Digital Arts China

Digital China is moving ahead. No doubt that this country is giving attention not only to computing industries but also from now on more and more to the creation of quality Chinese digital contents and services. As a visiting professor at the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, l had the opportunity to visit a series of Labs and to attend in February 2009 an important meeting devoted to the foundation of a new digital industry national network and base. Hosted by Zhang Zhaoxia, from the China Dance Academy, the meeting was attended by Liu Xu Gyuang, director of the New Media Lab of the Beijing Film Academy, Zhang Xiao Fu, President of the Electronic Music Association of China, Yu Xinbo of the Beijing Opera and Li Ping, CEO of the International Federation of Multimedia Associations. Pr Li Yi Fan, head of the New Media Industry Base of the BIGC made the proposition of creating an alliance of these different Labs allowing to better promote the multimedia convergence of these expertises in China and to start a dialogue with the central government. We may think that they will be well received by a Department of culture eager to support what is now considered as a national priority: Creative Industries.
Meanwhile, the central government has decided to focus on five important cities for a faster development of new media zones: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu and Kouang Tcheou, not to mention Hong Kong's initiatives. Simultaneously Pr Zhang Xiaoming, Deputy Director of Research Center for Human Resources (CASS) organizes each year an international Creative Industries Forum and publishes an annual collective "Blue Book" spported by UNESCO which takes in account the new digital trends.
An other important meeting which l attended at the Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City focused on the importance of developing from now on quality digital contents. Representatives of the government, of printing industries, Jia Lei Lei, president Assistant of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Arts, Zhang Yong director of the Museum, Li Yi Fan of the School of Art Design, Ping Li of FIAM and industry developers agreed upon the idea of accelerating the offer of Chinese contents on line. A World Internet and Multimedia Summit will be held in Shenyang next September.

Confucius turning digital

The well known label Made in China is fast metamorphosing into Created in China. And it is not only promising for cell telephones and computers manufacturing, but also for multimedia design and contents on all screens, including the mobile screens. Again we may announce that Confucius is turning digital.
Hervé Fischer