(1) Low-level supply-demand relationship and asymmetric structural contradiction of China's cultural industry
China's cultural market has developed by leaps and bounds. Since the reform and opening up, especially since the 199s, on the one hand, conditions in all aspects of economic and social life have improved rapidly, and people's cultural and entertainment needs are being rapidly released; On the other hand, various new types of cultural industries are constantly emerging, and the structural changes of cultural industries are frequent. However, the existing statistics show that China's cultural industry is still in a state of low-level balance between supply and demand and asymmetric structural contradictions.
in absolute terms, there is no great difference between the cultural consumption needs of Chinese residents and the supply of cultural industries.
In terms of demand, in 2, China's per capita GDP reached 849 US dollars, and the Engel coefficient reflecting the living standards of urban and rural residents also fell below 5%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 628 yuan, and the per capita consumption expenditure was 4998 yuan. Among them, the consumption related to culture, such as tourism, entertainment, durable consumer goods, education, cultural services and communications, totaled 949 yuan, accounting for about 19% of the disposable income. According to China's current urban population of about 4 million, the cultural consumption demand of urban residents in China is about 379.6 billion yuan. The per capita income of rural residents reached 2,253 yuan, and the per capita consumption expenditure in 28 yuan was 252 billion yuan. In this way, China's cultural-related consumer demand should be between 6 billion and 65 billion (631.4 billion yuan).
from the supply side, according to the summary of relevant statistical data, the output value of our cultural industries in recent years (1998 or 1999) is about 6 billion (624 billion in 1998), including education, culture, art, radio, film and television, 181.29 billion yuan (1998), domestic tourism income of 283.192 billion, and books, newspapers and periodicals. (advertising, etc. have not been included.
the above two roughly consistent figures only describe the scale of China's cultural market from the aspects of supply and demand, but they can't draw a conclusion that the development of China's cultural industry is satisfactory. A brief analysis shows that the current situation of cultural market is only a low-level balance between supply and demand, what's more, because there are still various institutional problems, it is only an asymmetric balance with structural contradictions.
According to international research, when the per capita GDP exceeds 1 dollars, the proportion of food and clothing in consumption expenditure drops greatly, while the housing category remains basically unchanged, while the cultural and spiritual consumption expenditure begins to rise greatly; The tertiary industry should account for about 4% of the total GDP, and the proportion of output value of cultural products has also increased greatly. At present, China's per capita GDP is close to $1,, but the proportion of the tertiary industry (33.2%) is 6 percentage points lower than this standard, and its total amount is about 5 billion yuan. Although we can remove the errors caused by consumption habits and institutional factors, and the expenses that may be used for non-cultural consumption (such as medical care, etc.), the surplus should be 3 to 4 billion yuan.
how should we understand the market vacancy of RMB 3-4 billion?
one explanation is that the cultural consumption ability of Chinese residents has been greatly suppressed, which has restricted the growth of cultural industries. There are many facts to prove this. For example, according to various scattered figures of China's cultural industry departments, there are a lot of mismanagement and losses in China's film industry and television industry, and many works are left unattended after publication, resulting in a serious inventory backlog; But some works suddenly made profits for unknown reasons. Statistics show that film production has been declining in recent years. In 1992, China * * * produced 17 feature films, the highest in the past 1 years, followed by 146 in 1995, 11 in 1996, 88 in 1997 and only 82 in 1998. Where are all our ever-increasing audiences? In recent years, the economic benefits of traditional cultural and entertainment industries, such as karaoke bars and dance halls, have declined rapidly and become loss-making industries. These phenomena show that a considerable part of the products provided by China's cultural industry departments cannot meet the growing and ever-changing cultural consumption needs of the people.
another explanation can be made, that is, a considerable part of the cultural consumption actually achieved by Chinese residents has not been included in the statistics. At present, there is a recognized market capacity calculation method in the audio-visual industry, that is, the market capacity of audio-visual products is estimated according to the ownership of consumer audio-visual technical equipment. According to this method, Chinese residents currently have about 35 million televisions, more than 1 million CD players, more than 3 million VCD players, more than 5 million LD players, more than 15 million multimedia computers, and so on. According to the statistics that each hardware needs 1 pieces (sets) of new audio-visual products every year, it is believed that the total annual sales of audio-visual products should exceed 1 billion yuan, but according to the statistics of relevant departments in 1996, the genuine income of audio-visual products in China is only less than 2 billion yuan, accounting for 2-3% of the total; According to the statistics in 1999, the genuine income was about 5 billion yuan. Even if the government intensified its efforts to "eliminate pornography and illegal publications", the genuine rate increased. It is believed that the actual market size should be around 15 billion to 2 billion. The facts in this regard show that a considerable part of the residents' cultural consumption demand is losing. It should be an indisputable fact that there is a huge structural gap between supply and demand in our cultural market.
The huge difference between supply and demand in the cultural market has become a hidden worry of national cultural and economic security. At present, the personal financial assets of Chinese residents have reached about 9 trillion yuan, and the bank deposits are about 7 trillion yuan. With the gradual introduction of various reform measures in housing, pension, medical care and education, people's consumption demand for culture, education and entertainment will be further released. This is a huge market space, which has even formed a vacuum that China's cultural industry can't fill at present. After China's entry into WTO, foreign cultural industry groups will probably enter China's cultural market in a large scale with multiple advantages in technology and content, and the policy of "limited opening" of cultural market may encounter severe challenges in a short time under the action of market laws.
In recent years, people frequently see such figures: the annual output value of British cultural industry is nearly 6 billion pounds, and employees account for about 5% of the total employment in the country; The annual output value of Japanese entertainment industry surpassed that of automobile industry as early as 1993. The cultural industry in the United States is more developed, and its audio-visual products have become the largest export products, accounting for more than 4% of the international market. According to media reports, our government has begun to consider allowing some internationally renowned media groups to enter our media market. This is an important signal that the process of internationalization of cultural industry may be unexpectedly accelerated. China's cultural market has been exposed to the strong pressure of international cultural capital, and the economic and cultural fruits accumulated by China's reform and opening up for more than 2 years have become the coveted goal of international cultural capital.
(2) China's cultural industry has a large number of business units, but the degree of industrial organization intensification is not high
Faced with huge market demand and the pressure of international media and cultural groups, China's cultural industry is generally uncompetitive, and it is difficult to meet the growing cultural needs of the people, which is enough to worry us. China's traditional cultural industry was born under the planned system, which has long been divided by the administrative system and protected by various policies. The overall pattern formed in this case shows the outstanding characteristics of many business units, low degree of industrial intensification, extremely scattered resources and no emphasis on economic benefits. Today, with the rapid formation of the cultural market, all these characteristics have turned into weaknesses.
in terms of personnel scale, take the cultural industry institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Culture as an example. By 1999, there were 33,7 enterprises and institutions under the Ministry of Culture, including art performance groups, theaters, libraries, art galleries and cultural relics protection units, with 1,661,5 employees. The number of domestic performances in that year was 423,; The domestic audience reached 469 million. There are 174,7 institutions and 93, people in the cultural and entertainment industry; There are 97, other operating institutions in the cultural market with 23, people. The characteristics of these units are that most of them are small. For example, each unit under the Ministry of Culture has an average of about 5 people.
from the scale of operation, the audio-visual industry is a typical example. There are nearly 6 audio-visual products production and reproduction units in China, which produce 2, kinds of genuine audio-visual products (cassettes, VCDs, CDs and DVDs) and about 2 million pieces (discs) every year, with an average annual production of 34, pieces per enterprise and a monthly production of less than 3, pieces. There are about 7, sales units, and all genuine audio-visual products sell 2 million pieces every year. On average, each sales point sells only 3, pieces a year, but the daily average is less than 1 pieces. The wholesale and retail of books is another example. In 1999, there were 13,56 book wholesale and retail institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Culture with 23, people, with an operating income of only 545 million yuan, with a per capita turnover of about 23, yuan and a daily turnover of 6 yuan.
The problem of low degree of resource dispersion and intensification is fully manifested in the news publishing, radio, film and television industries. China's press and publication system has the same characteristics as the traditional industrial economic management system: the press and publication unit must take a certain level of administrative organization as the "superior unit" and build on its financial allocation. Once these news publishing units are formed, they will be solidified and can neither be eliminated nor reorganized; New demands generally arise from new administrative institutions, which are established through new appropriations, and are also congenitally deficient. In the long run, news publishing institutions will expand with the expansion of administrative institutions. Most of these news publishing institutions are small in scale, redundant in construction and low in efficiency, which can not meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people, but also cause idle and waste of resources. In the past 2 years, especially in the past 1 years, all parties concerned have been trying to reform the cultural management system in many ways, but the basic situation has not changed fundamentally.
according to the statistics of 1999, there are 238 newspapers, 8178 periodicals, more than 5 publishing houses and more than 3 radio and television stations in China. This is a huge and valuable cultural resource that has been accumulated for decades. Today, when the pattern of all-round opening to the outside world is basically formed, if we don't integrate and optimize it quickly, change its business model and enhance its competitive strength, it will inevitably become the hunting target of international media giants.
(3) There is a sharp contradiction between the traditional resource allocation mechanism of China's cultural industry and the requirements of marketization.
in recent years, the system reform of China's cultural industry has begun to enter the "fast lane". In 1998, the functional departments of our government stopped running journals and newspapers directly, and withdrew from the field of publishing business, cutting off the traditional dependence between news publishing units and various government agencies; More than 2, newspapers and 8, publications have been "forced" into the track of industrialization. In 1999, the establishment of media group and multi-media cultural industry group began; In 2, the "media concept" became popular in the stock market and began to try to combine media groups with the capital market. After the system reform of the cultural industry, the waves pushed forward, and gradually entered the stage of overall reform from sub-industry and partial reform.
However, the chaotic resource allocation mechanism, compartmentalization and the contradiction between industry barriers and market requirements still plague the development of China's cultural industry.
The cultural industry is based on the market. The modern market economy requires open, just and fair competition and opposes various forms of local protection and monopoly. China's traditional cultural institutions are established in a "compartmentalized" way (local and industry are vertically and horizontally). Although they have been decoupled from the administrative departments in different degrees and implemented "professional centralized management", they are still far from the real market competition. There are even some enterprises that use the traditional connection with administrative agencies and the special social welfare nature and ideological function of enterprises to monopolize resources, manipulate the market and seek huge profits; However, some cultural enterprises often encounter resistance when they want to do cross-industry and cross-regional asset reorganization or even merger after they become bigger. Under the situation of China's entry into WTO, and under the influence of the international trend of "media convergence", some radio and television, newspapers and publishing enterprises have set up group companies under the coordination of local governments, realizing "strong alliance" and "asset reorganization", and even engaged in some cross-industry and cross-media operations in the local area. This is certainly an improvement. However, we also notice that "media convergence" is a market trend in the west, while in China it mainly relies on government administrative means. How to combine structural adjustment with system transformation remains a problem.
In this way, the development of cultural industry meets the problem of deep-seated reform: cultural industry is a special industry, which has both general industry attributes and social public welfare nature. Among them, the core industry category, such as media industry, not only has the characteristics of mass media, but also is the propaganda channel of the party and the country. How to make institutional arrangements based on these characteristics, not only to develop healthily according to the general laws of market economy, but also to ensure the leading role of advanced culture, is a brand-new problem, which requires us to explore boldly with the spirit of innovation.
however, ensuring the cultural rights of the broad masses of the people is a more fundamental issue, and it is also the basis for our party and state to ensure the leadership of socialist cultural undertakings. It should be noted that under the situation of China's entry into WTO and deepening reform, under the impact of digital information technology, the economic basis and technical basis of the traditional media system have changed, and the way to realize people's cultural rights has also changed: more and more, from the non-autonomous way mediated by the state administrative mechanism to the independent choice way mediated by the market. This requires us to actively explore new ways to give full play to traditional political advantages under the conditions of market competition. Therefore, we should pay special attention to study the new system of regulating the development of cultural market, the new mechanism of guiding the circulation of spiritual products and the new organizational form of active cultural production. Only in this way can we really promote the development of culture.
Of course, we also see that after the global "media convergence" and "deregulation", even western developed countries are rethinking how to treat the cultural content industry with new industrial policies and new institutional arrangements because of the unbalanced development of the cultural content industry. Protecting national cultural heritage, carrying forward national cultural traditions and ensuring national cultural security have become the same strategic themes of all countries in the world in the face of globalization, and there will be many experiences worth learning from. What our policy makers need to do is to look forward, not backward.
(4) There is a strategic contradiction between the advanced requirements of the development of China's cultural industry and the lack of cultural originality, and the resource potential cannot be transformed into industrial strength
There are still some unique conditions for the development of China's cultural industry. First of all, China culture has a great influence, and the population using Chinese is the largest in the world. China's long history and culture have a wide influence not only in China, but also in the Chinese community in Southeast Asia, North America and Europe. It should be said that China's cultural enterprises have the most market development.