Connecting Chinese cities with the global performing arts market: the geographies of performing-arts consumption in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research on global cultural cities has been biased toward dominant global cities in advanced economies. In this paper, we present the first geographical analysis of performing-arts consumption in major Chinese cities through measuring the presence, origins and inter-city network of performing arts events. We demonstrate that the distribution of performing-arts consumption in China displays both dispersive and concentrative patterns, generating an urban network with a core-periphery, although polycentric, structure. The variant patterns of urban cultural consumption not only reflect cities’ contemporary linkages with the global economy, but also the long-term evolutionary outcomes of their cultural traditions. In addition, the external connections of China’s performing arts market reveal a rather complex structure of the current global cultural industries, which is shaped by national institutional arrangements and policy interventions. This study enriches our understanding of the complex interactions between cultural globalization, the national institutional context, and the development of local urban cultures.