As one of 21st century’s most promising industries, cultural and creative industry has been playing a key role in leading creativity-driven development and economic transformative upgrades. For higher education institutes, cultural and creative industry is a cross-disciplinary subject of study that “covers everything.” It not only integrates multiple disciplines in management, marketing, art, technology and humanities, but also focuses its attention on fusing education and industries. As a “rising star” in the new liberal arts disciplines, it is increasing receiving more and more attention and enthusiasm in the university setting.
From November 20th to 22nd, the 3rd International Conference on Global Cultural and Creative Industries – Technology, Art and Emerging Cultural and Creative Industries (“Conference” hereinafter) was hosted by USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative industry of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (ICCI) in Shanghai. Over 100 distinguished guests in cultural and creative education and industries were invited by the conference and exchanged meaningful conversations both online and offline. The conference focused on leading trends and cutting-edge developments in the cultural and creative industries and attempted to explore the potential of cultural and creative industry education under the “new liberal arts” framework established by the Ministry of Education. Zhenbin YANG, Party Secretary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University delivered the opening remark through video. Professor Ke XUE, Vice-Dean of ICCI hosted the opening ceremony.
(Zhenbin YANG, Chairperson of the University Council of Shanghai Jiao Tong University delivered the opening remark through video.)
(Professor Ke XUE, Vice-Dean of ICCI hosted the opening ceremony.)
Untangling the Leading Trends in Cultural and Creative Industry with Global and Diverse Perspectives
What is the development trend in future media industry? What kind of influence did the Covid-19 epidemic have on the cultural and creative industry? In the keynote forum, guests from China and abroad delivered in-depth speeches on the developmental trends of the cultural and creative industry in China and abroad.
In his speech, Guomin YU, Professor, Beijing Normal University and Ministry of Education’s Changjiang Distinguished Professor analyzed the developmental trends and reactions in future media studies. He proposed three key procedures in breaking boundaries and perfecting “top-level design,” which are to make sure there is in-depth media integration instead of simple integration of media resources and to make sure the mainstream route for function upgrade; to transform future media from enclosed development to open development; to transform the role of professional media and media industry worker’s industry value and function from consumer-facing to business-facing.
(Guomin YU, Professor, Beijing Normal University and Ministry of Education’s Changjiang Distinguished Professor)
Terry Flew, Professor, The Queensland University of Technology, opinion leader in international media and communication and former President of ICA analyzed the discipline building process of new-era cultural and creative industry. He used the United Kingdom and Australia as example to introduce current discipline building situation in global cultural and creative industry at global higher education institutions. He pointed out that the number of majors in the area is increasing rapidly. In the post-Covid era, he thought that discipline building in cultural and creative industry still faces challenges such as in-depth integration of industry and education, unification of education quality standard and new discipline building.
(Terry Flew, former President of ICA.)
Professor Ang Peng Hwa, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, former President of ICA discussed the global economic system under the Covid-19 epidemic and how public mental health, as well as social function have been changed. He analyzed how art galleries, libraries, archive houses and museums in various areas of cultural and creative industries responded to the epidemic in a timely manner and explored how art and culture shall represent core values of the society.
(Professor Ang Peng Hwa, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, former President of ICA)
As our guest from the industry, Linjing ZHANG, researcher at the public policy research institute of Bilibili analyzed how the young generation of Internet users use Bilibili. As a cultural community where young people gather, Bilibili’s users have high adhesiveness and loyalty because of its tolerant, realist and intimate community setting. Users on Bilibili has high content producing ability. Based on their areas of interest, Bilibili has deployed in various further areas such as gaming, live streaming and electronic sports. At the same time, he thought that Internet innovation under the background of the epidemic shall revolve around videos.
(Linjing ZHANG, researcher at the public policy research institute of Bilibili.)
Shantanu Dutta is a Lecturer at the Marshall Business School of the University of Southern California. His talk focused on cultural and creative industry education and explored the future of cultural and creative industry education. Using the success of Shanghai Jiaotong University ICCI as an example, Shantanu Dutta explored the unique advantage of a dual degree program in cultural and creative industry and proposed that it is important to integrate educational resources with the core being cultural creativities and industry management so that the students can meet the needs of the market and industry. Dutta further extrapolated the training path toward an integrated talent in cultural and creative industry with creative spirit and innovative thoughts.
(Shantanu Dutta, chair professor at USC Marshall Business School.)
David Craig, Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, seasoned Hollywood producer and TV executive producer as well as executive publisher and theater producer defined and discussed the phenomenon of “internet celebrities” as a new social media creative industry. David Craig pointed out that the internet celebrity and social media influencer industry is a new media industry where social media users create value using the platform of social media. He introduced a few recently published pieces of academic writing on social media and internet celebrity economics and proposed an analytic model that consists of five dimensions: policy, platform, economics, culture and creator. He further looked forward to the enormous prospect of social media creativity industry.
(David Craig, Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, seasoned Hollywood producer and TV executive producer as well as executive publisher and theater producer.)
Junjie TENG, National First Class Director and Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Literary Federation introduced technological innovation under global perspectives in his keynote speech titled “Audio-Visual Reconstruction in the Post-industrial Age.” He used the example of his own work, the first ever feature 3D Panoramic sound Peking Opera movie “Farewell to my Concubines” and 8k panoramic sound feature “The Dawns Here are Quiet.” Both had received Lumiere Prize and are successful practices that combined technological innovation in film production and eastern aesthetics. At the same time, he brought up the concept of “the future is already here, content is the soul; the future is already here, technology is the priority.” In the 5G+ era of extremely high computational speed, super-HD 8k technology will become a key development goal through the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It is a billion-dollar industry prospect and the opportunity must be seized. China has not contributed much to the world in the area of film technology, but our 3D panorama sound and 8K feature films received high acknowledgement and praise from international platforms and organizations. We have realized a “direct overtaking”! So far, China needs to keep on going in the 8k short film area. We are already leading in the 8k feature film field, but we need to develop our knowledge and improve quality strategically. We shall work fast and steadily, racing to contribute to Smart Shanghai and our country.
(Junjie TENG, Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Literary Federation delivers speech)
Overcome the key obstacle, make the “New Liberal Arts” discipline shine creatively.
Recently, the Ministry of Education released a Declaration on the Construction of New Liberal Arts, made full deployment of discipline construction in new liberal arts and established the importance of increasing “soft power” for the nation. Facing enormous change, how do we take an advantageous and leading position in national competitions, how do we train new talents with international perspective and global competitiveness, how do we realize the China Renaissance? These are responsibilities shouldered by new liberal arts construction and they are the origin of force and key obstacle in training liberal arts talent. At the Dean’s Forum, deans from dozens of higher education institutions such as Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, Zhejiang University among others shared their training model for cultural and creative industry talent, discipline building in creative industry-related fields, international exchanges and collaborations etc.
(Dean’s Forum)
At the same time, in order to overcome the key obstacle of traditional liberal arts education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University announced an International Cultural and Creative Industry Research Association, aiming at integrating cultural and creative industry, promoting international collaborations in creative industries, pushing forward innovations in business models, as well as accelerating the role academics and industry supplementing each other. The forum attempts to solve the balance and conflict in theory and practice and assist in educating future creative industry talent.
Weimin ZHANG, Dean of ICCI briefly introduced the concept, structure and specialized funding for the International Cultural and Creative Industry Research Association. The Association will focus on establishing an international academic exchange platform for cultural and creative industries and call for academic results and creative ideas from all over the world through hosting international conferences, specialized research funds, academic journals and various other forms.
(Weimin ZHANG, Dean of ICCI introduces the International Cultural and Creative Industry Research Association.)
Weimin ZHANG indicated that from 2021 on, the Association will seek industry partners in the cultural and creative industry and call for specialized research funding for global academics, as well as providing funding and resources to excellent creative industry projects. It’s going to help excellent creative industry projects to “debut as center.” The annual theme of the conference will include four aspects: media study in the We-media age, user research in the Internet age, digital technology and creative industry energization, smart technology and artistic innovation etc.
The industry + education project incubation will not only provide opportunities for education exchanges but also provide industry resources and funding for research teams, as well as providing academic think tank service to institutions and corporations. We aim at breaking the boundary between industry and education, enriching talent development and practice, and continuously contributing wisdom, creativity and resources to the cultural and creative industry. The full “industry and education connection” shall be realized in future cultural and creative industry education, and practical creative industry talent with international perspective will be cultivated here.
(Ke XUE, Vice-Dean of ICCI hosted the Editors’ Forum)
The conference also included an Editors’ Forum and invited many editors-in-chief to share their experience with call-for-papers. In the sub-forums in the afternoon, guests also shared their views on digital content productions, user and community, tradition-keeping and innovation of Chinese culture, creative city and city creativity, live streaming and short video etc.