Comprehensively Enhancing National Cultural Soft Power through New Types of Cultural Business Forms

Cultural soft power is an important component of a nation’s comprehensive national strength, and the cultural industry, as its key carrier, directly affects national image and international discourse power. The *Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China* (hereinafter referred to as the *Outline*) proposes improving the cultural management system and production-operating mechanisms, implementing proactive cultural economic policies, vigorously developing cultural tourism, and empowering economic and social development through culture. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “The most important criterion for measuring the quality and level of cultural industry development is not to look at economic benefits, but to see whether it can provide more cultural products that both meet the people’s cultural needs and strengthen their spiritual strength.” Accelerating the development of the cultural industry, especially by seizing new types of cultural business forms as a lever, is of great significance for implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, fulfilling the cultural mission of the New Era, and meeting the people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs. We must anchor ourselves to a new orientation, find a new direction, and explore new pathways, injecting strong momentum into national cultural soft power through the comprehensive rise of new types of cultural business forms and the overall enhancement of new quality productive forces in culture.

文化软实力是国家综合国力的重要组成部分，文化产业作为其重要载体，直接关系国家形象与国际话语权。《中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十五个五年规划纲要》（以下简称《纲要》）提出，完善文化管理体制和生产经营机制，实施积极的文化经济政策，大力发展文化旅游业，以文化赋能经济社会发展。习近平总书记指出：“衡量文化产业发展质量和水平，最重要的不是看经济效益，而是看能不能提供更多既能满足人民文化需求、又能增强人民精神力量的文化产品。”加快发展文化产业，尤其是以新型文化业态为抓手，对于贯彻习近平文化思想、实现新时代文化使命、满足人民日益增长的精神文化需求意义重大。我们必须锚定新方位、找准新航向、发掘新路径，以新型文化业态的全面崛起、文化新质生产力的全面提升，为国家文化软实力注入强劲动力。

Anchoring the New Orientation for Cultural Industry Development in the New Era

锚定新时代文化产业发展的新方位

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s cultural industry achieved leapfrog progress in scale, structure, and innovation, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development of the cultural industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

“十四五”期间，我国文化产业在规模、结构、创新等方面均实现跨越式进步，为“十五五”时期文化产业高质量发展奠定坚实基础。

The National Bureau of Statistics released the *Statistical Communiqué of the People’s Republic of China on the 2025 National Economic and Social Development* in February 2026. In 2025, enterprises above the designated size in the culture and related industries nationwide achieved operating revenue of 15.2135 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%. Among these, operating revenue for 16 small industry categories with relatively prominent characteristics of new cultural business forms grew by 14.3%, indicating that the cultural industry maintained relatively rapid growth driven by new business forms.

国家统计局2026年2月发布《中华人民共和国2025年国民经济和社会发展统计公报》，2025年全国规模以上文化及相关产业企业实现营业收入152135亿元，同比增长7.4%，其中文化新业态特征较为明显的16个行业小类企业营业收入增长14.3%，表明文化产业在新业态带动下保持较快增长。

However, shortcomings still exist: unbalanced regional development, with the eastern region’s cultural industry added value accounting for about 80% of the national total; insufficient original creativity, with internationally influential cultural IPs still scarce; weak industrial chain coordination, with weak links in derivative development and copyright operations; and a low degree of internationalization, with the international market share of content products still far behind that of developed countries such as the United States and Japan.

然而，短板依旧存在：区域发展不均衡，东部文化产业增加值占全国比重约80%；原创能力不足，具有国际影响力的文化IP仍稀缺；产业链协同不足，衍生品开发与版权运营环节薄弱；国际化程度偏低，内容产品国际市场占有率仍远低于美国、日本等发达国家。

The global cultural industry is showing three major trends: first, deepening technology-driven development, with artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain fully intervening in the entire chain of creation, production, distribution, and consumption; second, accelerating cross-border integration, with boundaries between the cultural industry and tourism, sports, education, and manufacturing becoming blurred, and “culture+” becoming the direction of upgrading; third, a shift in value competition toward IP competition, with Disney, Marvel, and others achieving value multiplication through full-chain operations, and the emotional resonance and value identification of cultural content becoming core competitiveness.

全球文化产业发展呈现三大趋势：一是技术驱动深化，人工智能、虚拟现实、区块链等全方位介入创作、生产、传播、消费全链条；二是跨界融合加速，文化产业与旅游、体育、教育、制造等领域边界模糊，“文化+”成为升级方向；三是价值竞争转向IP竞争，迪士尼、漫威等通过全产业链运营实现价值倍增，文化内容的情感共鸣与价值认同成为核心竞争力。

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China’s cultural industry must break away from the path dependence on scale expansion, shift toward high-quality development, and make cultivating new types of cultural business forms a key breakthrough for enhancing national cultural soft power. New types of cultural business forms, with their innovativeness, integrativeness, and penetrativeness, can transform China’s fine traditional culture, revolutionary culture, and advanced socialist culture into modern products that are perceptible, experienceable, and transmittable, thereby enhancing cultural identity and strengthening cultural confidence while meeting the people’s needs for a better life. Therefore, re-understanding the value of new types of cultural business forms is not only an economic proposition but also a political and cultural proposition, and an inevitable requirement for fulfilling the new cultural mission of the New Era.

“十五五”期间，我国文化产业必须摆脱规模扩张路径依赖，转向高质量发展，将培育新型文化业态作为提升国家文化软实力的关键突破口。新型文化业态以其创新性、融合性、渗透性，能够将中华优秀传统文化、革命文化、社会主义先进文化转化为可感知、可体验、可传播的现代产品，在满足人民美好生活需要的同时，增强文化认同、坚定文化自信。因此，重新认识新型文化业态的价值，不仅是经济命题，更是政治命题、文化命题，是实现新时代新的文化使命的必然要求。

Finding the New Direction for Cultural Industry Development

找准文化产业发展的新航向

Currently, the competitive logic of the global cultural industry has shifted from single-product export to comprehensive competition centered on technology, industrial ecology, and value identification. To gain an advantage in this landscape, China needs to make precise efforts in three directions.

当前，全球文化产业的竞争逻辑已由单一产品输出，转向以技术、产业生态与价值认同为核心的综合竞争。要在这种格局中占据优势，我国需从三个方向精准发力。

First, adhere to technology empowerment and promote the leap from “culture + technology” to “culture × technology.”

一是坚持科技赋能，推动“文化+科技”向“文化×科技”跃升。

The *Outline* proposes to transform and upgrade traditional cultural business forms, promote the integration of culture and technology, and advance the digital-intelligence empowerment and information transformation of cultural construction. We must deeply understand the important role of new technologies, new materials, and new processes in promoting the innovative development of the cultural industry, advance from “culture + technology” to “culture × technology,” from a physical reaction to a chemical reaction, fully enabling culture to take wing with technology, producing more and more competitive cultural products, and providing high-quality cultural supply. Today, technology is not only a booster of production efficiency but also a re-creator of aesthetic paradigms and narrative logic. New-generation internet technologies, artificial intelligence, big data, and other technologies have changed the mode of cultural production and also created new intelligent culture. Henan Satellite TV’s “Chinese Festivals” series used AR and VR to reconstruct traditional festival imagery; *Tang Palace Night Banquet* and *The Ode to the Luo River Goddess* each garnered over 1 billion online views. The “Digital Palace Museum” mini-program further narrowed the distance with the public. Technology lowers the threshold for cultural expression, while culture gives meaning to technology; together, they shape new cultural experiences. In the future, AI-assisted creation, virtual reality performances, and blockchain copyright protection should be further promoted, so that cultural products are upgraded simultaneously in terms of sensory experience and rights protection.

《纲要》提出，要改造提升传统文化业态，推进文化和科技融合，推动文化建设数智化赋能、信息化转型。我们要深刻理解新技术、新材料、新工艺对推动文化产业创新发展的重要作用，推进“文化+科技”走向“文化×科技”，从物理反应走向化学反应，让文化充分插上科技的翅膀，产生更多更有竞争力的文化产品，提供高质量文化供给。今天，科技不仅是生产效率的提升器，更是审美范式与叙事逻辑的再造者。新一代互联网技术、人工智能、大数据等技术改变了文化生产方式，也创造了新的智能文化。河南卫视“中国节日”系列借助AR、VR重构传统节日意象，《唐宫夜宴》《洛神水赋》全网播放量均超10亿，“数字故宫”小程序进一步拉近了与大众的距离。技术降低文化表达门槛，文化赋予技术以意义，两者共同塑造新的文化体验。未来，应进一步推广AI辅助创作、虚拟现实演艺、区块链版权保护，使文化产品在感官体验与权益保障两方面同步升级。

Second, promote integrated development and build a “culture+” industrial ecosystem.

二是推动融合发展，构建“文化+”产业生态圈。

Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China’s cultural industry development has entered a new stage, with high-quality development of the humanistic economy becoming an important trend. From the creative industry to the creative economy to the creative society, culture and creativity are deeply permeating every social and economic field. The essence of “culture+” is to achieve industrial chain extension and value chain enhancement through value implantation. The “Su Super League” deeply integrates sports events with local culture; this is a typical “scenario-empowered integration”: sports activities provide high-frequency footfall and cultural contact points, while local cultural elements give them uniqueness and differentiation, thereby generating dual economic and cultural benefits. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, boundaries should be further broken down, deep integration of culture, tourism, sports, and commerce should be promoted, and composite business forms such as “culture + technology + tourism” and “culture + education + study tours” should be systematically cultivated, building a mutually nested ecosystem.

步入“十五五”，我国文化产业发展进入新阶段，人文经济高质量发展成为重要趋势，从创意产业到创意经济再到创意社会，文化、创意正深深浸入每一个社会和经济领域。“文化+”的本质是通过价值植入实现产业链延伸与价值链提升。“苏超”将赛事与地方文化深度融合，这是典型的“场景赋能型融合”：体育活动提供了高频人流与文化接触点，地方文化元素赋予其独特性与差异化，从而形成经济与文化双重收益。“十五五”期间，要进一步打破边界，推动文旅体商深度融合，系统培育“文化+科技+旅游”“文化+教育+研学”等复合型业态，构建彼此嵌套的生态圈。

Third, achieve value transmission and create globally influential cultural IPs.

三是实现价值传递，打造具有全球影响力的文化IP。

The highest realm of the cultural industry is value transmission. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out the need to “tell China’s stories well and spread China’s voice well.” Undoubtedly, IP is an emotional common denominator that transcends language and market barriers. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to strengthen cultural confidence, understand the laws of cultural dissemination, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s fine traditional culture through interesting and profound cultural IPs, tell China’s stories well, and tell the stories of Chinese culture well. *Ne Zha 2* set multiple records and became a new benchmark for Chinese culture going global, effectively promoting the modern and vibrant expression of Chinese culture, and is a successful example of a “light cavalry” of cultural soft power. The success of such works stems from a triple value coupling: the depth of historical culture, the suitability of contemporary aesthetics, and the affinity of international expression. In recent years, Chinese digital cultural products represented by online literature, online games, and online film and television dramas have emerged rapidly, vividly described by the industry as the “new three items” of digital culture going global. Transforming local cultural resources into globally circulatable symbolic assets and achieving cross-cultural acceptance through emotional resonance and value identification has become an important direction for the global transformation of Chinese cultural capital.

文化产业的最高境界是价值传递。习近平总书记指出，要“讲好中国故事，传播好中国声音”。无疑，IP是跨越语言与市场壁垒的情感公约数。“十五五”期间，要坚定文化自信，理解文化传播规律，以有趣味有深度的文化IP推动中华优秀传统文化创造性转化、创新性发展，讲好中国故事，讲好中华文化故事。《哪吒之魔童闹海》创造了多项纪录，成为华流出海新标杆，有力推动了中华文化的现代、活力表达，是文化软实力“轻骑兵”的成功典范。这类作品的成功源于三重价值耦合：历史文化的厚度、当代审美的适配度、国际表达的亲和力。近年来，以网络文学、网络游戏、网络影视剧为代表的中国数字文化产品异军突起，被业界形象地称为数字文化出海的“新三样”。将本土文化资源转化为可全球流通的符号资产，通过情感共鸣与价值认同实现跨文化接受，成为中国文化资本全球化转化的重要方向。

Exploring New Pathways for the Innovative Development of the Cultural Industry

发掘文化产业创新发展的新路径

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, efforts should focus on three dimensions—business forms, entities, and drivers—to further promote the innovative development of China’s cultural industry.

“十五五”期间，应围绕业态、主体、动能三个维度，进一步推动我国文化产业创新发展。

First, cultivate new cultural business forms and seize future commanding heights.

一是培育文化新业态，抢占未来制高点。

Cultural digitalization is not only a technological application but also a reshaping of relations of production. The digital animation *Deep Sea* adopted a self-developed “particle ink” technology to achieve 8K-level visual expression; its success lies in using technology to create a unique aesthetic language and form differentiated competitiveness. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the development of new types of cultural business forms such as digital animation, immersive exhibitions and performances, online broadcasting, short videos, and micro-dramas should be accelerated, guiding and regulating the healthy development of online literature, online games, and online audiovisual content. With technological innovation as a means, immersion and interaction as the core experience, and high-value-added consumption as the goal, new product forms and new consumption scenarios should be continuously created.

文化数字化不仅是技术应用，更是生产关系重塑。数字动漫《深海》采用自研“粒子水墨”技术，实现8K级视觉表现，其成功在于以技术创造独特美学语言，形成差异化竞争力。“十五五”期间，应加快发展数字动漫、沉浸式展演、线上演播、短视频、微短剧等新型文化业态，引导规范网络文学、网络游戏、网络视听等健康发展，以技术创新为手段，以沉浸与互动为体验核心，以高附加值消费为目标，不断创造新产品形态、新消费场景。

Second, build new cultural aircraft carriers to enhance concentration and competitiveness.

二是打造文化新航母，提升集中度与竞争力。

The global competition in the cultural industry increasingly relies on the comprehensive operational capabilities of large flagship enterprises. The *Outline* proposes implementing a strategy driven by major cultural industry projects and expanding the supply of high-quality cultural products. We must learn from the experience of developed countries in accelerating the development of the cultural industry, promote the organic integration of an effective market and a capable government, continuously improve the socialist cultural industry system and market system, and give rise to a number of cultural aircraft carriers in fields such as digital creativity, film and television animation, news and publishing, cultural equipment, and cultural tourism. We must enrich the supply of high-quality tourism products, deeply explore distinctive resources and cultural connotations, and actively promote the integrated development of multiple business forms. At the same time, drawing on models such as Disney and Shueisha, we must continuously create and operate major intellectual properties (IPs), cultivate leading enterprises in the industry with control over the entire industrial chain, promote cultural aircraft carrier enterprises to provide brand, technology, and channel support, and enable small and medium-sized enterprises to focus on segmented content creation, forming a collaborative network.

文化产业的全球竞争越来越依赖大型旗舰企业的综合运营能力。《纲要》提出，实施重大文化产业项目带动战略，扩大优质文化产品供给。要学习借鉴发达国家加快文化产业发展的经验，推动有效市场与有为政府有机结合，不断完善社会主义文化产业体系、市场体系，催生一批在数字创意、影视动漫、新闻出版、文化装备、文化旅游等领域的文化航母。要丰富高品质旅游产品供给，深挖特色资源和文化内涵，积极推动多业态融合发展。同时，借鉴迪士尼、集英社等模式，持续创造运营大IP，培育具有全产业链掌控力的行业头部企业，推动文化航母企业提供品牌、技术与渠道支持，中小企业专注细分内容创作，形成协同网络。

Third, stimulate new cultural momentum and unleash innovation vitality.

三是激发文化新动能，释放创新活力。

Cultural innovation requires the synergistic drive of factors such as technology, talent, capital, and data, creating new scenarios for cultural consumption and fostering a sound cultural ecology. We must adhere to the direction of “serving the people and serving socialism,” the policy of “letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend,” and the principle of “creative transformation and innovative development,”[5]5 The “two creations” (两创) principle refers to “creative transformation and innovative development” of traditional Chinese culture, a guideline promoted under Xi Jinping. actively support and develop new popular literature and art, and stimulate the cultural innovation and creativity of the whole society. We must further emancipate our minds, deepen reforms of the cultural system and mechanisms, unblock the “blockages” and “pain points” in cultivating new quality productive forces in culture, accelerate the construction of a cultural innovation ecology with complete factors, full momentum, and multi-dimensional synergy, achieve efficient flow of cultural resources and value co-creation, and comprehensively enhance national cultural soft power and the influence of Chinese culture.

文化创新需要技术、人才、资本、数据等要素的协同驱动，创造文化消费新场景，催生良好文化生态。要坚持“二为”方向、“双百”方针、“两创”原则，积极扶持发展新大众文艺，激发全社会文化创新创造活力。要进一步解放思想，深化文化领域体制机制改革，打通培育文化新质生产力的“堵点”“痛点”，加快构建要素齐备、动能十足、多维协同的文化创新生态，实现文化资源高效流动与价值共创，全方位提升国家文化软实力和中华文化影响力。

The period of the 14th Five-Year Plan is a crucial stage for comprehensively building a modern socialist country and also a critical period for the transformation and upgrading of the cultural industry. Enhancing national cultural soft power through new cultural business forms is an inevitable choice to conform to global trends and serve the overall situation of rejuvenation. We must be guided by Xi Jinping’s cultural thought, anchor high-quality development, strengthen momentum through technological empowerment, expand boundaries through integrated development, and demonstrate confidence through value transmission. By cultivating new business forms, building new aircraft carriers, and stimulating new momentum, we will construct a cultural industry system commensurate with the status of a major country, allow Chinese culture to go global in a vibrant manner, and inject a mighty spiritual force into building a strong country and achieving national rejuvenation.

“十五五”时期是全面建成社会主义现代化国家的关键阶段，也是文化产业转型升级的攻坚期。以新型文化业态提升国家文化软实力，是顺应全球趋势、服务复兴大局的必然选择。我们要以习近平文化思想为指导，锚定高质量发展，在科技赋能中强动能，在融合发展中拓边界，在价值传递中显自信，通过培育新业态、打造新航母、激发新动能，构建与大国地位相匹配的文化产业体系，让中华文化以鲜活姿态走向世界，为强国建设、民族复兴注入磅礴精神力量。

(The author is Secretary of the Party Committee and Professor of South China Agricultural University)

（作者系华南农业大学党委书记、教授）