and compulsively push forward the culture industry rather than passively get gnawed by foreign cultures in the lopsided market competition.

-- Increasing Input to, and Improving Competitiveness of, China's Culture Industry

Compared with developed countries, China has a weak culture industry mainly due to insufficient input. Statistics show that China's real gross cultural consumption in 1999 stood at RMB80 billion while the potential consumption ability exceeded RMB300 billion. And, the country's potential consumption ability is expected to rich as high as RMB550 billion. But how about the input is in the industry? In 1999, the total spending on cultural institutions only took 0.067% of GDP, up 0.02 percentage points compared with the figure in 1978. Thus, the input in the whole culture industry is imaginable. With such meagre input how can China's culture industry compete with those in western developed countries? The only way to resist encroachment from foreign culture industries in terms of profits and spirit is to increase input in the domestic industry.

Besides, the government should further relax the policies and pipe various social and private funds to the culture industry. But involvement degree of these funds depends on whether the government can produce favorable policies according to special characteristics of the industry.

-- Formulating  Laws and Regulations on the Culture Industry

The Chinese government welcomes foreign capital to enter the cultural market and to set up cultural enterprises in principle but the culture industry will feel big pinch because it embodies the country's different ideology. Only with forceful laws and policies in line with international practices can China strengthen the dominant position of the culture industry. Some policies and regulations that limit foreign share equity in China's cultural enterprises no more than 49% have come out. In view of special characteristics of cultural products, the government should formulate explicit laws and regulations to regulate cultural information, orientation, distribution channels and forms. Only with accompanying economic management can these laws and regulations guarantee the dominant position of China's national culture industry.

-- Bringing into Play Resources Advantage and Consolidating Absorbency and Expandability of the Industry

In face of economic globalization, China long insists to maintain its own culture's value judgment and basic traditions and embrace excellent cultures of different nations. All this should be carried out based on keeping the dominant position of China's own national culture. However, we should depend on and give full play to China's long-history cultural tradition and rich regional cultural resources to keep the national culture' dominant position.

Due to the complexity of China's domestic cultural resources with a long history and regional diversification, China's cultural market will take on different value pursuits, which might serve as either an obstacle or an impetus. This requires us to make thorough studies and summarize the cultural heritage so as to get its essences and develop a cultural value system compatible with the world's one, which, just like a healthy stomach, will not only absorb various useful nutrients but also withstand harmful bugs.

-- Encouraging Various Forms of Cultural Development

Western developed countries such as the United States try to culturally penetrate and expand into other countries with their rich, all-pervasive and multi-faceted cultural products. No matter it is ideological culture like literature and arts, popular culture like movies and audio-videos or commercial culture like costume and catering service, these cultures are appealing to Chinese consumers for their trendy designs, popular styles and colorful contents. By contrast, Chinese cultural products seem humdrum, unrefined and stiff. In order to change this situation, we should encourage various forms of cultural development and breathe vigor and immunity into cultural enterprises. We certainly have literature, arts and entertainment cultures full of lofty spiritual connotations, character and morals, but they are not as rich in technological contents as international cultures in vogue.

In order to win over consumers in competition with foreign products, China's culture industry should increase its vigor and provide more and better cultural consumer goods geared to the market on the basis of sticking to the basic socialist cultural value judgment and China's national culture.

-- Changing Government Role

Government support and macro control are the basic guarantee for the development of any kind of culture industry and in fact, no industries can develop without government support. After China joins the WTO, it should run its culture industry under the WTO rules and international practice. Under such circumstances, the government's major role is to serve the development of the culture industry and improve service quality and efficiency.

The change of government roles takes the transformation of conception as its base. Administrative departments at all levels in the cultural domain should represent the orientation of excellent cultures and aim at furthest satisfying the mass cultural life under the guidance of "Three Represents" put forth by Comrade Jiang Zemin. They should also optimize the culture industrial structure, bring into play the positive functions of market mechanism and guide law-abiding operation and fair competition of cultural enterprises.

(Source: China Culture Newspaper; Author: Liu Kuanren)