ABSTRACT
My exploration of China’s creative economy so far has been largely based on historical accounts. I have shown how cultural markets were central to social life and economic development during the imperial period and how these commercial activities co-existed with official patronage of art and culture. Moreover, cultural innovation occurred throughout history despite the weight of tradition. In times of openness, notably the Sui, Tang and Song periods, Chinese culture absorbed influences from afar. The margins of the empire were important in the evolution of cultural forms and genres – in music, painting, sculpture, pottery, literature and the performing tradition. Independent entertainers and cultural intermediaries spurred the evolution of cultural forms by promoting trade of cultural products from the margins to the centre, throughout the empire, and across cultural continents. The dynamism of cultural markets, bazaars, opera theatres, street life, and tea houses contrasted with the selective display of culture in the royal courts of Beijing, Kaifeng, Chang’an, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Luoyang. Throughout Chinese history the centre tolerated the commercial sphere of cultural activity and facilitated its vitality through festivals, the most prominent being the lunar New Year and the mid-autumn festival. But emperors and high officials looked upon independent artists with suspicion, at lease those that were not co-opted into court academies.
