ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the use of public cultural funding on cultural and creative industries (CCI) promotion in each city. It explores the extent of differences in the cities’ cultural policies in terms of their accommodation of commercialism and encouragement of the use of non-public financial sources for cultural organizations and activities that were previously publicly funded. Case studies of municipal CCI policies in Beijing, Harbin, and Guangzhou will help to better comprehend ‘the Chinese context’ for developing CCI. Regional inequality is important characteristic for the Chinese context. The development of CCI is dependent upon support and guidance through cultural policy. The municipal government of Beijing has displayed an increasingly commercially and digitally oriented trend in supporting local CCI since 2006. Chinese municipal CCI policies are characterized as a hybrid of neoliberalism and authoritarianism, influenced by the pre-existing idea of planned economy and the consideration of welfare provision to different extents, and are inflected by local history and circumstances.
