From getting in touch with cultural industry to interested in relevant courses, and to devoting myself in the major of “Cultural Industry and Arts Management” is quite interesting and unexpected journey for me. Back in 2008, I was a normal sophomore studying in “Journalism (economic news)”. However, I was not thrilling to learn “interviewing, writing, editing, commenting, or photographing”, and I always wanted to change my subject to “Finance” or “Economics”. By chance, in a class, the teacher mentioned the future trend of the huge development of cultural industry so as to encourage us to study hard and devote ourselves to the media industry. That, in a way, helped excite my curiosity towards cultural industry.

After graduating from the university, I had a job in a high-tech company. I participated in project management and negotiation with foreign companies and suppliers. During this period, though I had a good job, but I longed to study cultural industry and arts management increasingly from the bottom of my heart. All those good experiences that I had before in watching dramas and plays, and setting and visiting arts exhibitions, had continuously occurred. Therefore, after gaining certain English communicating experience, I applied for a further study in the UK where the cultural industry were developed relatively earlier and growth prosperously.

In November 2014, I received the master's degree from the Management School of the University of Sheffield. My subject is “Creative and Cultural Industries Management”. I have learned courses such as Introduction to Creative and Cultural Industry, Cultural Marketing, Managing Creative Brands, Cultural Leadership and Management, Art Fairs, Festivals and Exhibitions, Funding Mechanisms (Sponsorship and Philanthropy) and so on. My dissertation is about the effectiveness of branding art organizations, and it focuses on the difference between the brand image that receivers (audience) have and the brand identity that senders (art organizations) try to build from the perspective of marketing and branding. Thanks to two years’ study aboard, I gained a theoretical understanding of the cultural industry.

During the weekends and vacations, I liked to wander around different cultural quarters, museums, galleries and theatres, and had a little chit-chat with professors and staffs in the school. That really helps me learning the reality of the cultural market. What influenced me most was: after the financial crisis, the government cut the public funding for the cultural industry and arts sector seriously. It was undoubtedly severe for most cultural organizations, which had 70% of income from the public funding. Some small organizations thus disappeared. There were many disputes over cutting the public funding or arts funding. Some believed that it could help cultural and arts organizations to adapt to the market; others considered that it would lead to culture inequality, simplification and commercialization.

When I came back to China, I had a great opportunity to participate in "The 4th Seminar of Chinese-French Cultural Management Professionals", “the Sino-UK Performing Arts Skills Exchange Symposium” and other academic activities organized by NCRICA, and many of them were discussing about the source of funds. Thus, I found that while the cultural industry is flourishing in China, it also encounters the issues about its funding source and the contradiction between cultural value and commercial value. Therefore, that draw my interest specialized in the structure of funding source of cultural and arts organizations in China. Will different capital source structures lead to different organization missions? Will organizations thus produce different cultural and arts products? Will they distribute money in different ways? Which organizations with what kind of capital source structure are likely to gain audiences’ donations and corporates’ sponsorships? There are series of such practical problems that I am eager to find answers and to explore the corresponding solutions. In the meantime, I also hope that by answering those questions, I may lay a certain foundation for my future career in the cultural industry and arts sector, and hopefully, with my ability, I can contribute to the industry development.