Cultural and creative production in the era of globalization: Exploring the trans-border mobility of Chinese media and entertainment celebrities

Abstract

While the globalization of cultural and creative industries has attracted considerable academic attention, research on the trans-border production practices of cultural and creative industries in emerging economies is still rather thin on the ground. This paper presents the first systematic study of the geographical patterns of the global network of China’s media and entertainment industry by tracing the trans-border mobility of Chinese media and entertainment celebrities. Instead of simply measuring the clustering of employment or enterprises, we focus on the specific activities performed by these leading media and entertainment workers in different locations. By looking into three major issues—the global mobility of celebrities, the connections between different activities and the characteristics of particular locations, and the divergences between sub-national media and entertainment markets—our study reveals a new Chinese media culture with its unique industrial structure, globalization trajectory, and geographical characteristics. It also demonstrates the significant impact of local market conditions, cultural background, and institutional context on the globalization of cultural economic activities.