Asia

Creative industries in China provides a fresh account of China’s emerging commercial cultural sector.

Recognising that creativity is a major driving force in the post-industrial economy, the Chinese government has recently established a range of "creative clusters" – industrial parks devoted to media industries, and arts districts – in order to promote the development of the creative industries. This book examines these new creative clusters, outlining their nature and purpose, and assessing their effectiveness.

‘Digital economy policy for the creative industries is framed too commonly in terms of refining and strengthening intellectual property rights. As digitalization grows in scope and importance, Lucy Montgomery’s intriguing book shows how the limitations of this narrow approach have become all too apparent, as China’s creative industries are thriving in an ever increasing digital global society because (and not despite) of the fact that their businesses, innovations, skills and markets have grown up with weak copyright enforcement regimes.’

Among the many contentious matters thrown up by the relentless march of economic globalization, those forms of knowledge variously known as 'indigenous' or 'traditional' remain seriously threatened, despite numerous transnational initiatives and highly publicized debate. It is not proving easy to bring these holistic worldviews into accordance with the technical terms and classifications of intellectual property law.