Cultural and Creative Industries in China: challenges to the top-down model

Abstract

In this thesis, the area of bottom-up initiatives in the culture and creative field in China is investigated. First, I provide a general overview on creative and cultural industries in general and explain how they spread to China and their characteristics in the Chinese context, since they have been at the centre of the political discourse. I try to explain how the policies process in China is based on the notion of top-down, and how the centralization of power has shifted under different administration during the years. I later analyse the cultural and creative industries’ policies under a strong top-down approach, in particular through the use of the cluster model, which is lacking innovation according to the literature on this matter. This, I argue, is caused by the rigid top-down approach, therefore I move to the analyses of bottom-up projects in the field of cultural and creative industries, that challenged the top-down system and in conclusion I move to a deeper analysis in the third chapter, in which the independent art book publishing phenomenon in China is taken as a case study in order to demonstrate that even if small in dimension, these bottom-up initiatives are able to create innovation and allow creativity to be expressed.