"Thru the Moebius Strip", a 3-D animation film produced by Hong Kong and Shenzhen film makers, hit theaters on August 4. The studio spent five years and 16.25 million USD to finish the film and expect to earn over 10 million RMB (1.25 million USD) at the box office on the Chinese mainland.

Overseas distribution rights for the movie have been sold to more than 10 countries. Merchandising pro-ducts such as illustration al-bums, novels, clothes, access-ories and toys will go on sale later.

Shenzhen is copying the Disney film sales mode. This is only one of Guangdong cu-ltural sector's many attempts to develop a thriving cultural industry.

Another recent cultural in-dustry event was the second China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Expo in May where the Guangdong del-egation bagged 7 projects worth 4 billion RMB.

NEW PILLAR INDUSTRY

Cultural industries are playing a greater role in Guangdong's economy. In 2004, the culture sector contributed 6.6 per-cent of the province's GDP. It generated 120.5 billion RMB and employed 1.77 million people while in 2005, the industry's yielding went up to about 150 billion RMB or 7.3 percent of the pro-vince's GDP. At present, Guangdong's culture-related businesses include news media, publishing houses, copy right services, art troupes, entertainment, exhibitions, advertising, tourism, elec-tronic information services and cultural product manufacturing.

The Pearl River Delta's animation cartoon industry, which produces cartoon films, web games and games for mobile phones, became the lifeblood of the province's cultural industry. Guangzhou Web Game Animation Cartoon Base plans to attract some 500 cartoon and web games studios.
Many culture-related organizations and art-troupes were funded by the government before the reform of the cultural sector. Now, in order to make a stand in the market, they have under-gone a series of facelifts. The Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra merged with Xinghai Concert Hall and the Guang-zhou Ballet Troupe merged with University of Guangzhou.

LARGE CULTURE-RELATED PROJECTS

In recent years, Guangdong has la-unched a handful of large projects and activities related to the cultural sector, stimulating the development of its cultural industry.

The construction of a new Provincial Museum and Marine Silk Road Museum and the expansion of the Sun Yat-Sen Library (also known as the Zhongshan Library) are underway.

Large exhibitions and activities such as the China International Cultural Ind-ustry Expo in Shenzhen, the South China International Cultural Industry Forum in Zhuhai, National Golden Bell Award (Music), China International Documentary Film Festival and the China International Expo of Audio-Visual Industry in Guangzhou, all im-prove the popularity and influence of the province's cultural industry in both domestic and international markets.

PRIVATE FUND IN THE SECTOR

Private enterprises account for two thirds of the cultural industry. According to some statistics, Guangdong has 17,869 private cultural enterprises which produced an output of 100 billion RMB or about two thirds of the province's cultural sector last year. An increasing number of private enterprises are interested in launching culture-related businesses. Governments of several cities in the province have plans to build cultural industry parks and have the support of private enterprises.
Currently, most private investment goes towards printing enterprises and has an 80 percent of the market share in Guangdong. Meanwhile, private funds have been flowing into audio-visual program production, film production and book distribution. Private book-shops also occupy 50 percent of all book retail sales.

Guangdong planners are also working on developing the province's cultural industry for the coming five years, listing press, broadcasting, art performances, exhibitions, tourism, entertainment, exhibition, web services and software development as the key industries of the sector.  

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FAIR HELPS CHINA'S CULTURAL INDUSTRY GO GLOBAL

The four-day Second Annual China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Fair (ICIF) was held in May. The fair demonstrated the progress of China's culture industry in recent years and facilitated exchanges and investment activities between China and the world's cultural circles. More than 1,500 Chinese enterprises, 26 delegations from Australia, the Republic of Korea, Japan and a number of other countries, and some 21,000 participants from cultural circles, attended the expo. The trade volume totaled 10 billion RMB (1.25 billion USD).

On the fair, China opened up 921 cultural projects valued at 70 billion RMB (8.75 billion USD) hoping to draw investment from both home and abroad. The projects cover seven fields including publishing, movies and TV, entertainment, industrial arts and cultural tourism and involve 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. These are listed in a handbook for investing in the cultural sector, the first of its kind in China, which was issued by the Ministry of Culture.

Editor: Yan