Creative clusters in Shanghai: transnational intermediaries and the creative economy

Abstract

Introduction In 2005 the Shanghai municipal government adopted a ‘creative industries’ strategy. Explicitly derived, via Hong Kong, from the UK government’s rebranding of the ‘cultural industries’ in 1998, ‘creative industries’ was not at the time officially recognized as a policy term by the national government in Beijing. This intentionally put Shanghai at the cutting edge of China’s next wave of modernization. Shanghai’s embrace of the ‘creative industries’ has to be seen as part of the Chinese national government’s new round of economic and symbolic modernization – a shift from the 1980s/90s gaige kaifang (reform and opening) to Hu Jintao’s emphasis on gaige chuangxin (reform and innovation) (Pang, 2012: 8). However, in enthusiastically adopting the term ‘creative industries’ ahead of Beijing (the capital and national government remained cautious and settled on ‘cultural creative industries’), Shanghai asserted its traditional role as the engine of China’s cultural and economic modernization.