By Niu Jiaru, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.170, 2021 (Total 6235) 2021-6-24

Abstract: Since the reform and opening up, the cultural system reform in China has undergone four stages, including “dual-track system” reforms and establishment of culture’s market status, gradual opening of the cultural market and institutionalization of cultural market supervision, reforms of the cultural system from pilot exploration to full implementation, and improvement of the effective combination of macro-management system and micro-operation mechanism. A relatively complete cultural macro-management system has been basically established and the operating vitality of micro-mechanisms has been stimulated. However, there are still many challenges in deepening the cultural system reform during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period. It is necessary to solve problems such as the effective unification of social and economic benefits, the clarification of the boundary between government and market in the cultural field, and the coordination between new cultural industries and cultural governance methods. Regarding solutions, three policy options are proposed as follows. We need to strengthen social benefit orientation to deepen the reform of non-profit cultural institutions and state-owned cultural institutions; clarify the rights and responsibilities of all parties to further define the boundary between the government and the market in the cultural system reform; improve standards and mechanisms to promote and regulate the sound development of new cultural industries.

Keywords: cultural system reform, major problems, policy options