The mainland has introduced more than 3,000 cultural projects during the four-day International Cultural Industries Fair that ends today in Shenzhen, in an effort to draw investment and financing from home and abroad.
The projects, outlined in an investment handbook issued by the Ministry of Culture at the annual expo on Friday, cover 12 fields, including cultural tourism, media, movies and TV, and involve 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
The four-day exhibition, with nearly 2,000 booths in the main hall, features a rich variety of culture-related products from across the country. It has attracted thousands of local residents, as well as more than 15,000 international buyers from nearly 100 countries. About 500 events, including forums, signing ceremonies and promotional meetings, have taken place.
As the country projects the cultural industry as a pillar of the nation's economy, while trying to expand Chinese cultural influence, the fair serves as a platform not only to display domestic cultural projects, but also to facilitate international cultural trade and collaborations.
The results of a survey on overseas cultural businesses were released at the fair, showing that more than 76 per cent of those businesses consider China a significant market for the development of their operations, and they have plans to expand in the country.
But more than half of about 300 businesses surveyed said they knew little about the Chinese cultural market, and, ironically, most considered cultural differences to be the biggest hurdles to doing business in China.
The fair, described by local media as 'a cultural feast', has featured folk dancing and singing, pot-making, stone carving and calligraphy. Many booths featured artefacts and regional specialties in the hope of securing large orders from potential collaborators.