I was invited to Shanghai eARTS festival 2008 - ‘Feng.Shui Omniscience’ Outdoor Interdisciplinary Project & Performance on 18th Oct. The work called <First Contact> was actually co-produced by myself and some youth I have never met in real life - I did the living score (the sound) for the 3D online virtual underwater world that was projected on the 360 degree screen under the peaceful starring night.

The scene was created by four HiPiHi residents, a game player, an illustrator, a 3D modeler and a common high school student. (check the amazing machinima here)

The eARTS festival was indeed a ‘festival’ for the youth. Edgy youth have tracked the information about the festival on online communities such as douban.com; some young art lovers decided to travel to Shanghai for the event from other cities; some ‘lucky’ ones got the chance to be volunteers so they got closer to the artists… I even saw buses (about 5 of them) commuting art students to the event venue. ‘You guys are really much more luckier than me.’ I told the student volunteers. I’m envious of today’s youth for their great access to the top art scene of the world - the situation in 2000-2003 when I was a graduate student in Shanghai was nothing comparable.

As a matter of fact, we have seen the thrive of creative industry and a growing ‘creative generation’ in China. In previous posts, China Youthology have reported various aspects of the phenomenon. This post discusses about the broader context that hopefully can help us better understand the trend.

Economic transformation, government support and the education

1. Economic transformation:

In the past 4-5 years, the most developed cities in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha, Guangzhou, etc., have been looking to ‘transform’ to ‘new economy’, i.e. moving from manufacturing to non-manufacturing (or in Chinese the so called ‘third industry’). Learning from the success of creative industry in UK, the local governments of different cities in China have decided to build hardware and software infrastructures to boost the ‘creative industry’. In their 11th 5-year plan, ‘creative industry’ is listed as the pillar industry to ‘upgrade the economic structure’. (According to wikipedia, ‘creative industry‘ usually includes the following; Advertising, Architecture, Arts and Antique markets, Crafts, design, Designer Fashion, Film, Interactive Software (particularly gaming software), Music, Television and Radio, Performing Arts, Publishing and Software. )

2. Government support:

The commercial arts spaces:  As a result, when the government found artists’ lofts in Shanghai and Beijing around 2000, they saw it as a good starting point for the ‘new industry’.  In many cities, we started to see ‘creative industry zones’ where practitioners of creative industry find preferential packages on loft rental, tax, loans, etc. The 798 in Beijing and … in Shanghai attract a lot of gallerias and exhibitions.

The public sphere events: Meanwhile, despite of political concerns, the local governments allow or encourage festivals/conferences/exhibitions in the areas of fashion, animation, art, design, music, etc. For example, Modern Sky Festival , International Machinima Festival, and eArts.

3. The education:

Facing the great demand of creative talents, the government encourages education system to provide more ‘creative-related’ programs. For example, according to a report, today over 1200 education providers (in which 400 are universities) accommodate more than 100 thousand students majoring animation, gaming design, etc.

Although the ‘creative industry’ is still very minor in the GDP according to the government reports, its influence has already penetrated into the life of common people, especially youth.

The role of Internet

Since 2000, the prevalence of Internet has also spurred the emergence of creative culture.

1. Creative capabilities: with the cracked software widely available on the Internet, Chinese youth have mastered the content-creating tools such as Photoshop (for visual), CoolEditor(now Audition, for music/sound), to 3DMax (for 3D modeling).

2. Sharing and spreading of creatives: the most up-to-date and state-of-the-art creatives in the world (sofeware, e-books, music, films, designs, etc.) are only one mouse away from the Chinese youth who are equipped with the p2p file sharing software such as Emule, BT, and Xunlei.com. BBS (forums) and today SNS facilitate youth to form online communities around their interests. Chasing and sharing cool are becoming easier than ever. For example, Neocha(新茶), an online community that probably has the highest ‘concentration’ of creative youth (independent designers, musicians, photographers). Listen to their latest released album here (registration needed).

Change of values

Diversity and tolerance of the society: ‘3D animation and graphic design’ used to be among the least preferred career paths; but today parents react much more positively if their kids decide to choose a career in this area. One of my friends, a content builder of HiPiHi (called ‘失散多年的表哥’), has once told me that the change of values in the society has really relieve the tension between his parents and himself. As a self-learning machinima producer, ‘失散多年的表哥’ has created a lot of impressive machinimas here.

More than an aspiration of individualism and standing out, Chinese youth today are searching for their own unique identities in the global society. Chinese creative youth are confident enough to claim ‘China Cool’ by searching for inspirations from the traditions. China Youthology have reported the Vintage trend and ‘China Cool’ in indie designs before.

The growing demand - consumers of the creative products/contents

China sees not only a growing supply of creative products/contents but also a huge size of creativity-seekers in the young generation.

Douban.com have 2 million registered users. (There’s the saying all the artistic youth (文青) in China gather on Douban.) Whatever ‘cool stuff’ you are talking about, you are assured to find at least one group on it.

Music festivals, art exhibitions, book stores, live shows are crowded with youth. Consumption of culture becomes part of their lifestyle. Tonight (Nov 9) when I’m writing this blog, many youth (if lucky enough to get a ticket at all) paid a high cost (180+ RMB) to go to the live show of the Taiwanese indie musician, Cheer Chen（陈绮贞）. We are expecting a guest post from Lawrence Li (curator at Shao Foundation) on this.

Youth also find that products/contents from indie designers/creators enable them to claim their uniqueness. Hence the thrive of many indie design flee-markets in China.

Filed under: Creative culture, So What?, What's Up?, China youth culture, creative class, creative generation, creative industry, creative youth, eARTS festival, Lisa Li, Zafka Zhang