In recent years, with the popularity of various cultural and creative products, the cultural and creative industry has gradually attracted the attention of the public and become one of the eight key industries in Shanghai. The cultural and creative industry is driving Shanghai's national economic development, leading and supporting the new round of industrial development and transformation of Shanghai. The Shanghai municipal government has issued the "50 Promotional Guidelines on Cultural and Creative Industries", indicating that Shanghai will continuously increase investment and efforts in cultural and creative education sector, such as cultural creativity, film and television arts to cultivate more qualified industrial talents.
One of the highlights of the Second Yangtze River Delta Expo was the cultural and creative higher education exhibition organized by USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. There were about over 20 higher education institutions participating in the expo including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, Donghua University, Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Music Institute, Shanghai New York University, University of Southern California, University of Florida, King's College London, Goldsmiths, University of London and others. With the theme of "Empower Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai with Education”, the cultural and creative higher education exhibition highlighted achievements of cultural and creativity education of colleges and universities at home and abroad.
Weimin ZHANG, chief curator of the cultural and creative education exhibition and dean of USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that the creativity of a city is in close accordance with the development of talents, and the prosperity and development of an industry is related with the cultivation of professional. Different from the traditional disciplines, cultural and creative discipline is fundamentally related with the development of industry, and thus it need the support of cultural and creative industries and an internationalized interdisciplinary and integrated education system. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, responding actively to this once-in-a-lifetime historical opportunity, and based on the development trend of cultural and creative industry, strives to attract outstanding talents from all over the world and to cultivate academic elites and industry leaders. It is believed that higher cultural and creative education will play an important role in the cultivation of industrial talents, the development of CCIs and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
Highlight One: Cultural and Creative Education Classes Presented at the Cultural Expo
Can universities cultivate outstanding talents in cultural and creative industries? How to establish a cultural and creative education system combining the demands of the times and the local features? Many universities around the world have been trying to tackle this issue regarding the development of cultural and creative industry.
In this cultural exhibition, all participating higher education institutions presented their works in the cultural and creative fields, offering the visitors chances to experience various arts, designs, music and films. Shanghai Jiao Tong University AI - ART team produces and trains the GAN model (generated against model), and after 14 months of AI-learning, the model can imitate and draw more than one hundred artworks with various styles by famous painter. The model can also be applied to perform specified paintings. Shanghai Conservatory of Music has conducted a series of electronic music works on site. Through real-time computer processing and performance of live Musical Instruments, live music is injected with musical changes and dramatic tension. The Shanghai Academy of Drama presented opera performance and puppet show named "Play with Buddha Beads", allowing the audience to experience the traditional drama and puppet show.
All participating higher education institutions combined teaching philosophy with practice, integrated creativity with value, promoted humanity with market demands, greatly contributing to the expo. In addition, all participating higher education institutions set up cultural and creative experience classes, workshops, and culture and science and technology laboratories to show the innovative teaching materials and creative courses created by schools in the long-term teaching and practice process, where the audience and visitors can experience the "authentic" cultural and creative education of Shanghai.
These experiential classes boasted their own charms. Bin ZHOU, a professor at USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, introduced his experience of promoting the art of calligraphy in the United States and Europe. Professor Bin ZHOU is the calligraphy teacher of former UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon. He showed the charm of traditional calligraphy to the audience through his detailed explanation. Donghua University presented a mini leather making workshop where audience could access to the specific process of leather cutting and leather goods production and to create creative products with personal style and characteristics. Juan OLIVARES, a visiting scholar of Spanish art who is a resident of USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry OF Shanghai Jiao Tong University presented a contemporary painting workshop, where he introduced various forms, artistic styles and creative methods of painting, and offered the audience to experience contemporary art creation.
These classes highlighted the accomplishments of cultural and creative education in higher education, offering the audience chances to experience the concepts and forms of contemporary cultural and creative education. These classes received warm welcome among the audience.
Highlight Two: Academy -Industry Integration- A New Model of Education
In this exhibition, another highlight was the live streaming of Academy -Industry Integration talk where university scholars, industrial partners, professionals are invited to exchange views on the development of cultural and creative industry. Some of the speakers also shared their experiences of launching a new business.
Cultural and creative education is related with multiple industries, and also a discipline emphasizing research and practice. The live streaming of Academy-Industry Integration talk not only provided a platform for college students to talk with scholars and industry leaders, but also provided new solutions to the embedded problems with the cultural and creative education such as "paper talk".
In recent years, Academy-Industry Integration has become a solution for the deep cooperation between cultural and creative education and industry in colleges and universities to improve the quality of cultural and creative talents. Universities and industries have cooperated with the industries, encouraging students to actively go out of the campus and to carry out research and practice in the real business world. In this mode, students can use the knowledge and skills learned in class to understand the development trend of the industry, so as to achieve more "targeted" learning. The industry can also learn the fresh critical perspective and creative vitality from young students, gaining inspirations to solve problems, and to achieve a win-win situation.
Adhering to the teaching idea of “Academy -Industry Integration ", colleges and universities have introduced relevant cultural and creative education courses， emphasizing practice and research. The School of Design of Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts encouraged students to actively carry out practical projects of ancient town cultural communication, including places like Anji, Zhejiang Province, Sijing, Fengjing and other cities, where students designed relevant cultural projects for rural revitalization. The course "Research on Cultural and Creative Industry" of USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University directly moved the cultural and creative industry class into the enterprise. Students can conduct field research and have a direct dialogue with the industry professionals, so as to have an in-depth understanding of the industry dynamics. This course helps to expand the horizons of students and improve their ability to solve problems.
The development of these courses not only solves the problem that college education is divorced from practice, but also provides more creative solutions and innovative models for the optimization and expansion of cultural and creative classes.
Highlight Three: Experts enlightens you on the future of Cultural and Creative Industry
The International Conference on Cooperation and Development of Global Cultural and Creative Industries was hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University during the same time of the second Yangtze River Delta Expo. The conference invited domestic and foreign cultural and creative industry academia, industry leaders to exchange vies on the integration of industry and education. More than 200 experts, scholars and industry participants attended the meeting.
On the afternoon of November 21, the “The International Conference on Cooperation and Development of Global Cultural and Creative Industries -- Integration of Industry and Academy and Opportunities In China" was launched successfully. Conference President Ernest J. Wilson III presided the meeting.
Ernest J. Wilson III first expressed his gratitude to the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and then shared the opportunities and challenges he encountered in promoting the integration of industry and education in universities where he was the Dean of the School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. He expressed great hope for the development of the integration of industry and education in universities in China in the future.
It was also worth mentioning that on November 23, four graduate panels were set up at the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University under the International Conference on Cooperation and Development of Global Cultural and Creative Industries where the well-known academic journal editor at home and abroad are invited to comment on the works of students. USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry aimed to build up a professional, international academic exchange platform for its students.
These international academic exchanges provided students with valuable opportunities to interact with internationally renowned experts and scholars, meanwhile contributing to the development of cultural and creative education and industry in the Yangtze River Delta.