There is a problem with ‘incomplete and incorrect statistics due to various standards and categories’ and a need to ‘establish the statistic index for cultural industries to standardize statistics’ (prof. Fan Zhou, Communication University China). The different Chinese cities all have different statistical definition of the sector. For example, Beijing includes tourism, Shanghai includes consultancy (Prof. Zhang Jing Cheng, in the China Cultural Creative Industries Reports)
There are two aspects to this problem:
Conceptual/definition
The big conceptual issue is cultural as opposed to creative or cultural creative. We can put the larger conceptual issues to one side – but we have to know what is included in under each heading.
Beijing Creative/Cultural Industries covers: advertising, publishing and IP service, cultural recreation and entertainment, TV and radio broadcasting, film, industrial design, computer and software, internet and mobile service, online-gaming and cultural products (The Publicity Department of Beijing Municipal Government 2006)
Shanghai defines creative industries as: Research and Development; Architecture and Design; Media Communication; Design Consultancy; Fashion Consumption
Statistical
Once identified how are these industries identified in occupation/industry statistics. That is, I might be a new media creative but do these categories exist? This has been a big problem in Europe and Australia where occupations in the creative industries are often separated and spread across the whole statistical spectrum. UNESCO is currently working on new occupational and industrial categories, which will make this easier. How does this work in China? Two key questions will be:
- Can we get a standard statistical definition of the creative and cultural industries?
- Can we get a standard definition for cities so that we can compare these on the same basis?
If there is an interest in exploring these questions then we might also look at the role of :
- CCI’s trident methodologies
- mapping occupation and industry spatially. See also: Cluster Mapping.
References:
Xinhuanet, B. 2007. China Creative Industries Report Out, Beijing and Shanghai Rank First. access here
