2018-03-06
the year 2018 is the beginning of the implementation of the spirit of the 19th national congress of the communist party of china. the shanghai people’s congress and the cppcc meeting that was just concluded assume an extremely important historical significance: they focus on shanghai’s innovation and development, reforms and opening up, the improvement of people’s livelihood, and planning for urban security. they also focus on strengthening innovation, highlighting the institutional supply, expanding service functions, creating a better quality of life, and actively fulfilling their duties, concentrating on shanghai continuing to be a leader in the reforms and opening up of the country in the new era, and a pioneer of innovation and development.
“without a high degree of cultural self-confidence and cultural prosperity, there will be no great rejuvenation of the chinese nation.” general secretary xi jinping’s call to culture was an important proposition that resonates in the report of the 19th national congress of the communist party of china. shanghai has responded to the call and recently introduced “50 articles of cultural innovation”, proposing that in the next five years, the added value of shanghai’s cultural and creative industries would account for 15% of the city’s gdp; by 2035, it would fully build a center for the cultural and creative industry that has international influence.
at the 15th shanghai people’s congress held from jan. 23-29, the planning to “make efforts to tap into the four major brands of service, manufacturing, shopping, and culture in shanghai in 2018” in the municipal government’s report took the cultural brands as the development focus.
how to build shanghai’s cultural brands? how to strengthen cultural innovation? how to build shanghai into a more attractive city for the humanities? representatives of all walks of life offered their suggestions. therein, the deputy of the municipal people’s congress, vice chairman of the city general chamber of commerce and the director general manager of sanxiang impression co., ltd., xu wenzhi’s “proposal for creating a cultural brand on the shanghai huangpu river binjiang waterfront corridor” drew intense attention. first we interviewed the entrepreneur. in recent years, under the guidance of his leadership, sanxiang impression has continuously improved its cultural programs, told chinese stories in an excellent way, demonstrated cultural charm, boosted regional development, and earned innumerable great achievements. from the heights of the theory to the depths of implementation at the two sessions, all people felt that he has sincere faith in cultural development.
cultural brand is a city’s golden character signboard, carrying a city’s spiritual character and ideal pursuits, anditis responsible for shapingthe soul ofthe city.in the future, shanghai will have to build a cultural brand that matchesthis global city of excellenceas aninternational cultural metropolis.
——xu wenzhi
representative xu wenzhi was focusing in his suggestions on the construction of a cultural brand for a 45-kilometer long waterfront corridor (hereinafter referred to as: the binjiang corridor) along the huangpu river.
he said that the binjiang corridor is currently fully integrated, and the promenade, bicycling, and jogging tracks have been completed. it provides unique advantages for the refinement of shanghai culture, for the spread of shanghai culture, and for cultural exhibitions. it is necessary to strengthen the integration of culture as soon as possible, and to gradually build the gold medal of shanghai culture. to this end, he proposed three major suggestions:
1. the government should actively lead and carry outthe overall planning and design.
the completed binjiang corridor spans pudong, yangpu, hongkou, huangpu, xuhui, minhang and several other districts. the creation of the binjiang corridor shanghai cultural brand requires the participation of several municipal government departments, such as the municipal development and reform commission, the municipal planning and land resources bureau, and the municipal tourism bureau. the first step is to coordinate the development of cultural orientation in all the districts. according to the red culture, shanghai culture, modern industrial, and commercial culture and other cultural resources along the binjiang corridor, as well as the remains of the old industrial buildings, tourist routes, dining, accommodations, sightseeing tours, shopping needs, and other factors, the scientific planning and overall design will be carried out. for example, tourism and performing arts can be planned and developed in huangpu, hongkou, pudong and xuhui; anti-japanese war culture can be planned and developed in hongkou and huangpu; modern industrial and commercial culture can also be developed in yangpu and hongkou; sports culture can be developed in minhang and xuhui, etc. the second step is to coordinate the cultural liaisons between the districts. the culture of the binjiang corridor should be seamless and unique, and it needs the relevant departments of the municipal government to coordinate the various districts. it not only embodies the characteristics of each district, but also integrates them with each other. the municipal government can lead the major projects, conduct unified fund-raising, raise funds, and raise space, doing an excellent job of coordination among the districts, and conducting the overall scientific planning. the third step is to guide the coordinated development of the city’s “tourism information, tourism transportation, tourism catering, tourism accommodations, sightseeing, tourism shopping, tourism entertainment, and tourism exhibitions”, the eight major tourism elements, to form a system based on culture as a supporting and self-perfecting system that constantly improves the attractiveness of the binjiang corridor culture.
2. learn fromsuccessful domestic and foreign cases to identify cultural topics.
xu wenzhi also spoke on how to make use of the advantages of the binjiang corridor and create a cultural-centered dual innovation arena that is a great space for the imagination. shanghai should learn from the founding models of broadway in new york city, moulin rouge in paris, france, and the western district of long in the united kingdom, while integrating the shanghai red culture, shanghai culture, and jiangnan culture resources. in addition, it should learn from “hangzhou, living poetry”, “youjian pingyao”, “zhiyin hao”, “impression dahongpao”, “youjian malacca”, and other cultural exhibition cases which have earned quite positive responses in order to reach international standards. moreover, in conjunction with shanghai’s spirit of generosity and its pursuit of excellence, and its goal of accelerating the construction of an outstanding global city and a modern, international socialist metropolis with worldwide influence, it should extensively solicit opinions and suggestions from professional international and domestic organizations and from related experts, and extensively solicit the opinions of the shanghai people. the recognition of the common peopole of shanghai should be obtained, and in the end, a cultural theme for the shanghai binjiang corridor should be formed.
3. launch cultural exhibitions and launch newcalling cards for shanghai culture.
the newly introduced “shanghai cultural innovation 50 articles” have pointed out the need to inspire creation, encourage performances, promote the prosperity of the market, promote the city’s performing arts creation from the “plateau” to the “peak”, present the chinese elements to the world, tell chinese stories, and strive to create the capital of asian performing arts. the binjiang corridor can be used to create opportunities for shanghai’s culture, such as holding “shanghai, living poetry”, “impression · huangpu river” and other comprehensive cultural and tourism projects, and actively remedying the current lack of influence of the cultural brands in shanghai. from the cultural exhibitions that are conducted, shanghai should draw from and retain the excellent works and good performance models. 1-2 existing appropriate performing arts venues should be built along the binjiang corridor to set up a stage for the exhibitions of shanghai’s cultural and golden characters. like broadway, moulin rouge, and the western district, it shows the shanghai’s mission to welcome culture and encourages the people of shanghai, telling china’s stories and striving to build asia’s acting cultural capital in a format that the people would like to see and hear.
excavating the cultural connotations rooted in the local culture, xu wenzhi, who has a broad base of knowledge, spoke with passion and assurance, and expressed the heart of a deputy to the npc of cultural brand construction. what will be the glory that the binjiang corridor’ great leap will bring to shanghai? let’s look forward to it and promote it together with representative xu wenzhi.