Policy Discourse Among the Chinese Public on Initiatives for Cultural and Creative Industries: Text Mining Analysis

Abstract

China’s cultural policy has shifted from a government-driven direction to a model centered on marketization development model. The economic value of culture has come to be seen as the main engine of growth for national development; moreover, cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have been strategically fostered. Here, in place of a unilateral top-down method imposed by the government, a marketization development model has been promoted to actively accommodate the policy discourse presented by cultural creators/consumers. China’s CCI policy discourse may indicate the policy direction necessary to develop itself into a cultural powerhouse. In this study, policy discourse is collected and analyzed for keywords of China’s CCIs from 2006 to 2020. Text mining and network analysis were performed, and the main results are as follows. First, it was found that China’s CCI policy discourse has been gaining traction; its centers appear to be found within large cities with rich cultural infrastructure, where major cultural projects are discovered and promoted, and Chinese culture is being globalized. Second, the items/contents of the Chinese CCIs are diversifying and developing into a human-friendly Chinese-style cultural and creative industry model that values experience. This should be noted to help guide the future direction of China’s cultural policy. Finally, it is necessary to adjust industrial concentrations and regional development imbalances because of the acceleration of industrial clusters in CCIs.