Flexing nation's cultural muscle

Image Base is an example of China's growing cultural clout and illustrates the importance that officials place on developing creative industries.

The central government last month introduced tax breaks for cultural companies and publishers of the Blue Book of China's Culture are bullish about their potential.

Zhang Xiaoming, the paper's editor-in-chief at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the economic slowdown provides a chance to focus on developing cultural products.

He backs private publishers, believes domestic demand for local cultural products is flourishing and wants more private investment in them.

Director of the McKinsey Leadership Institute in China, Ruby Chen, has read the report and agrees with many of its findings.

"The creative industries here are more conservative and I smell an opportunity. There has been 30 years of progress (since reform and opening-up) and emphasizing the industry of culture will stimulate this progress," she says. "This is a new generation with new life and attitudes. Soft power is more important and therefore a strong creative industry is necessary."

It's not just about making money, agrees Dandeli gallery art project manager Judy Liu. Governments in the West have been marketing culture for a long time in order to boost their image, she says.

"We are learning from them. They have done well in terms of promoting their cultural values and introducing these to the world. We haven't fully introduced Chinese culture yet, especially modern Chinese culture."

Ben Tsiang, who heads a documentary film company and was a co-founder of Web portal Sina, says new Chinese cultural products are necessary and believes Image Base is part of this drive.

"There's a collective wish for a Chinese renaissance at this time and Image Base is a kind of upgrade of traditional Chinese culture, from 1.0 to 2.0, to being contemporary."