Culture and Creative Industry in China: Critical Review on the Current Research Trends and Future Development

Developing culture and creative industry has become an important agenda for the Chinese government in terms of building an innovation-oriented economy that is supported by culture and creativity. Research on culture and creative industry in China also appeared in various policy documents as well as academic journals and publications in recent years, although there is no uniform classification on what “culture and creative industry” should encompass. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and critical review on the current status of culture and creative research in China and identify the extent to which the current research reflect and support on China’s new economic development strategy underpinned by culture and creativity. By selecting and reviewing literatures from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, it has been identified that current research on culture and creativity tends to focus on developed cities/regions using descriptive approach and issues are discussed at conceptual and macro-level. On one hand, our findings support the general trends of growth and significance of culture and creative industry in China. On the other hand, we also identify the lack of systemic review and comprehensive research in this area hinders the process of strategic decision-making by the government and organizational performance in the industry. We recommend that more critical review and in-depth research through multi-disciplinary approach should be supported in order to provide comprehensive understanding on the development and trends of culture and creative industry in China and inform government policies.