2017 International Conference on Collaboration and Competition in the Culture and Creative Industries from June 5 to 7, 2017 was held successfully in the Qian Xueseng Library of SJTU and Zizhu International Education Park, the teaching & research centre of USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI). Scholars and industry practitioners from a wide variety of cultural and creative industries participated in the event, sharing and exploring new ways of researching, teaching, and working in the creative and cultural industries.

The conference was co-organized and chaired by Associate Professor Kiki Tianqi Yu and Anthony McKenna of ICCI. Under the theme of “Collaboration and Competition”, the conference collected over 30 articles from home and abroad and grouped them into nine topics as following: 1) Competition and Collaboration in the Chinese Film Industries; 2) Promotion and Circulation of Cultural Products; 3) Packaging the Past for Contemporary Audiences; 4) Documentary Practice in China: International Co-production and New Forms; 5) Micro Filmmaking & Crowd funding in the Digital Age; 6) Contemporary Art: Market, Cultural Economy and Regeneration; 7) Advertising and Creativity in China: History, Present and Future; 8) Creative Professionals; 9) Regional and Transnational Production.

In the conference’s opening speech, ICCI Executive Dean Weimin Zhang extended a warm welcome to all the distinguished guests and scholars present. Dean Zhang mentioned that cultural and creative industry has a growing importance to the development of global economy. Further competition and collaboration is expected to be heated in the global context. And Shanghai as China’s economic centre and a bridge connecting the east and the west, will play a crucial role in the communication of research and development in this field, as well as providing a beneficial environment to nourish talents and stimulate innovation.

The first keynote speech is Media Production Studies: Contributions and Prospects, made by Andrew Spicer from University of West England, Bristol, which revolves around media production studies, including discussions on the reason of its emergence, the needs it attempts to satisfy, the vigor it shows, research method and its industry structure, etc. Following that, CHEN Fangyu from Hong Kong Baptist University, Tan See Kam from University of Macao, Thomas Barker from University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus made speeches respectively in the panel of Competition and Collaboration in the Chinese Film Industries. Meanwhile, Gry Hongsmark Knudsen from University of Southern Denmark, Chris Baumann from Stockholm University, Anthony McKenna from SJTU, and Alessandro Meleiro from Universidade Federal de São Carlos shared their researches in the parallel session themed Promotion and Circulation of Cultural Products. After sessions, the conference screened China’s Van Goghs, the winner of Best Documentary (international co-production) Beijing International Festival and winner of TRT Documentary Award- International Category, which was directed by ICCI Associate Professor Kiki Tianqi Yu.

On the second day of the conference, Prof. Chris Berry of King’s College London, made a keynote speech on Taiwan’s Forgotten Film Industry, which reviewed the history of over 1,000 Minnanhua-dialect films during 1950s-1970s and explored the impact of different ideologies on film-making, integrating the sub-theme of the conference “Futures and Pasts”. Afterwards, Fan WU from University of Leeds, Gina Marchetti from University of Hong Kong, and Yang Zi from Institute of Arts Research, Shanghai held discussion in the Panel-Packaging the Past for Contemporary Audiences. ChunNing GUO from Renmin University of China, Independent animation director Baishen YAN, Shan TONG from City University of Hong Kong, Kiki Tianqi YU from SJTU shared their research in the panel- Documentary Practice in China: International Co-production and New Forms.

In the afternoon, Jenney Remero from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave the keynote speech on Collaboration and Competition: Tales from the Archive. She shared precious historical documents and materials of filmmaking and offered a new perspective of approaching and studying motion pictures. After the keynote, two parallel panels were held: Micro Filmmaking & Crowd Funding in the Digital Age, held by Andrew White and Filippo Gilardi from University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China, Akriti Rastogi from Jawaharlal Nehru University;    Contemporary Art: Market, Cultural Economy and Regeneration, held by Pedith CHAN from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hui ZHANG from Institute of Anthropology, East China Normal University and Shuyun CAO from PwC Shanghai. The panels were followed by a round table discussion which was attended by Chris Berry, Jenny Romero, Andrew Spicer, Brian Winston, Titus Levi, Shi Hantao, Zheng Yi as well as students of ICCI.

On the morning of June 7, Prof. Brian Winston from University of Lincoln delivered a speech titled The Information Revolution and Other Myths as the keynote speaker. He compared the Technological Determinism and Social Shaping Theory when exploring the nature of technological cahnge, and emphasized the significance of social needs in facilitating technological development. Giovanna Puppin and Wendy Wang from University of Leicester, Julie Bilby from RMIT Melbourne, and Cui Liping& Ni Jinhui from SISU made speeches each on the panel Advertising and Creativity in China: History, Present and Future later. In the afternoon, the final two panel discussions were held by Leora Hadas from University of Nottingham, Sunghan Ryu from City University of Hong Kong, and Tim Heath from Royal Holloway, University of London on Creative Professionals, and Jinuo Diao from University of St. Andrews, Hsiao-Ling Chung from National Cheng Kung University, Hsiao-Wen Lee from University of Southampton, and Xiang Ren from Western Sydney University on Regional and Transnational Production.

In the closing remarks made by Associate Professor Kiki Tianqi Yu and Anthony McKenna, they thanked all the scholars and experts present in the conference and announced the successful closing of the conference.

Brian Winston and Andrew Spicer highly praised the three-day conference. They were impressed by the thoughtful organization, the variety of topics discussed and close connection of the research to industrial practices, which provoked many new thoughts.

Hsiao-Ling Chung experienced the transformation from an industrial practitioner to a scholar. She said that the most impressive thing of the conference for her is the in-depth discussion on how to improve the ideological content of cultural and creative industries and how to strive for a balance between the cultural content and its industrialization.