China’s large State-owned enterprises used to give people the impression that they were clunky and out-of-date, but now they’re trying to remedy that, and turn themselves into more modern, creative operations by combining traditional elements with culture, fashion, and innovation.
To show how this works, the State Council’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Beijing government sponsored an activity for new style State-owned enterprises, April 9 - 10, using Beijing’s Legend Town as a typical example.
Legend Town was established by the Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co and Beijing Jingmian Textile (Group) Co in an old textile factory building to make it a home of culture and creativity, with three zones:
The A zone contains an exchange center for the culture and creativity industry, where companies can display their products and their brands; the B zone’s buildings are refurbished in their original architectural style to function as a service center for conferences and catering; while C zone has 46 buildings with many culture and creativity companies and studios. These include Blue Ocean Networks, China’s first and only private English-language TV Network whose aim is to give international viewers fresher Chinese news and features; and Huace Film & TV, a film and TV production company; PERA Global, China’s biggest engineering simulation technology provider; New Silk Road, a model agency; and the Media Asia Group, a film production company.
With so many stylish companies, Legend town has become a major site for cultural and creative activities and a place where artists can exhibit their products and brands.