This year, the Chinese version of my book Ethical Economy was published in August.In this book, I brought up a concept of socialized economy,which means we should use a new,ethical way to develop economy in a social environment.Thus I think we should also bring this idea to the revitalization of Tanhualin, to use the action of protecting cultural heritage as a driver of innovation and creativity.
There are three fundamental elements in a social economy system.First, who decides what is of most historical and cultural value? Second, who creates the future value? Third, what can we do to protect and create new values. From a macroeconomics point of view,all of above are very meaningful for the revitalization of Tanhualin.
Who decides the historical and cultural value of Tanhualin? By government officials? History experts? Or local citizens from Wuchang and Wuhan city? After deciding who should be the decider of the historical and cultural value of this neighborhood, what we should talk about is the practical measures to protect and develop the values.Then the next step should be discussing how we can protect these values. If we were able to finely built these value systems, then the revitalization of Tanhualin should be a great success, which also promote the cultural and economy development of Wuchang and Wuhan city.
Nowadays the economic society is no longer hunger for the maximize of profit but collaboration with different stakeholders from economic and cultural sectors.Thus in the revitalization of Tanhualin, we should put people’s feelings as priority to attract more business value.
Take the case from France for example, like many European countries,France started the protection of cultural heritage long time ago.In fact, it has been a tradition from medieval monarchy to today’s republic.Here is a picture of one of the most famous buildings in France-Le Louvre. During the past 800 years, it has been continuously fixed and rebuilt.In France, the cultural heritage belongs to no one but the public.Thus the protection of cultural heritage is not only to keep its cultural value but the practical use is of same importance.This is the new idea coming from the French Revolution.Government support is vital in the protection of cultural heritage.And France is being quite ambitious in terms of policies for the protection of cultural heritage.And a new initiatives from communities is to promote cultural heritage as a way of economic development.
Now we have a general understanding of the protection of cultural heritage.Then how to protect Tanhualin? How do we implement the theories into practice? For that I have several thoughts as below:First, we need to know what is the cultural fabric of the landscape? Second,we need to have a clear picture about the context and circumstance of Tanhualin;Third,what is the overall climate of Tanhualin with the outside world;Forth, what kind of human capacities and skills can we bring to Tanhualin? Fifth,what is the existing and potential study fields of Tanhualin? Sixth,who are the stakeholders of this project? Seventh, how do we build the relationships among the stakeholders? Eighth,what are the collaboration projects ongoing in Tanhualin? Ninth,based on a comprehensive understanding of the above questions, we should form the future ideas with support from the government policies.
I was very honored to have the opportunity to visit Tanhualin this June.I was totally fascinated by this neighborhood. Now I would like to talk about how do we recreate value of the cultural heritage through an innovative and creative way according to my visit last time.
At that time I saw a public library in Tanhualin which symbolizes co-sharing of the intellectual resources,through which we will be able to protect the historical and cultural heritage of Tanhualin in terms of soft power. Hundreds of years ago, there has already been a library school to train library managers, but how we bring this idea to a higher level? Which means how we train more outstanding managers who can run the cultural industry or other industries? This is something worth discussion.In my point of view, only through a fully understanding of the existing cultural heritage could us discover the future potential value it can bring to us. What I felt in Tanhualin is that it is of a strong cultural atmosphere with happy and friendly local residents. During the past 2 and half years I have been invited to visit many places in China, but what I have seen here is definitely unique.
The revitalization of Tanhualin should not only be driven by policy but by people’s needs. Thus, we would have to ask what are the real needs of the local residents? Only after the local residents feel happier that we could attract more outsiders to come to Tanhualin to visit and live. In fact,for the revitalization of an old district like Tanhualin, it is more of the protection of its cultural value rather than to the original buildings.The inputs of the protection should be in return with more output to create more economic, cultural and social values.
In a report about Mapping the EU-China Cultural and Creative Landscape published by the Ministry of Culture, I contributed some ideas related to this topic, now I would like to share some with you:First,individual cultural entrepreneurship is on the rise in China.
Second,cultural exchange is going beyond ‘learning from each other’towards ‘co-creating’.The revitalization of Tanhualin is the same, we not only need to learn from the successful cases of western countries through newspapers and magazines,but to involve us with those creaters to discuss a fiscal solution for recreating value for Tanhualin.It is actually quite difficult to make this come true though. For example, the government could offer certain public space to invite foreign innovative artists together with some creative local residents to co-establish an art or cultural project which we can put in Tanhualin.
Third,CCI’s development mechanism is shifting from ‘build clusters’to the need for social innovation for the creative class,for they are the driven force of the overall economic development.
Currently we have a project--the Wiki Factory,which is supported by the China Youth Development Foundation,aims to use a innovative collaboration as driven force to promote social development at the same time enables people to customize their own product.For instance we can build an online library which contains all the innovative resources by everyone.Or the local residents from Tanhualin could customize some interesting furniture for the creatively-designed local buildings here .Through the 3D printing, a lot of innovative projects could be realized with very low costs.As a matter of fact,this innovative idea could be applied in the revitalization of a historical district to turn it into a dynamic innovation hub of social impact. Meanwhile,by working together at the innovation hub, local residents shall become the social entrepreneurs who will create value for the economic development of Tanhualin.The core value of the Wiki factory is to provide place and opportunity for the emergence of social entrepreneurs and incubation of innovators.With the policy supported by the government,the innovative project shall be implemented and the training platform shall be established,through which Tanhualin will become more international and attract more talents,social entrepreneurs and innovators to collaborate.This way, Tanhualin will be a place of global and social impact after the revitalization.Thank you!