China Becoming a Powerful Engine Amid the Evolving Landscape of International Cultural Trade

Currently, cultural consumption has become a new engine of economic growth. Behind it lies a super network chain of international cultural trade that crosses national and continental boundaries to reach millions of households. Within this, digitalization and intellectualization are like a magnificent sunrise, redrawing the skyline of international cultural trade for humanity. New business forms and models of digital cultural trade have become the most dynamic new track in the entire cultural trade.

当前，文化消费已成为经济增长新引擎。在其背后，是一条跨越国界和洲界而触达千家万户的国际文化贸易超级网链。其中，数字化和智能化犹如一次壮丽的日出，为人类重新勾画出国际文化贸易的天际线。数字文化贸易的新业态、新模式成为整个文化贸易中最富活力的新赛道。

In recent years, online game IPs developed in China have become "national games" beloved by many adolescent players in Southeast Asia; the immersive performance *Sleep No More*, developed based on Shakespeare’s original work, has through copyright trade and the collaborative efforts of multinational artists given rise to a London version, a Boston version, a Broadway version, and a Shanghai version… International cultural trade, as an important component of the international trade system, is playing an increasingly significant role in invigorating the global market and benefiting the livelihoods of people in all countries.

近年来，中国开发的网游IP成为东南亚许多青少年玩家喜爱的“国民游戏”；根据莎士比亚原著开发的沉浸式演艺《不眠之夜》，通过版权贸易和多国艺术家的协力创作，衍生出伦敦版、波士顿版、百老汇版和上海版……国际文化贸易作为国际贸易体系的重要组成部分，在活跃全球市场、普惠各国民生上发挥着越来越重要的作用。

China is a builder, contributor, reformer, and beneficiary of global cultural trade. Unlike the "free competition, efficiency first" model emphasized by the United States and others, and unlike the "cultural exception, strengthen control" model advocated by France and others, China starts from building a community with a shared future for mankind, forming a "development first, inclusive and mutually beneficial" proposition on cultural trade. It highlights the people-centered values of balancing righteousness and benefit, emphasizing the enhancement of common human well-being through cultural trade; it highlights a worldview that accommodates countries at different development levels, advocating an open, integrated, and win-win order for cultural trade; it highlights a dynamic view of using innovation to upgrade cultural trade, fully releasing the vitality of various innovation entities; it highlights a practical view of coordinating the domestic and international overall situation, combining domestic reform and opening up with the optimization of the international cultural trade order, gaining broad recognition worldwide.

中国是全球文化贸易的建设者、贡献者、改革者和受益者。不同于美国等强调的“自由竞争、效益优先”模式，也不同于法国等倡导的“文化例外、加强管控”模式，中国从建设人类命运共同体出发，形成“发展优先、包容普惠”的文化贸易主张，突出以人为本、义利兼顾的价值观，强调以文化贸易提升人类的共同福祉；突出兼容不同发展水平国家的世界观，倡导开放、融通、共赢的文化贸易秩序；突出以创新促进文化贸易升级的动力观，让各类创新主体的活力充分释放；突出统筹国内外大局的实践观，把国内的改革开放与优化国际文化贸易秩序相结合，获得了世界范围内的广泛认同。

Cultural Trade: A Global Market and a Smooth Cultural Supply Chain

文化贸易：全球性市场与畅通文化供应链

International cultural trade is an important component of international trade; it is a mode of trade through which countries import and export cultural products and cultural services; it is an important means for each country to expand external cultural dissemination, promote cultural diversity, and gain international voice and influence. Cultural trade mainly includes trade in cultural products and trade in cultural services, the latter extending into fields such as intellectual property licensing, computer services, engineering and architectural and technical services, music services, and audiovisual outsourcing services. UNCTAD describes it as trade in creative goods and trade in creative services; although statistical scopes differ slightly, the general classification principles are similar.

国际文化贸易是国际贸易的重要组成部分，是国家间文化产品和文化服务的输入和输出的贸易方式，是各个国家扩大对外文化传播、推动文化多样性、获得国际话语权和影响力的重要内容。文化贸易主要包括文化产品贸易和文化服务贸易，后者延伸到了知识产权授权、电脑服务、工程与建筑及技术服务、音乐服务、视听外包服务等领域。联合国贸发会议将它表述为创意产品贸易和创意服务贸易，虽然统计口径略有不同，但大体的分类原则是相通的。

If we say that starting around 2800 BCE, when people traded Sumerian art with precious metals, commercial transactions of cultural products on the basis of division of labor constituted the prototype of cultural trade, then with the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Discovery, the ocean trade once blocked by vast seas became unimpeded, gradually forming a modern global cultural supply chain. It links together the cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples of North America, the super-platforms and digital creative products developed in Silicon Valley, Akihabara—the gathering place for Japanese two-dimensional culture—and the Shanghai International Artwork Trade Week, among others, into an unprecedentedly large "super network chain."

如果说从公元前2800年人们用贵金属交易苏美尔艺术开始，在分工的基础上对文化产品进行商业交易，构成文化贸易的雏形，那么随着工业革命和地理大发现，曾经被汪洋大海所阻断的远洋贸易变得畅通起来，逐步形成了覆盖全球的现代文化供应链。它把北美原住民的文化遗产、硅谷开发的超级平台和数字创意产品、日本的二次元聚集地秋叶原、上海的国际艺术品交易周等，联结成为一个空前规模的“超级网链”。

This "super network chain" of international cultural trade is formed by cultural investors, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and various users—including individual users, enterprise users, and public users—from all countries; it is composed of all joining node enterprises and elements such as investment, technology, content, and talent, exhibiting characteristics of wholeness, dynamism, and cross-cutting.

这种国际文化贸易的“超级网链”，由各国的文化投资商、制造商、分销商、零售商以及各类用户包括个人用户、企业用户、公共用户所连成，由所有加盟的节点企业和投资、技术、内容、人才等要素组成，呈现出整体性、动态性、交叉性等特点。

Due to the global flow of productive forces, cultural trade has not only attracted more investment in design creativity, technology, tools, and capital, but has also formed a series of governance mechanisms including free trade agreements and free trade zones, art transaction indices, copyright trading and derivative products and guarantee systems, creating a situation of mutual interpenetration at multiple links of the supply chain—R&D, circulation, and consumption. Whether a film or television work or a streaming media audiovisual website, its creativity, technology, investment, and talent can be circulated globally to pursue optimal allocation.

由于全球性的生产力要素流动，文化贸易不仅吸引了更多的设计创意、技术和工具、资本等的投入，而且形成了包括自贸协定和自贸园区、艺术品交易指数、版权交易和衍生产品及保障制度等一系列治理机制，在研发、流通和消费等供应链的多个环节形成了你中有我、我中有你的局面。无论是一部影视作品，还是一个流媒体视听网站，其创意、技术、投资、人才都可以在全球范围内进行流转，以追求最优化的配置。

Since the beginning of the 21st century, despite adverse factors such as geopolitical conflicts, economic slowdown, and trade protectionism, expanding interconnection among countries and promoting the broad circulation of cultural productive forces remain the general trend. An open global cultural trade system allows countries at different development levels to complement each other in the supply chain, creating opportunities for global investors, producers, and consumers to promote the growth of cultural production and consumption through cost reduction and efficiency gains in the most optimal way.

进入21世纪以来，尽管遭遇地缘政治冲突、经济增长放缓、贸易保护主义等不利因素，但扩大各国的互联互通、促进文化生产力要素的广泛流通仍是大势所趋。一个开放性的全球文化贸易体系，就是让不同发展水平的国家在供应链上形成互补，为全球的投资者、生产者和消费者创造机会，让他们以最优化的方式，通过降本增效推动文化生产和文化消费的增长。

Openness and interconnection have promoted sustained growth of cultural productive forces. In recent years, the cultural and creative industries have created nearly 50 million jobs globally, accounting for 6.2% of total employment. Global exports of creative goods and creative services account for 3% and 21% of total global exports of goods and services, respectively. The former has grown more than 3.5 times over the past 20 years, and the latter has grown 2.8 times over the past 10 years. The expansion of the scale of international cultural trade has created conditions for more countries to expand production and participate in division of labor and cooperation within the global cultural supply chain. China is the most powerful engine in global cultural trade in terms of the fastest scale growth and the fastest climb up the value chain in the past 20 years.

开放和联通促进了文化生产力的持续增长。近年来，文化创意产业在全球创造了近5000万个工作岗位，占全部就业岗位总数的6.2%。全球创意产品出口、创意服务出口分别占全球产品出口总额和服务出口总额的3%、21%。前者在过去20年中增长了3.5倍以上，后者在过去10年中增长了2.8倍。国际文化贸易的规模扩张，为更多国家融入全球文化供应链创造了扩大生产的前提和参与分工合作的机会。中国是近20年来在全球文化贸易中规模增长最快、在价值链上攀升最快的强力引擎。

New Business Forms: Digital Cultural Trade and Burgeoning Innovation Vitality

新型业态：数字文化贸易与焕发创新活力

As human society enters the era of Industry 4.0 and Web 3.0, digitalization and intellectualization are like a magnificent sunrise, redrawing the skyline of international cultural trade for humanity. New business forms and models of digital cultural trade have become the most dynamic new track in the entire cultural trade. Some traditional categories of cultural trade, such as jewelry, artworks, publishing and copyright, are also deeply affected by digitalization.

随着人类社会进入工业革命4.0和Web3.0时代，数字化和智能化犹如一次壮丽的日出，为人类重新勾画出国际文化贸易的天际线。数字文化贸易的新业态、新模式成为整个文化贸易中最富活力的新赛道。一些传统的文化贸易门类，如珠宝首饰、艺术品、出版与版权等，也受到数字化的深刻影响。

As has happened many times in history with technological progress and industrial revolutions, once new elements of productive forces combine in an innovative way, they spring up like bamboo shoots after rain, giving birth to a large number of new business forms. New business forms such as digital publishing, digital music, digital games, immersive experiences, digital audiovisuals, and digital art embody laws of the networked era such as Moore’s Law, Gilder’s Law, and Metcalfe’s Law, merging the three major forms of human cultural production—in-place production, on-site production, and online production—into one, transforming cultural services that were once impossible to store, compress, limited in scale, and inefficient, such as live performances, festivals, and audiovisual experiences, into new circulation forms that can be stored, compressed, losslessly preserved, transmitted over long distances, and precisely delivered. They establish entirely new supply-demand relationships through virtual-real interaction, organically blending the physical creation of the carbon-based world with the virtual creativity of the silicon-based world, becoming the fastest-growing new track in the field of international cultural trade.

正如历史上多次发生的科技进步和产业革命一样，新的生产力要素一旦形成创新型的组合，就会如雨后春笋般催生出大量新业态。数字出版、数字音乐、数字游戏、沉浸式体验、数字视听、数字艺术等新业态，体现了网络化时代的摩尔定律、吉尔德定律、梅特卡夫定律等规律，把人类文化生产的三大形式，即在地生产、在场生产、在线生产融合为一体，把过去无法存储、无法压缩、规模受限、效率低下的文化服务，如现场表演、节庆活动、视听体验，转化成为可存储、可压缩、可保真、可远距离传输、可精准送达的流通新形态。它们以虚实交互的方式建立起全新的供需关系，把碳基世界的物态创造与硅基世界的虚拟创意有机交融在一起，成为国际文化贸易领域增长最快的新赛道。

Taking the music industry as an example, in 2024, streaming music transactions—a new business form fostered by the Internet—surged to USD 20.4 billion, accounting for 69% of global music industry revenue; sales of physical recordings such as CDs fell to USD 4.8 billion, accounting for only 16%.

以音乐产业为例，2024年，互联网所催生的新业态——流媒体音乐交易额，猛增到204亿美元，占全球音乐产业收入的比重为69%；唱片等录音制品销售额则下降到48亿美元，占比仅为16%。

Taking art trading as an example, the combination of advances in digital technology and new business models has gradually broken through a series of difficulties in traditional art trading regarding authentication, rights confirmation, bidding, delivery, storage, and cross-border circulation, promoting sustained growth in online art trading worldwide. In 2023, online art sales accounted for 19% of the total global art market value.

以艺术品交易为例，数字技术的进步和新型经营模式相互结合，逐步突破传统的艺术品交易在确真、确权、竞价、交付、仓储、跨境流通等方面的一系列难题，推动全世界艺术品在线交易的持续增长。2023年，全世界艺术品在线销售占艺术品市场总额的比重达到19%。

At a deeper level, digitalization reshapes the basic rules of global cultural trade, highlighting the law of competition and cooperation that relies on factor combination and innovation-based success. The essential feature of globalization is the international flow of production factors. Factor returns are the core of trade competitiveness, and international direct investment is the main carrier of factor flows. Since the late 20th century, the combination of high-level production factors such as technology, content, and brands from advanced economies with low-level production factors such as land, natural resources, and primary labor from developing economies has formed a contemporary factor-cooperative international economic and trade pattern. This is also reflected in the field of cultural trade: the high-end factors of international cultural trade are quality content, advanced technology, and superior capital. Content includes IP copyrights, trademarks, software copyrights and patents. Their optimal combination determines that the highest-yield and fastest-circulating products and services in international cultural trade are the mid-to-high-end cultural products and cultural services that are creative-intensive, technology-intensive, and capital-intensive. For countries and regions at different development levels, it is necessary to actively cultivate and introduce high-end factors in order to move from the low end to the high end of the global cultural value chain, thereby playing a more important and positive role in global cultural trade.

从深层意义上看，数字化重塑全球文化贸易的基本规则，突出要素组合、创新取胜的竞合规律。全球化的本质特征是生产要素的国际流动。要素收益率是贸易竞争力的核心，国际直接投资是要素流动的主要载体。20世纪末以来，发达经济体的技术、内容、品牌等高级生产要素与发展中经济体的土地、自然资源、初级劳动力等低级生产要素的结合，形成了当代要素合作型的国际经贸格局。这在文化贸易的领域也得到了反映：国际文化贸易的高端要素是优良内容、先进技术和优质资本等，内容包括IP版权、商标、软件著作权和专利等。它们的优化组合决定了国际文化贸易中收益率最高、流通最快的是创意密集型、技术密集型、资金密集型的中高端文化产品和文化服务。对于处在不同发展水平的国家和地区来说，必须积极培育和引进高端要素，才能从全球文化价值链的低端走向高端，进而在全球文化贸易中发挥更为重要的积极作用。

As the "Murray-Kemp model" shows, when two countries both vigorously develop the same category of products and services, differences in resource endowments and innovation capabilities will encourage each to exchange based on their differences and advantages, thereby strengthening innovative factor combinations and possibly reaching an optimal state of input-output. For example, Ireland—ranked second in the world in creative services exports, with a land area of only 70,000 square kilometers and a population of just 5.38 million—had creative services exports of up to USD 231.3 billion in 2022, second only to the United States. Ireland does not have advantages in natural resources such as minerals, forests, and farmland, but through forward-looking industrial layout and policy guidance, it has focused on developing human creative resources, creating an advanced business ecosystem and an astonishing capacity for cultural and creative exports.

正如“默瑞·坎姆模型”所显示的，两个国家都大力开发同一类产品和服务，由于资源禀赋和创新能力的差异，会鼓励各自根据差异和优势而进行交换，从而加强创新型的要素组合，有可能达到投入产出的最优状态。比如，名列各国创意服务出口额第二位的爱尔兰，国土面积仅7万平方公里，人口仅为538万人，但2022年的创意服务出口额高达2313亿美元，仅次于美国。爱尔兰在矿产、森林、耕地等自然资源方面并不占优势，但通过前瞻的产业布局和政策引导，致力于开发人的创意资源，创造了先进的商业生态系统和令人惊讶的文创出口能力。

China's Action: The Stance and Major Contributions of a Responsible Major Country

中国作为：负责任大国的主张和重大贡献

In the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China is a builder, contributor, reformer, and beneficiary of the international cultural trade order, contributing strong positive energy to promoting the development of international cultural trade.

在建设人类命运共同体的进程中，中国是国际文化贸易秩序的建设者、贡献者、改革者和受益者，为推动国际文化贸易的发展贡献了强大的正能量。

The current world’s propositions regarding the international cultural trade order mainly include the following three: first, the "free competition, efficiency first" proposition advocated by the United States, which emphasizes free circulation, open markets, and encouraging innovation. Second, the "cultural exception, control and protection" proposition represented by France and others, which emphasizes that cultural products are an exception, strengthens controls on digital data circulation, and requires platform enterprises to act as neutral "gatekeepers." These two propositions have been debated endlessly but, because they fail to balance the interests of all parties, have not gained universal recognition. Third, the "development first, inclusive and mutually beneficial" proposition advocated by China, which seeks a balance between development and security, innovation and inclusiveness, providing inclusive opportunities for countries at all development levels.

当今世界对于国际文化贸易秩序的主张，主要包括以下三种：一是美国倡导的强调自由流通、开放市场、鼓励创新等的“自由竞争、效率优先”主张。二是以法国等为代表的强调文化产品例外、对数字数据流通加强管控、要求平台型企业承担中立“守门人”的“文化例外、管控保护”主张。这两种主张争论不休，却因难以兼顾各方利益，无法获得普遍认同。三是中国倡导的在发展和安全、创新和包容之间寻求平衡，为各种发展水平的国家提供普惠性机遇的“发展优先、包容普惠”主张。

The core of China’s proposition is to build a community with a shared future for mankind and to construct a new type of international cultural trade order based on "sharing the same global fate." It adopts the stance of dialectical materialism that Marx used to examine the "sum total of all social relations," updating the originally Western-centered cultural trade order and governance system into an inclusive, universally beneficial international cultural order and governance system, to adapt to the growth of global cultural productive forces and the demands of human well-being.

中国主张的核心是建设人类命运共同体，构建同“球”共济的新型国际文化贸易秩序。它采用马克思用以考察“全部社会经济的总和”的辩证唯物主义立场，将原本以西方为中心的文化贸易秩序和治理体系更新为包容性、普惠性的国际文化秩序和治理体系，以适应全球文化生产力增长与人类福祉要求。

The basic propositions and implementation priorities of China’s optimization of the international cultural trade order can be summarized in four aspects: first, development—taking sustainable development as the core proposition, cultivating new drivers of cultural trade through innovative R&D and factor combination. Second, inclusiveness—taking into account the demands of countries and regions at different development levels, placing international cultural trade within the framework of global co-governance. Third, synergy—promoting coordinated efforts among governments, enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and social groups to form a cooperation network for co-creation and sharing. Fourth, interconnection—linking domestic reform and opening up with the optimization of the global trade order, creating internal and external synergy, and exploring pathways for transformation amid growth.

中国优化国际文化贸易秩序的基本主张和实施重点，可概括为四个方面：一是发展，把可持续发展作为核心命题，以创新研发和要素组合培育文化贸易的新动能。二是包容，兼顾不同发展水平的国家和地区的诉求，把国际文化贸易置于全球共同治理的框架之下。三是合力，促进政府、企业、非政府组织和社会群体等协同发力，形成共创和共享的合作网络。四是联动，推动国内的改革开放与优化全球贸易秩序形成内外联动，探索在增长中转型的路径。

China not only has forward-looking propositions in the field of international cultural trade but also strong actions based on vision and strength. In recent years, the development focus of China’s foreign cultural trade has undergone positive changes, forming an "innovation-driven cooperative hub" model. China encourages innovation in technology, content, and management, cultivates new quality productive forces in culture, develops mid-to-high-end cultural products and cultural services, accelerates the layout of cultural trade in overseas markets, and forms a new pattern of two-way circulation.

中国在国际文化贸易领域不但有前瞻性的主张，还有基于愿景和实力的强有力行动。近年来，中国对外文化贸易的发展重心发生了积极变化，形成了“创新驱动的合作枢纽型”模式。中国鼓励技术、内容、管理等方面的创新，培育文化新质生产力，开发中高端的文化产品和文化服务，加快在海外市场的文化贸易布局，形成双向流通的新格局。

In particular, China provides both a large number of cultural consumer goods, intermediate goods, and capital goods to advanced economies, and a large number of cultural products and cultural services to emerging and developing economies. In terms of implementation measures, paths such as the "overseas remake of Chinese film and television IP" created by Shanghai enterprises, and the promotion of cultural going-out by Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media Group through copyright trade, physical exports, co-publishing, and global manuscript solicitation, have provided abundant cooperation opportunities and consumption objects for many countries and regions.

特别是，中国既向发达经济体提供大量的文化消费品、中间品和资本品，也向新兴经济体和发展中经济体提供大量的文化产品和文化服务。在实施举措方面，上海企业创建的“中国影视IP海外翻拍”等路径，江苏凤凰出版集团以版权贸易、实物出口、合作出版、全球组稿等推动文化出海等，为众多国家和地区提供了丰富的合作机会和消费对象。

From 2002 to 2022, China’s exports of creative services grew 39.4 times, and exports of creative goods grew 7.8 times. In 2022, China’s exports of creative goods reached a record USD 249.9 billion, firmly ranking first in the world; China’s exports of creative services reached USD 67 billion, leaping to fifth place globally, achieving a historic leap.

2002年至2022年，中国的创意服务出口额增长了39.4倍，创意产品出口额增长了7.8倍。2022年，中国的创意产品出口达到创纪录的2499亿美元，稳居世界第一位；中国的创意服务出口达到670亿美元，跃升为全球第五位，实现了历史性跨越。

It should be noted that although since joining the World Trade Organization, China’s export scale of creative goods and creative services has achieved leapfrog growth, China’s creative services exports in 2022 were still lower than those of the United States (USD 244.3 billion), Ireland (USD 231.3 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 87 billion), and Germany (USD 78.6 billion). This shows that China still has enormous room for improvement in developing technology-intensive, capital-intensive, and creative-intensive trade in cultural services.

需要指出的是，虽然加入世界贸易组织以来，中国创意产品与创意服务出口规模取得了跨越性增长，但中国在2022年的创意服务出口额仍然低于美国（2443亿美元）、爱尔兰（2313亿美元）、英国（870亿美元）、德国（786亿美元）。可见，中国在发展技术密集型、资金密集型、创意密集型的文化服务贸易方面仍有巨大的提升空间。

Standing on our own heritage, absorbing from the outside, and facing the future. China is willing to work with the international community, keeping in mind the future of humanity and the well-being of the people, to continuously upgrade toward the mid-to-high end of the global cultural and creative industry value chain, and with the vision and strength of a major country moving toward becoming a global cultural trade power, create more cultural well-being for the people of all countries.

立足本来，吸收外来，面向未来。中国愿意同国际社会一道，以人类前途为怀、以人民福祉为念，持续向全球文化创意产业价值链的中高端提升，并以迈向全球文化贸易强国的愿景和实力，为各国人民创造更多的文化福祉。

(Hua Jian, Director of the Cultural Industries Research Center and Researcher at the Institute of Literature, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; Vice President of the Shanghai International Culture Association; Visiting Professor of the Global Urban Civilization Model Research Institute, Southern University of Science and Technology; Executive Editor of the *Shanghai Cultural Industry Development Report* (Blue Book))

（花建，上海社会科学院文化产业研究中心主任、文学研究所研究员，上海国际文化学会副会长，南方科技大学全球城市文明典范研究院访问教授，《上海文化产业发展报告》（蓝皮书）执行主编）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧