Foreword
2021 was a year of milestone.The Communist Party has led people of the whole nation to achieve the first Centenary Goal and has taken another step leap forward to the second Centenary Goal.Over the past year，while responding with composure to changes and the pandemic both unseen in a century，China has made new advances in fostering a new development paradigm and pursuing high-quality development，and got off to a good start in implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan.Creative industries of China have maintained continued recovery of the second half of 2020 and has strengthened resilience in the dual circulation domestically and internationally.The industry as a whole seemed favorable.
In 2021，the development of digital technologies include but not limited to big data，cloud computing，and artificial intelligence has been accelerated；new cultural infrastructure such as 5G，digital venues，data centers have been landed；a variety of new businesses and new scenes such as smart tourism，intelligent cultural equipment，immersive cultural tourism，internet audiovisual，traditional culture digitization，IP planning operations and so on have been emerging constantly；the integration of culture-technology and culture-tourism has been deepened.At the same time，the policy systems of digital creative economy in central and local governments have continuously optimized.Governments at all levels in China have made clear to promote the development of cultural and creative industries vigorously in the context of digital economy in the 14th Five-Year Plan.The process of digital transformation and upgrading of the cultural and creative industries will be accelerating continuously.
The Chinese Creative Industries Report 2022 is themed with“Technology empowers the digital cultural and creative industries”.Fifteen cities，including Beijing，Tianjin，Shijiazhuang，Harbin，Yangzhou，Ningbo，Nanchang，Fuzhou，Qingdao，Wuhan，Guangzhou，Guiyang，Xi'an，Xining，Macau，have joined and contributed in the report to reveal the overall development of creative industries in the whole country.The report focuses on how each city have empowered cultural and creative industries through technological innovation，and have promoted the digital transformation and upgrading of creative industries.The report also elaborate the current development status，innovation modes and characteristics of creative industries in these cities，and summarizes successful experience on how technology has empowered the digitization of cultural and creative industries.After finding out problems and weaknesses in the creative industries，solutions and future development directions have been proposed under the current domestic and international circumstances.
This annual report is led by the general report as usual，which is followed by reports of cities.It continues to issue the Chinese urban cultural creativity index rankings，and to offer comments and analysis on the creative industries development covering 31 provincial-level administrative regions and the two special administrative regions，namely Hong Kong and Macao，140 cities in total，based on four aspects（cultural creativity+creative ecology，empowering skills，aesthetic driving force and innovation driving force），16 indexes，and 45 data items.The index report is followed by rankings of municipalities，sub-provincial cities and prefecture-level cities.Comparative analysis has also been presented for three city clusters，namely Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area，Yangtze River Delta，and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
In 2021，creative industries have survived the Covid-19 pandemic and rapidly changing situation both home and abroad，and at the same time have gained momentum for development through digital innovation.It is believed that creative industries of the country will prosper and become a real pillar industry of the national economy.
The Chinese Creative Industries Report has been tracking the development of Chinese creative industries for 17 consecutive years，offering detailed records of the development history of creative industries in major cities of China.Hereby，we would like to express heartfelt gratitude to all the participating experts，scholars，and officials from relevant governmental departments and associations.We also thank Beijing Academy of Science and Technology for continuously supporting the compiling of The Chinese Creative Industries Report.As an important carrier of think tank products，this blue book will further enrich the content and form of the think tank achievement.