The 10th China International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) opened in Shenzhen on May 15. The fair has become the main channel for Chinese cultural products and projects to be financed, traded and exported. Through the fair, Chinese cultural products and services reach out to the international world.

Chinese culture on the world stage

“ICIF has witnessed our growth,” said Tang Zeming, the chairman of the board of Zhuhai Sky Culture Communication Co, whose company has attended the exhibition for nine consecutive years. The company first presented in 2006 at the second fair their cartoon image of “Monkey Wukong” (a figure in the Chinese mythological story of “Journey to the West”) extracted from a national animation film they made. Thanks to the fair, the “Monkey Wukong” on paper soon became a variety of derivative products popular in Europe, America, Japan, the Middle East and other international markets.

ICIF abounds in such stories. On another occasion, Guizhou’s folk dance “Colorful Guizhou” became a hit in the second fair and consequently received multiple orders. After the fair, it not only broke a record by giving 300 commercial performances in a year, but was also invited to appear in Russia. Huaqiang Culture and Technology Group’s success is also a good example. At the fourth fair, the Group signed a contract with an Iranian company on the joint building of Fangte Cartoon Park in Iran. Later on, the cartoon park project was also exported to other countries such as South Africa and Ukraine, making China the second major exporter of cultural theme parks after the United States.

An international brand shining brighter

While publicizing Chinese culture to the world, ICIF has achieved an increasing internationalization degree and accumulated growing brand influence.

At the second fair, there were only 3,000 overseas buyers from a few countries, and most of them “just came for a look”. By the sixth year, the number of overseas buyers had grown to 8,500. For the ninth, there were a record high of 16,000 foreign buyers from 93 countries around the world.

Why are more and more overseas buyers becoming interested in the fair? It may be attributed to the organizers’ great efforts to attract investment and promote it in overseas market. Sticking to international operations, the organizers have carried out investment in accordance with the actual situation in different international areas, and established a database of overseas customers. They also launched comprehensive cooperation with a number of overseas agents, intermediaries and brokers, and by using these international partners’ local influence, more and more cultural organizations and procurement agencies have been attracted to participate in ICIF.

In order to realize more successful negotiations and transactions between international buyers and domestic exhibitors, the organizers of CICF always make sufficient preparations in advance. Take the ninth fair as an example. The organizers made tremendous efforts to select exhibitors and projects and arrange the layout of the whole exhibition. As a result, the various projects with good market prospects and high degree of industrialization brought by exhibitors successfully won the attention of international buyers. During the exhibition, 16,347 overseas buyers from 93 countries and regions together contributed to an export turnover of 12.382 billion yuan, an increase of 860 million yuan over the previous year.

Culture can be promoted by means of trade. As its brand influence keeps growing in the international arena, ICIF has become an accelerator for promoting China 's foreign trade in cultural and creative industries, helping the Chinese culture to go farther in the world.