2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the performing arts industry, as the main force of cultural exchange, was one of the earliest cultural fields in China to have close exchanges with the world, and it was an important channel for the international dissemination of the voice of Chinese culture. For 70 years, China has remained steadfast in its cultural confidence, taking literary and artistic exchanges as an important way to "tell the story of China well", leveraging the unique advantage of art as a world language, and striving to promote more outstanding literary and artistic troupes and stage works to "go global", spreading the Chinese spirit and showcasing the Chinese style. Traditional arts such as opera, acrobatics, and folk music, as important symbols of excellent traditional Chinese culture, showcase Chinese aesthetics and culture in the process of going global; Ballet, symphony, opera and other imported art forms continue to develop and grow in exchanges between China and foreign countries, expanding the means and carriers of "telling the story of China well". More and more masterpieces embodying the essence of Chinese culture and demonstrating the development and progress of contemporary China and the wonderful life of contemporary Chinese people are going abroad, entering the mainstream market and influencing the mainstream population.

With the continuous development of the domestic cultural industry towards the positioning goal of pillar industries, the performing arts industry is also undergoing a transformation from being dominated by cultural exchange to a combination of exchange and trade. The introduction of high-quality international plays has become the norm, and the domestic market's understanding and preference for diverse performance forms such as musicals, dances, and dramas from around the world continue to improve; More and more Chinese theater troupes and productions are appearing at international art festivals, and the types of commercial performances exported overseas continue to diversify. The protection, continuation, and innovation of local performing arts, especially traditional performing arts, have been effective, and overseas markets are constantly being explored... In 2019, China's performing arts industry has continued to cooperate across borders, and the supply and demand, trade scale and mode, and enterprise practices of the performing arts foreign trade market have more distinct industry characteristics and patterns worth exploring. Continuous tracking and analysis of performing arts trade across years is particularly important and valuable.

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the entire performing arts industry, and many performing arts enterprises and troupes are facing the challenge of survival. This article aims to summarize the development and characteristics of the Chinese performing arts market in 2019, and propose suggestions to promote the development of foreign trade in performing arts, which can provide reference for Chinese performing arts practitioners to quickly emerge from the shadow of the epidemic.

Overview of the Development of China's Performing Arts Market in 2019

（1） The popularity of the performing arts market remains strong in 2019

In 2019, the performing arts industry remained one of the main markets for China's cultural industry, with a box office of 20.041 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.29%, surpassing the box office growth rate of the film market. Theater, concert, and tourism performances are advancing simultaneously, forming a tripartite situation. Among them, theater performances maintain the first place with a box office of 8.403 billion yuan, while tourism performances have the fastest growth rate, with a year-on-year increase of 9.58% and a box office of 7.379 billion yuan. Concert performances have a box office of 4.259 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 6.88%. According to a survey conducted by the China Tourism Research Institute and the Shanghai Chuangtu Public Culture and Leisure Joint Laboratory, entertainment consumption became the most important cultural consumption area in China in 2019, accounting for over 40%. The trend of "youthfulness" in the consumption structure of the performing arts market is evident, showing characteristics of "low frequency, high unit price, and stable output". The purchasing power of "post-95s" continues to rise, becoming the main force of movie performance consumption, and cross city viewing has become the norm. The theater performance presents the following characteristics.

1. The popularity of children's dramas continues

According to the data from the China Performance Industry Association, there were nearly 20000 performances of children's dramas in 2019, with a total box office of over 1 billion yuan, making it still a popular performing arts category in the market. At the same time, due to the boost effect of introducing children's dramas, ticket prices for children's dramas have increased. The average price of domestically produced children's dramas is within 100 yuan, but the original imported plays are priced at 380 yuan, 480 yuan, 580 yuan, or even higher. In addition, some well-known overseas IPs have very high manufacturing costs, but they are also very popular in the market due to their high popularity.

2. Expansion of Musical Theatre Market

In 2019, the musical format was recognized by more audiences, and musicals that were originally niche and limited to big cities finally "went viral" and entered the mass market. Variety shows continue to help musical stars and attract audiences to come into theaters to watch live performances of musicals. For example, the theme song of the musical "Me, Don Quixote", which appeared in the program "Sound of the Heart", had a very impressive box office performance in its final round, and even temporarily added seats, setting the best record for the drama's 7-year domestic tour.

For a long time, original musicals imported from Broadway in New York, USA and the West End of London, UK have been the mainstay of the Chinese musical market. In 2019, many well-known plays such as "Cats," "Chicago," "House for Rent," and "Mrs. Belon" toured in the domestic market. Among them, "Cats" and "Chicago" further entered the second and third tier city markets and received good market response. At the same time, domestic original musicals gradually emerged in 2019. The musicals "Endless Sorrow" and "When Love Has Become a Past", created based on classic songs by singers such as Huang Shujun and Li Zongsheng, have become popular in the market due to their good music audience base; Shanghai Culture Square has launched the "2019 Chinese Original Musical Incubation Plan", which has incubated 77 scripts and 3 new dramas with an investment of less than 2 million yuan, promoting the rise of original power and the development of Chinese musical theater.

3. Dance genres are showing a diversified development trend

Compared to art genres such as drama and musicals, dance art has a higher appreciation threshold and has always had a smaller market share in the performance market. However, in 2019, several dance dramas became popular, and a group of outstanding young actors gained public attention, unleashing more possibilities for dance art performances. The dance drama "Eternal Radio Waves" has been hard to come by since its release, making the main theme a "hit". The dance drama has toured 100 times nationwide in less than a year, and the performance schedule for 2020-2021 is almost fully booked; The dance drama "Awakening Lion" based on traditional Lingnan culture was warmly sought after by young audiences as soon as it was released, and even became popular before it was performed. Tickets were quickly sold out during its first performance; The dance drama 'Confucius' has been performed over 400 times around the world; The performance of 'A Pickled Jujube' has exceeded 1000 shows. Taking ballet, the main force in the dance market, as an example, more than 35% of dance performances in 2019 were ballet performances, which continued to grow. On the one hand, the market heat comes from international renowned groups bringing high-quality performances to China, and classic works have attracted the attention of many ballet enthusiasts; On the other hand, professional ballet troupes in China are continuously promoting classic ballet performances while emphasizing the popularization of ballet art education, cultivating more and more young audiences to enter the theater.

4. The government continues to support the development of traditional drama

In the first to third quarters of 2019, there were 12200 performances of traditional Chinese opera, with a box office revenue of 682 million yuan. In 2019, the content creation and performance forms of traditional Chinese opera continued to innovate, with not only cross-border cooperation but also high-tech integration. Innovative plays such as the modern Kunqu opera "I, Hamlet" and the 3D Peking Opera film "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu" provide audiences with a unique theatrical experience, seeking a balance between inheritance and innovation. Faced with problems such as limited audience, small stage size, and a shortage of actors, various small drama genres are trying their best to break through. While retaining the essence of small drama genres, they actively innovate and explore the path of survival and development suitable for local drama genres. In 2019, various regions across the country also provided varying degrees of government subsidies for related opera genres, supporting the development of various types of opera groups. The central government has invested 389 million yuan to distribute about 80000 performances, mainly local operas, to 12984 impoverished towns and villages, providing a cultural feast for grassroots people.

（2） Diversified business models for performing arts

With the influx of financial capital into the performing arts industry and the increasing maturity and growth of performing arts enterprises, the operation mode of China's performing arts market is constantly innovating. Equity financing, mergers and acquisitions, brand chain operations, etc. have become powerful tools for performing arts enterprises to expand their market. In the first half of 2019, there were a total of 28 performing arts and related companies listed on China's New Third Board, with a total operating revenue of approximately 910 million yuan from January to June (see Table 1). Previously, industry giants such as Songcheng Performing Arts have been listed among the top cultural industry companies in China. In 2019, Songcheng Performing Arts had a total operating revenue of 2.615 billion yuan and a net profit of 1.342 billion yuan. The business model of Songcheng Performing Arts is "theme park+cultural performance", relying on the two major brands of "Eternal Love" and "Songcheng", providing tourists with theme park play experience and performance viewing services centered on "Eternal Love", and realizing business income through ticket collection. Live performance is the company's core business and main source of income.

表1 2019年上半年在中国新三板上市的28家演艺及相关企业营业收入情况

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Table 1 Revenue of 28 performing arts and related companies listed on the Chinese New Third Board in the first half of 2019

（3） The trend of diversified development of industrial formats is obvious

The complementary development of performing arts and commerce has always been the basic sustainable business logic of the performing arts industry, and it is also a necessary stage for the large-scale development of the performing arts industry. Using performing arts as a commercial attraction to attract people and using commerce to feed back the operation of performing arts. Large scale commercial facilities first emerged as on-site performances in theme parks, and now newly established independent performing arts projects are often linked to commercial facilities for operation. The development momentum of new cultural formats is strong, especially in cultural and tourism towns and theme parks that actively embrace new technologies, new concepts, and new content, unify the layout of differentiated and complementary formats, and unify the operation and management mode of resource scheduling, which has brought a lot of inspiration to the performing arts industry.

Under the trend of diversified development in the entertainment industry, each part is no longer the primary and secondary relationship between entertainment content and supporting businesses, but a symbiotic relationship between you and me, and me and you. Shanghai has innovatively proposed the concept of "new space for performing arts". The "New Performing Arts Space" refers to a public performing arts space that is scattered in the central urban area outside of large and medium-sized professional theaters, suitable for holding characteristic performing arts activities. These public performing arts spaces can be museums, art centers, physical bookstores, cultural and creative parks, and even shopping malls, office buildings, hotels, restaurants, tea houses, etc. These performance areas are located in a corner of the public space, with no less than 80 seats. The performances can be flexibly adjusted according to the season, environment, and atmosphere, truly integrating performing arts into urban life. The various "new performing arts spaces" radiating around the core performing arts landmark "Shanghai World" in Shanghai aim to create performing arts specialty stores and form exclusive features - the unique architecture of Xintian'an Hall has become an excellent venue for holographic projection performances; The elegant performance space of Hongqiao Kangdesi Hotel and the music space of Sinan Mansion 288 are suitable for creating environmental drama; Reader Bookstore has signed a contract with Ruyu Culture and Art Studio for 50 innovative book guided performances; Da Yin Jing She incorporates the performances of the popular cross-talk group Tian Yun She into her daily program as a content engine to attract readers; The Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art has set up 2100 seats in its 4000 square meter exhibition space, transforming it into a performance area; The 3600 square meter Lafayette Art Center has a performance carrying capacity of up to 1000 seats; The Peace Hotel will incorporate jazz performances, folk music concerts, and theatrical performances into its daily operations; Commercial complexes such as Hong Kong Metropolis, Kaide Jingcui Plaza, Yifeng Bund Source, Shimao Plaza, and Ala City have all set up core locations ranging from 100 square meters to 300 square meters for hosting performance events; The cultural and creative park has transformed the rental mode of the venue into cooperative joint ventures and box office revenue sharing; The old wharf of Chuangyi SPACE, BFC cultural and creative center, and 101 new performing arts space will introduce a number of unique performing arts activities. From the first half of 2018 to the first half of 2019, the proportion of entertainment consumption in the commercial district where the core area of Shanghai Performing Arts World is located increased from 6.11% to 9.70%, and the overall growth rate of consumption reached 10.11%, significantly higher than the average growth rate of 1.2% in the city's commercial districts. The benefits brought by the composite format of the performing arts industry can be seen.

（4） The integration of technology and performing arts is more widely applied

1. The use of cutting-edge new technologies

Since its inception, performing arts has been constantly embracing new technologies - from the use of mechanical equipment in 16th century Italian stage settings, to the introduction of electricity and lighting, to computerized intelligent control of lighting, sound effects, and scene transitions... The development of technology has brought stunning viewing experiences to performing arts. By 2019, with the launch of 5G communication technology, the daily applications of VR, AR, and MR technologies have gradually spread... The rapid upgrading and replacement of technology has also brought more intersections between the performing arts industry and the application of science and technology, and technology is changing the way performance is expressed. Technology devices such as light and shadow utilize sound, light, and electricity for artistic creation, presenting different viewing effects and artistic characteristics from traditional performing arts in terms of intensity, color, and atmosphere. The Internet also forces performing arts to have more interaction and direct contact with the audience. In 2019, director Meng Jinghui, known for his experimental drama, attempted the practical application of new technology in the theater of "Chengdu Stealing Heart". The team divided the 8600 square meter venue into 168 performance spaces, integrating various forms of artistic content such as performance, photography, multimedia imaging, and visual arts; The multimedia musical "Mirror World" combines strings, dance, and video, with dancers dancing on stage with four virtual "clones"; Pianist Lang Lang and virtual idol Luo Tianyi completed a concert with tens of thousands of people, while Song Siheng played "Blue Danube" with robots... The application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, imaging technology, and interaction technology has revolutionized people's viewing experience.

2. The integration of technology and performing arts is gradually becoming standardized

Technology has opened up infinite possibilities for the future of entertainment, but this does not mean that technology can replace entertainment. Even artificial intelligence can only bring the support of data and algorithms to the performing arts, and can only stylize and technologize the content to enhance its expressive power. It cannot replace the emotions and imagination of the performing arts themselves, nor does it possess important social and cultural functions such as artistic symbolism and criticality. Therefore, the integration and development of performing arts and technology will always be based on the strong technological foundation of technology, and the direction of the performing arts industry's development will not and cannot be determined by technology. Technology can provide rich inspiration for the creation of performing arts. Although the practical application of technology is still on the road to maturity, it is precisely this stage where technology is not yet finalized that gives performing arts more space for free and dominant development.

The application of technology in the performing arts industry is becoming increasingly standardized and systematic. In January 2020, Shanghai Zhongyan Stage Technology Research Institute was established, becoming the first non-profit social service organization engaged in stage technology research in the cultural field in China. It will provide more theoretical and technical support for the integration of technology and the performing arts industry.

（5） Legislation on cultural industries provides legal protection for the development of the performing arts industry

1. Legalization of cultural industry policies

In December 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism drafted the "Cultural Industry Promotion Law (Draft for Review)" and publicly solicited opinions from the society. The draft focuses on the two core issues of "what to promote" and "how to promote", legalizing effective cultural and economic policies. In the past 20 years, the basic experience and effective models of promoting the development of the cultural industry in China have been elevated to law and determined in legal form, marking the legalization of cultural industry policies, highlighting the importance that the country attaches to the cultural industry, and demonstrating the important contribution of the value of the cultural industry to China's economic development. This means that China's cultural industry development strategy has entered a new stage. Although the draft of the Cultural Industry Promotion Law (for review) does not have specific provisions for the performing arts industry, it has determined to support the development of the cultural industry from three key links: creative production, cultural enterprises, and cultural markets. It also provides support and guarantees for the cultural industry in terms of talent, technology, finance, and taxation. In addition, the draft of the Cultural Industry Promotion Law (for review) specifically mentions that the country implements the strategy of cultural excellence, organizes cultural excellence exhibitions and performances, and creates excellent works; Encourage and support the application of technology in traditional cultural industries such as performing arts and entertainment, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional cultural industries. These legislative supports will effectively cover the entertainment industry and promote the rule of law in the entertainment market.

2. Government led industrial governance structure that emphasizes both social and economic benefits

There are two typical models for promoting the development of cultural industries internationally: one is the "inaction" model, with the United States as a typical example, where the government does not intervene in the specific affairs of cultural industry development and the private sector leads the direction of industrial development; Another type is the government led "proactive" model represented by France, Japan, and South Korea, but there are differences in the specific types of cultural industry policies. The French cultural industry policy emphasizes social benefits and leans towards "culture"; The cultural industry policy in South Korea emphasizes economic benefits and leans towards "industry"; Japan's cultural industry policy falls between France and South Korea, but is more focused on economic benefits.

The basic experience of promoting the development of cultural industry in China is government led, with a "binary bias" structure in the type of cultural industry policies led by the government. It adheres to the dual social and economic benefits of culture, while placing more emphasis on cultural policies. The policy structure of the cultural industry with a "binary bias" is mainly reflected in the provisions of the draft on the development direction of the cultural industry, as well as the relevant institutional design and arrangements that adhere to the priority of social benefits and the unity of social benefits and economic benefits.

Characteristics of China's Performing Arts Industry's Foreign Trade Development in 2019

（1） The continuous diversification of performing arts trade targets

With the continuous innovation of performance forms, venues, and media, the changes in the subject matter of performing arts trade are increasingly moving beyond the traditional stage form framework. The performance environment and even the audience have become part of the performance content. The open performance trend and interactive viewing experience have given rise to "immersive performances", which have aroused huge consumer demand in the Chinese market and attracted internationally renowned immersive performances to be introduced into the Chinese performing arts market. The subject matter of performing arts trade is no longer just the content itself, but includes scenes, routes, and even buildings, with stronger customized attributes, aiming to bring heart moving experiences to domestic audiences.

In 2018 alone, the global immersive entertainment industry reached a scale of 4.5 billion US dollars, and in the past five years, the number of global immersive experience design suppliers has grown rapidly at a rate of 20%. The immersive entertainment industry in China has been on the rise since 2016. According to 36Kr statistics, 70% of domestic immersive entertainment related IPs have been born in the past two years. The number of companies engaged in the immersive entertainment industry has also increased from 20 in 2016 to 220 in 2018, with 20% belonging to the performing arts industry. The 3800% search growth of "immersive experiences" in 2019 reflects the Chinese market's attention and consumer demand for immersive experiences.

In terms of brand influence, content quality, and market response, the most successful immersive performance in import trade is undoubtedly the contemporary classic performance "Sleepless Night" in Europe and America. The Chinese version of 'Sleepless Night', jointly created by Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group and the British Punchdrunk team, features scenes transformed from over 90 rooms on the 6th floor of the McKinnon Hotel in the 1930s, covering an area of more than 6000 square meters. The entire performance process does not require seating, completely subverting the traditional frame style viewing experience, and giving the audience the right to explore independently. The audience can achieve scene and plot transitions while moving, and can participate more in the actors' performances. Countless hidden and exquisite details are hidden in numerous scenes such as specimen rooms, pharmacies, cemeteries, bamboo forests, and mental hospitals, requiring the audience to search for them themselves. The performance builds a transcendent reality for the audience in a complete architectural space. Dreams. Sleepless Night "has long maintained the record of selling out three months ahead of schedule. From its premiere in 2016 to the end of 2019, it has performed a total of 917 consecutive shows, with an average attendance rate of 95%, a cumulative audience of over 303000, and a cumulative box office of 198 million yuan. Despite an average high ticket price of 710 yuan, the repurchase rate of 'Sleepless Night' still reaches 30%. Among all types of performances in the domestic entertainment market, the demand scale and consumer loyalty generated by a single play are astonishing. In addition, 'Sleepless Night' is rooted in Shanghai, an international city, and its consumer base has covered the whole country and even overseas. Among all the audience groups, only 52.8% are from Shanghai, while the proportion of viewers from other cities in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) reaches 41.7%, with 11.8% from the Long Triangle region; The proportion of audiences from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan is 1.5%, while the proportion of overseas audiences is 4%.

As an integrated architectural performance, "Sleepless Night" has effectively developed a derivative income model related to entertainment. At the same time, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group actively integrates brands from various related industries such as hotels, fast-moving consumer goods, lifestyle, and movies for cross-border cooperation to fully explore the market benefits of entertainment content. With "Sleepless Night" as the core, it implements a "1+N" operation model to attract more new audiences and improve consumer stickiness. In addition to the direct box office revenue of 198 million yuan, the performance also generated 15 million yuan in bar and derivative income, 36.5 million yuan in self operated business and rental income, and 20 million yuan in brand sponsorship income. Nearly 27% of the total revenue of about 270 million yuan came from derivative income outside the box office.

At the same time, based on the strong IP of "Sleepless Night" and mature experience in creation and operation, Shanghai Wenguang Performing Arts Group has also attempted to innovate local immersive performances, such as the Halloween immersive theme party Coven launched in 2017, the attempt to expand performance time in "Room 802" in 2018, and the immersive party "Midsummer Night: Dream" focused on socializing in 2019, all of which are the positive developments brought by the import of performing arts to the creative end.

（2） The boundaries of the performing arts trade industry are becoming increasingly blurred

1. The concept of performing arts is becoming increasingly difficult to define

More and more performances are difficult to define using traditional "performing arts" concepts, such as light and shadow shows that do not require actor participation and can be achieved solely through projection equipment, immersive exhibitions that can present different visual effects with the audience's movements, and virtual artist performances using holographic projection technology.

2. Lowering the threshold for performing arts creation

The involvement of the Internet will greatly change the way in which performing arts products are created, produced and marketed, and give everyone the opportunity to become content creators and communicators (Tiktok). Under the general trend of online content payment, people will also be willing to buy creative and novel performance content produced by individuals on the Internet platform, which may come from any corner of the world. The audience not only exhibits a stronger preference for entertainment consumption, but also has a greater impact on the creation of entertainment content and even becomes a producer of entertainment content themselves.

3. Cross disciplinary integration of performing arts is becoming increasingly evident

Other cultural industries are increasingly integrating into the content or form of performing arts, among which the tourism industry is most closely integrated with the performing arts industry. China has numerous tourist cities and destinations, with a large number of tourists and a huge demand for the performance market in cultural tourism. Tourism and performing arts have become an important growth point for promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism, thanks to their rapid increase in production and growth in the performance market. In April 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Tourism Performing Arts", with the main goal of improving the tourism performing arts industry chain and comprehensively driving related industries. It encourages the development of small and medium-sized, themed, characteristic, and customized tourism performing arts projects, forming a multi-level and diversified supply system; Deepen cross-border cooperation, promote tourism and entertainment exchange and cooperation with neighboring countries and regions, organize cross-border festival co hosting, brand building, cultural assistance and other activities, and give priority to promoting the creation of cross-border tourism and entertainment programs by national border tourism pilot zones and border comprehensive tourism demonstration zones; Provide convenience for tourism performance business entities to carry out cooperation and build international marketing networks overseas, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road", and allow the introduction of foreign capital to invest in the domestic tourism performance market according to law. Sanya, Beijing and other cities have planned and constructed international performing arts towns, creating large-scale cultural and tourism projects with performing arts as the core.

（3） Performing arts foreign trade platform plays a greater role

1. China Performance Trade Fair

The China Performance Fair is an annual industry event hosted by the China Performance Industry Association. It is an important platform for showcasing performance achievements, inspiring cultural creativity, expanding market channels, and enhancing communication and exchange. It includes sections such as the Performance Project Fair, Performance Project Promotion Fair, Project Promotion SHOWCASE, China Cultural Products International Marketing Annual Conference, National Theater Conference, Performance Investment Matchmaking and Exchange Fair, as well as a special issue for the fair. After more than ten years of development, the China Performance Fair has gained widespread recognition in the industry, gained a good reputation, and formed a certain brand influence. It is striving to become an important channel for two-way flow between the domestic and international markets.

2. Regional Performing Arts Resource Trading Platform

Regions with developed performing arts markets are also exploring the establishment of international performance trading and service platforms. The Great World Performing Arts Resource Trading Platform, launched during the 2019 Shanghai International Art Festival in China, is a product display center, promotion center, incubation center, and trading center based on the resource advantages of the "Great World of Performing Arts - People's Square Theater Group". It has become a producer, exporter, and operator of global performing arts cultural content and industry models. Currently, it is designated as a commercial performance service platform by many chambers of commerce and enterprises in Shanghai.

The Big World Performing Arts Resource Trading Platform consists of four major sections: performing arts projects, business performing arts, performing arts programs, and performing arts spaces. The platform integrates about 700 performing arts programs and projects, over 100 professional performance groups, and 30 performance venues. In addition, nearly 200 performing arts service institutions such as stage design equipment and event planning have also settled on the trading platform. More entertainment artists, entertainment agents, entertainment producers, entertainment equipment and other sectors are also under development. The Big World Performing Arts Resource Trading Platform also focuses on the construction of intelligent and digital platforms. Not only can the ranking and search of popular plays and resources be checked, but the intention and actual order data of performing arts transactions can also be tracked in real time. Moreover, purchasing intentions can be confirmed through one click ordering on mobile phones. The Big World Performing Arts Resource Trading Platform will gradually establish a membership service system and set up a flat resource aggregation management platform with Shanghai Big World as the central resource repository, with resource sub centers established in cities across the country and even globally. The "2020 Annual Meeting of Enterprises (Chambers of Commerce) in Shanghai and Business Entertainment Resource Procurement Conference" launched by the Big World Entertainment Resource Trading Platform at the end of 2019 attracted nearly 1000 domestic and international entertainment companies to participate, resulting in a procurement amount of nearly 6 million yuan for entertainment content.

3. Performing Arts/Theater/Theater Alliance

Regional performing arts/theater/theater alliances are beneficial for the unified allocation of resources within the alliance, effectively avoiding market information asymmetry, reducing marketing costs for performing arts, and improving the utilization of performing arts resources between performers, theaters, and theaters. At the same time, as a larger platform, the alliance has greater say in the market, which can alleviate the inefficiency and low risk resistance of members operating alone in the international market to a certain extent, and improve the overall interests of alliance members. According to statistics from Dao Lue Performing Arts, from the end of 2018 to the end of 2019, a total of 10 provincial, municipal, and regional performing arts alliances were established in China, including Shaanxi Performing Arts Alliance, Xi'an Tourism Performing Arts Alliance, Shanxi Performing Arts Theater Alliance, Jiangxi Performing Arts Theater Alliance, Guangdong Public Welfare Theater Alliance, Shanghai Performing Arts World Alliance, Nanjing Small Theater Theater Alliance, Western China Performing Arts Alliance, Yangtze River Delta Small Theater Alliance, and Grand Canal Theater Alliance. The aim is to create a platform for resource coordination and information sharing, and promote industry scale development through standardized and large-scale operations.

（4） Further integration of the performing arts foreign trade industry chain

In the process of the slow development of the performance industry towards scale and closed-loop industry, a variety of ways of industrial chain integration have emerged, including the industrial linkage across film and television, games, performance and other industries with IP as the core, the integration from the performance brokerage or ticketing end to the upstream creative end of the industry, and the integration from the Internet media end to the performance content end. However, regardless of the form of industry chain integration trend, it is mainly initiated by non core enterprises in the performing arts industry, which is also related to the small scale, light assets, and low market share of performing arts entities in the Chinese performing arts market.

1. Cross industry linkage

In recent years, performing arts has become an important form for popular cultural IPs to further expand their audience and repeatedly develop the commercial value of IPs. From novels, movies to games, entertainment has become a powerful means for copyright holders to tap into audience loyalty and maintain the popularity and vitality of their IP. The extremely high upgrade and iteration speed of game IP is a double-edged sword, facing high-frequency elimination risks while rapidly creating market value. The leap from gaming to entertainment not only enhances the storytelling and artistic connotation of IP, but also correspondingly increases the cultural added value of gaming IP itself. Popular performances can attract users, increase user stickiness and activity, and good performances can effectively convert some audiences into new game users, even driving the sales of peripheral derivatives.

The popular game IP "Onmyoji" under NetEase Games is a typical example of IP multi industry linkage. Onmyoji "is a 3D Japanese style Japanese style turn based RPG (role-playing game) independently developed by NetEase Games. The game is designed against the backdrop of the Heian period in" Genji Monogatari "and tells the story of the legendary Japanese folk figure, Onmyoji Seimei, exploring his own memories in both the Onmyoji and Onmyoji realms. The beautiful art style and exquisite game soundtrack of "Onmyoji" provide players with a gaming experience of traveling through the peaceful ancient capital, and have always been praised by players. It has created a peak of over ten million active users and is a phenomenal mobile game. In the two years following its release in 2017, "Onmyoji" also faced the dilemma of declining user numbers. Faced with the reality, NetEase resolutely took a step forward from the "anime" image of Internet game animation to the "third dimension" performance offline. In 2018, NetEase collaborated with the Japanese gold medal musical production company Nelke Group to produce the musical "Onmyoji". The Purun International team, which has rich experience in stage play operation in China, was entrusted with the full operation, and all performances were performed by professional Japanese stage play actors, completing the landing of the musical "Onmyoji". The musical version has undergone secondary creation based on the game content, highly reproducing the character scenes in the game while having an independent original story, avoiding monotonous replication of the original game.

In 2019, the second season of the musical "Onmyoji" titled "Chapter of the Great River" was performed in 9 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Changsha, Xi'an, and Zhengzhou for 40 consecutive shows, receiving enthusiastic support from audiences. The tour box office exceeded 25 million yuan, and the attendance rate was also as high as 90%. The proportion of viewers watching the show again exceeded 50%, and some viewers even "binge watched" the show multiple times in a row. The market's recognition of musicals has once again boosted the popularity of the game version of "Onmyoji" - during the tour, the daily online rate of "Onmyoji" increased by 15% synchronously, and the sales of derivative products also reached 40 million yuan. In the second half of 2019, "Onmyoji" achieved a gaming industry revenue of 2.7 billion yuan. Releasing IP from a single industry allows performing arts to leverage complementary advantages with other industries, achieving a virtuous cycle in the market.

2. Integration from the backend to the frontend of the industry

The trend of integrated development of China's performing arts industry chain in 2019 has become prominent. Performing arts companies have stronger bargaining power than their competitors by simultaneously controlling the creative end, performing arts venues, performing arts agencies, and ticketing marketing, whether targeting performing arts troupes, theaters, or consumers. The integration of the industrial chain can effectively convert external costs into lower internal costs; The vertical integration of the industrial chain has given performing arts enterprises the opportunity to complete product upgrades, replacements, and even industry iterations more quickly.

Jucheng.com was founded in Shenzhen in 2007, initially as an online social platform aimed at organizing offline activities for end consumers. In 2008, the company transformed to carry out performance ticket business and became a ticket marketing platform integrating social functions. By virtue of the rapid rise of performance ticket distribution rights of major theaters, it established an Internet ticketing system covering major cities in China and realized rapid realization of market dividends. Since 2009, we have focused on the entertainment brokerage business and rapidly expanded our market with the advantages of multiple shows, low costs, and low ticket prices, as well as excellent promotion capabilities, using a chain retail mindset to achieve layout in multiple cities across the country. In 2013, Ju Cheng further advanced along the performing arts industry chain, highly integrated industry resources, vigorously expanded theater management business, and gained more say in the middle of the industry chain. It has strong bargaining power in both domestic and international markets for performance procurement. In 2015, Ju Cheng further integrated its upstream industries, seized the trend of the domestic musical theater market becoming increasingly popular, and set its sights on Broadway, the birthplace of overseas musicals. It began investing in overseas musical projects and selected the most marketable original musicals to participate in investment and production in the early stages of creation; Ju Cheng Investment's 28 musicals have won 20 Tony Awards, including the "Best Musical" award, and 62 nominations. Once overseas musicals mature in the market, they become a musical brand controlled by Ju Cheng, providing it with core entertainment content resources that competitors cannot seize in the domestic entertainment market. In 2019, Ju Cheng expanded from performance agency to artist agency, signing artists to provide more support and guarantee for original performance content. At the same time, Ju Cheng's huge international and domestic performance platforms are also the confidence for the future development and growth of its artist agency business. Up to now, Ju Cheng has a total of 16 subsidiaries. In 2017, the company's total revenue exceeded 800 million yuan, with a profit of over 85 million yuan and an average annual growth rate of 10%. It has developed into the largest and industry-leading private performance institution in China, with the ability to host performances in nearly 90 cities across the country. Ju Cheng Theater has operated and jointly operated 109 theaters, making it the theater chain with the largest number of operating theaters in China. Jucheng has a huge influence in the Chinese market. Taking musicals as an example, from 2017 to 2019, Jucheng musicals were staged in a total of 1123 cities across the country, with a cumulative audience of over 1 million people. Among them, there were 458 musicals operated by Jucheng.com in 2019.

Jucheng created the "F-3C" model of "Finance+Content+Channel+Customer". It has formed ten sub brands, including ticket sales, theater management, parent-child cultural entertainment, independent music labels, concert brands, international musicals, Internet drama platforms, tourism performance, derivatives around performance, and cultural and creative funds. It has been in the forefront of children's plays, musicals, pop music and other sub performance fields. It has rooted in each key link of the performance industry chain, consolidated the layout of the whole industry chain, and gradually completed its own closed-loop system. With a complete layout of the entertainment industry chain, Jucheng has further shortened the incubation cycle of original entertainment IPs, making it possible to shorten the 2-3 year cycle from IP generation to commercialization to 1 year.

3. Integration of Internet media into performance content

The Internet platform, with its strong online user traffic and platform role, is also in line with the content end of the performing arts industry. As one of the leading digital music companies in China, KuGou Music attempted to operate an offline theater in 2019 by launching the "KuGou KuArt · Excellent Drama Exhibition" project, responsible for the operation of the Guangzhou Tianhe District Cultural and Art Center Grand Theater. Combining its own resources and experience, it actively integrated into the construction of "culture benefiting the people" with 93 different types of performances and activities, enriching the cultural life of 30000 local audiences and promoting the cultivation and activation of the local art market. At the same time, this is the first time that Guangzhou United Internet Corporation has participated in theater operation. For Internet enterprises such as Kugou, as an online download entity, the performance theater can not only give full play to the advantages of existing performance resources, cultural content integration capabilities and operating experience, but also promote the application of "Internet plus" technology, so that the theater has a broader imagination and innovation possibilities.

（5） The National Arts Fund continues to support performing arts projects' going global '

1. Stable scale of communication and promotion funding projects

The National Arts Fund has continued its support for the performing arts industry in previous years. Among the 1100 projects planned to be funded in 2019, 629 projects are from the performing arts industry, accounting for 57%. Not only are there specialized small-scale stage plays and works, large-scale stage plays and works categories for performing arts, but a considerable number of performing arts projects have also been approved in the funding for young artistic creation talents, artistic talent training, and communication and promotion. Among them, communication and promotion funding projects account for 10% of all performing arts projects (see Figure 1), slightly lower than in 2018. The number of small-scale stage plays (programs) and works, as well as performing arts projects funded by young artistic creation talents, has significantly increased, with an increase of 27% and 65% respectively compared to similar projects planned for funding in 2018, reflecting the country's support for the development of a large number of small-scale performing arts plays and young performing arts talents.

Figure 1 Distribution of Performing Arts and Related Projects in the 2019 National Arts Fund Proposed Funding Projects

Since 2019, with the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Finance, the National Arts Fund has also added an annual "General (Regional) Project" to its annual "General Projects", specifically providing moderate support for projects in provinces and regions included in the national western development strategy and rural poverty alleviation and development outline, in order to balance the gap in the development of the performing arts market between the east and the west and promote coordinated development of the regional performing arts industry.

2. Some of the approved projects have issues with timeliness and standardization

The performing arts projects that have been approved and funded in 2018 have achieved phased results after one year of support from the National Arts Fund. In 2018, the National Arts Fund actually approved 155 large-scale stage play and work funding projects, with a funding amount of 376.14 million yuan, covering 156 plays in 12 performing arts categories, with a total of 3462 performances and a total audience of about 2.7696 million people; 181 small-scale stage play (festival) projects and works funding projects, with a funding amount of 280.5 million yuan, covering 181 plays in 7 performing arts categories. Through performances, publications, and broadcasts, the artistic expression, dissemination, and influence of small-scale stage play (festival) projects and works are continuously enhanced, bringing new vitality; 132 art talent training funding projects, with a funding amount of 84.1 million yuan, including the training of 1442 stage art majors and 369 art management and theoretical commentary students; 290 youth art creation talent funding projects, with a funding amount of 42.8 million yuan, of which 25 people have created 25 music works, 35 people have created 35 drama scripts, and 21 people have created 21 dance and ballet works; 180 communication, exchange, and promotion funding projects, with a total funding amount of 202.1 million yuan, including 56 stage art performance projects that have been launched and implemented, covering 1278 performances in China and attracting approximately 797000 spectators. There are also 8 performing arts projects that have been launched abroad, covering 50 performances and attracting approximately 49000 spectators.

At the same time, during the supervision and acceptance process, the National Art Fund also discovered that some projects had issues with timeliness and standardization. One reason is that the project has been significantly delayed, or due to the project entity deviating from the expected goals during implementation, or some project entities also undertaking important cultural exchange activities and major art festival performance tasks, resulting in some projects not being completed on schedule. The second issue is that the main body of university projects tends to prioritize project initiation over implementation, with a prominent tendency to neglect their responsibilities. There is a lack of necessary unified management and supporting support, which seriously affects the quality of project implementation. The third issue is the lack of planning and experience in using funds, which leads to irregular financial expenditures and slow budget execution progress.

Three pressing issues to be addressed in the development of China's performing arts industry's foreign trade in 2019

（1） The structure of performing arts trade is relatively single

Under the impact of the COVID-19, all theaters around the world were closed, and Chinese theaters were closed for several months. The revenue of both the producers and producers of performing arts dramas and the local theaters almost returned to zero. The traditional practice in the performing arts market is that different companies participate in various aspects of the entire industry chain, including performances, venues, brokerage, and ticketing, with a single business and non-interference. Very few performing arts companies have the strength to connect multiple industry links. Even established entertainment companies like Poly Performance currently only engage in three major businesses: performance production, theater operation, and entertainment brokerage. After being acquired by Alibaba, Damai has firmly established itself in the ticketing field and delved deeper into offline performance content. Enterprises like Jucheng.com that have laid out the development of the entire entertainment industry are even rarer. The single business sector of performing arts enterprises is reflected in the single structure of foreign trade in performing arts trade. Most performing arts enterprises mainly focus on direct introduction and export of plays, lacking diversified revenue models. The synergistic benefits of the performing arts industry are often reflected in the fact that the performances of the performing arts enterprises themselves drive the profits of surrounding businesses or the revenue of related enterprises, while the performing arts enterprises themselves do not directly benefit, and their development efforts for the IP of the performances are insufficient, resulting in weak risk resistance in the international market.

（2） Lack of practical guidelines for foreign trade operations

The policies for performing arts are updated every year, but the diverse policies often fail to focus well on the application of performing arts enterprises. It is common for enterprises to be unfamiliar with and unable to use the policies, and there is a lack of systematic compilation and classification of performing arts policies. Practical guidelines for the development of the performing arts industry and foreign trade have always been missing. Taking financial support policies as an example, the cultural industry itself has the problem of no physical collateral or difficulty in evaluating mortgaged assets due to its light asset characteristics. Performing arts is the most typical "light asset" industry in the cultural industry, with long incubation cycles, large initial investments, and long profit cycles. Most performing arts enterprises are quite unfamiliar with financial instruments, and providing financial support for them requires systematic operational guidance and practical risk monitoring measures. Taking the copyright pledge of performing arts products as an example, this is a loan product directly established by banks to pledge performing arts copyrights. However, whether it is guaranteed by government funds, provided by banks to performing arts enterprises, guaranteed by third-party guarantee companies, provided by banks to performing arts enterprises, or jointly supported by financial subsidies, banks, and insurance, requires authoritative documents to answer.

（3） The evaluation and supervision system for supporting policies for performing arts is not yet perfect

The diversity and richness of performing arts policies reflect the importance attached by the national and local levels to the development of the performing arts industry and foreign trade, as well as the evaluation of policy effectiveness. Whether the policies truly support the performing arts enterprises and institutions that should be supported, whether the old performing arts policies still adapt to the constantly changing market environment and practical needs of enterprises, and which ones are not suitable to be abolished and updated, all require timely tracking and evaluation of the timeliness and practicality of the policies. Only quantitative evaluation methods can improve the precision of performing arts policies.

（4） The internationalization development of performing arts enterprises is relatively passive

In 2019, there was still a trade deficit in the performing arts industry, and internationally competitive performing arts productions and brands were still occasional exceptions that did not form a sufficient market size. The establishment of an international performing arts brand not only depends on the core process of creating performing arts works, but also on many aspects such as management, promotion, and marketing, among which the most important is the understanding of market positioning. If the market positioning is inaccurate, it will be difficult to achieve effective connection between excellent performing arts productions and market audiences with viewing needs, resulting in a mismatch between performing arts supply and demand. At present, the internationalization of Chinese performing arts enterprises is mainly driven by the introduction of overseas plays, that is, learning and drawing on their mature operational experience in the process of introducing overseas plays, especially copyright introduction and cross-border joint production of performing arts plays, which enables Chinese performing arts enterprises to have a detailed understanding of the creation, rehearsal, promotion and marketing of international classic plays. However, this passive internationalization approach is somewhat lagging behind compared to enterprises actively participating in international performing arts market competition.

Suggestions for Promoting the Development of China's Performing Arts Industry's Foreign Trade

In combination with China's experience in the development of foreign trade in performing arts in 2019, and considering the continuous impact of the COVID-19 on the performing arts market, the following suggestions are proposed.

（1） Treating the trade deficit in the performing arts industry correctly

1. Support the export of performing arts products with a stable domestic market size

The premise of export is the scale and saturation of the domestic market. In the current situation where the consumption potential of the domestic market has not been fully released, not only domestic performing arts enterprises mainly create and operate performances for the domestic market, but also excellent overseas plays are being introduced into the Chinese market. This phenomenon will continue to exist for a long time. From the current situation, the export conditions for performing arts are not yet mature. The cultural system reform and the conversion of performing arts troupes to private ownership have not yet generated sustained and large positive revenue. Rushing into the international performing arts market is costly and risky, and it will take a considerable amount of time to cultivate overseas audiences' consumption demand and viewing habits for Chinese performances.

2. Effectively utilizing cultural exchange platforms to drive the development of performing arts trade

Performing arts has always been the main content of cultural exchange activities. Enterprises should not be blindly encouraged to participate in international cultural trade. Instead, cultural exchange and cultural trade should be carried out simultaneously, making full use of the rich government platform for "cultural exchange". The policy convenience and financial advantages of cultural exchange should be fully utilized to establish credibility and test the market for enterprises, actively creating conditions for the development of performing arts trade, and gradually driving foreign trade in performing arts. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a series of cultural and tourism performances have been organized around the G20 Hangzhou Summit, the BRICS Leaders' Meeting in Xiamen, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Qingdao Summit, the "the Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum and other major foreign events. In addition, in response to the "the Belt and Road" initiative, the Silk Road International Arts Festival, the Maritime Silk Road International Arts Festival and other activities, the establishment of the Silk Road International Theater Alliance, the Silk Road International Arts Festival Alliance, the "Happy Spring Festival", the Cultural Year (Festival) and other brand exchange activities, and the normalization of overseas Chinese cultural centers have all provided a good platform for performing arts foreign trade.

（2） Pay attention to the development of domestic consumer demand

The cultivation and guidance of domestic entertainment consumption demand is not only a guarantee for the sustainable development of entertainment imports, but also a prerequisite for local entertainment enterprises and productions to have international competitiveness. In the current situation, stimulating domestic entertainment consumption demand is the most effective way to cope with the turbulence of the international entertainment market. The gap period brought about by the epidemic has also given entertainment companies time to think, research, and guide market demand.

The consumer groups of cultural products or services often have strong consumption preferences, and the entertainment industry is no exception. The differences in consumption preferences among children, young people, and elderly people are very obvious, and they often have strong consumption stickiness in their respective preferred types of entertainment, rarely making changes to their consumption preferences. How to maintain the viewing demand of the audience with established consumption habits, and how to stimulate the consumption demand of low-frequency audience, requires deep cultivation and meticulous work in the entertainment sub market. From the perspective of consumption structure, the Chinese audience exhibits consumption characteristics of "low frequency, high unit price, and stable output". The viewing orientation of various young groups and audiences from different circles is gradually becoming clear. The post-90s to post-00s generation has become the main force of performance consumption, accounting for over 55% of the audience in 2019. Among them, the purchasing power of post-95s continues to grow, accounting for 22% and 31% in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Compared to theaters, users born in the 1990s tend to prefer concerts. In the distribution of concert users, the proportion of users born in the 1990s is 72%, while they account for 50% of theater users. In terms of performance expenses, concerts have the highest per capita investment, averaging 1525 yuan, followed by musicals with an average expenditure of 1280 yuan per person. In the performance segment market, the average consumption amount per person is highest among those born in the 1980s to those born before 1985. New parents born in the 1990s are more willing to spend money on their children, and they have the highest average consumption amount for children's dramas.

For example, the hottest children's drama at present also hides the pressure of upgrading the supply side of the repertoire. Because the viewing and performance of children's dramas are based on the family unit, the choice of drama is often in the hands of parents. The education level and cultural literacy of new parents are constantly improving, and they will not easily blindly follow. In turn, higher requirements are put forward for the content quality of children's dramas. Children's dramas that are humorous or lack cultural connotation or educational significance will gradually be eliminated. However, higher standards often come with stronger stickiness, and high-quality performance content has stronger consumer inertia. Drawing on the experience of introducing children's dramas, on the one hand, we need to make the age groups more detailed, so that the dramas can attract more suitable children; On the other hand, for the innovation of performances, if we can combine traditional culture and regional characteristics on the basis of entertainment, and add more enlightening content to enhance parent-child participation, it will not only ignite children's imagination, but also activate parents' lingering childlike innocence.

Urban themed plays with white-collar workers as the main audience should also adopt similar measures in the increasingly competitive pressure. In addition, with the gradual increase of China's elderly population, the elderly will become an important consumer group for performing arts, and performances created for the elderly are often limited to traditional opera performances. The advantage of opening up new markets lies in capturing topics of concern to the elderly and evoking resonant memories in modern plays.

Young people have always been the main force of entertainment consumption, and the consumption habits of the new generation of young consumers are constantly evolving. With the growth of the Internet, today's young people have formed a cultural consumption preference that focuses on personal expression under the influence of social media and short video platforms. The era of "phenomenal" performing arts products that can be highly praised by all young people is over. Performing arts companies need to learn to deeply cultivate the segmented market of young people, and be more in line with their needs in experience scene design, theme content selection, and spatial atmosphere creation. At the same time, they should pay more attention to the popular trends of the subculture circle of young people and the community characteristics of young people.

（3） Strengthen guidance on the application of performing arts policies

1. Systematically review the development of the performing arts industry and foreign trade support policies

Guided by enterprise practice, classify and organize according to support conditions and applicable objects, investigate the actual demands of enterprises, and provide more practical guidance manuals for performing arts enterprises in conjunction with relevant research institutions and third-party service enterprises. Even if the guiding policies for the performing arts industry and foreign trade are difficult to form a system in a short period of time, typical performing arts enterprises and even cultural enterprises in other industries within the cultural industry can still be used as examples of successful cross-border cooperation through policies, providing reference for performing arts enterprises.

2. Emphasize the introduction of overseas market demand

By utilizing overseas embassies, cultural centers, cultural and tourism offices, and other overseas institutions, we will conduct thorough research on the local demand, consumption preferences, and habits of performing arts in various countries. This will enable international market demand to determine the geographical direction of performing arts foreign trade, rather than relying on performing arts policies to determine the international business direction of performing arts enterprises. This will avoid the phenomenon of policy dividends exceeding market profits and leading enterprises to overly rely on policy support and be led astray by policies. Performing arts companies need to leverage the Chinese customer base to open up the market locally, and integrate local partners who understand market rules, policy regulations, and procedures to achieve localization from performing arts products to transactions, promotions, and marketing, overcome cultural differences, and efficiently integrate into the local market.

3. Think tanks play a role in policy evaluation and monitoring

Give full play to the role of research think tanks in the cultural industry field, establish an objective policy evaluation and monitoring system, strengthen the "post supervision" of policy application, avoid the phenomenon of "strict entry and lenient exit" in policy use, and have corresponding handling plans for improper or even illegal policy use. Especially in the financial and fiscal aspects, we must strictly control the flow of funds in relevant departments, enterprises, and institutions to ensure policy transparency.

4. Empower cultural functional departments with greater discourse power

Performing arts trade itself involves multiple supervisory departments such as culture, commerce, finance and taxation, and even customs, foreign exchange, and planning. There are few joint management mechanisms between departments, and most meetings are initiated temporarily for specific projects. The representatives of each department change greatly and are not familiar with performing arts affairs, and the cultural supervisory department does not have the final decision-making power. This phenomenon is more evident at the local level. In addition to higher management levels attaching importance to and leading the promotion of performing arts trade affairs, cultural and tourism supervisory departments at all levels should also actively strive for greater discourse power in the investment and management of cultural projects, in order to effectively avoid situations where a series of policies are difficult to implement.

5. Provide appropriate tax reductions and exemptions for performing arts enterprises

Appropriately expanding policies to reduce or exempt taxes in the performing arts industry, such as relaxing the requirements for various companies in the performing arts industry to obtain tax reduction or exemption qualifications, increasing the duration of tax reduction or exemption, thereby reducing the operating costs of performing arts enterprises and increasing the flexibility of their cash flow.

（4） Innovative revenue models and channels for foreign trade in performing arts

1. Flexibly utilize new media platforms

Flexibly utilize new media platforms to achieve two-way flow between online users and offline audiences. First, the Internet platform has been used for market promotion. Social media platforms such as Tiktok have been deployed globally. At the same time, the China Performance Industry Association has also set up a branch of online performance (live broadcast), and launched the "live broadcast plan" of "live broadcast+art troupe" to broadcast live performances in front of and behind the stage. Performing arts companies can spread their entertainment information to any corner of the world through these social media platforms, complete overseas promotion, and use online topics to drive offline performances, greatly expanding their reach. Second, with the help of cloud broadcast, 4K ultra clear, 5G, VR and other technologies, the performance content is connected to the Internet, creating innovative performance forms such as "Cloud Music Festival", "Cloud Concert" and "Cloud Theater", providing high-quality performance experience for network users, directly driving some users from offline to online performance, which is expected to form a new performance outlet. At present, mature live streaming models for overseas performances have entered China. The National Theatre's "National Theatre Live NTLive" has been deployed in multiple cities across the country, bringing high-quality overseas plays to the Chinese market where there are few opportunities for live performances. Thirdly, we offer online professional courses and programs in the field of performing arts, sharing the behind the scenes stories of drama creation and performance through live broadcasts or special programs, popularizing artistic knowledge, or launching "online exhibitions" that present performing arts dramas and theaters to a wide audience in a 360 degree three-dimensional manner through exhibition forms such as graphics, models, scene restoration, audio and video.

2. Carry out derivative sales based on changes in the play

Cultural and creative derivatives continue the beautiful memories of performances, enhance audience loyalty, increase repurchase rates, and are also a business model for performing arts enterprises to deeply explore performing arts IP. For example, the annual growth rate of cultural and creative sales at Beijing Tianqiao Art Center is as high as 100%, and sales have doubled every year in the past four years. Initiate the research and development of derivative products synchronously during the initial stage of creating entertainment IPs, or include the distribution rights of derivative products in negotiations at the beginning of introducing plays, obtain legal authorization, or reserve funds and time for the design and production of derivative products; In the sales of performing arts derivatives, we draw inspiration from the popular "pop-up store" model in modern business, and combine it with the schedule of performances to present derivatives in a scene based temporary exhibition and sales area. We also dynamically adjust the categories and scenery of derivative products according to changes in the purpose of the performance.

3. Deeply explore the economy of scheduling

Spring Festival, Valentine's Day, National Day, Double 11, Christmas and other periods have become peak seasons in the market, including cultural consumption. The emergence of the schedule economy is related to the pace of modern life. It is a situational consumption model that creates a consumption atmosphere with specific themes during specific time periods, attracts and releases consumer demand. Performing arts companies should also select suitable "promotional" schedules according to the content categories of their performances, and hold characteristic marketing activities in combination with various preferential measures. Through forms such as Vlogs, short videos, and graphics, they can interact more with potential consumers.

4. Multi functional development of theater

The multifunctional use of cultural venues is a major trend in industrial development. For example, museums often hold salon lectures, forums, art education activities, movie screenings, night tours, and even concerts in addition to exhibitions. Theaters can also try to open up their theater space to a wider range of art forms: fully utilize indoor space and create a comprehensive cultural venue for activities such as salon lectures, art education, film screenings, and event broadcasts during breaks; At the same time, utilizing the surrounding outdoor space to extend the functions of the theater, hosting performance exhibitions, art festivals, light shows, and creating an open performance space. In addition, attention should be paid to public art services, and more theater open days should be held to allow audiences to learn more about the stories behind the scenes of performances, bring theaters closer to audiences, and better leverage the community and urban functions of theaters. Capable theaters can also incubate original plays and have their own performing arts IP, which can effectively alleviate the cost pressure of introducing plays and the idle risk brought by non resident performances. Through the development of multifunctional theaters, the performing arts space is not only a landmark for "viewing", but also an art community that gathers industry development and promotes nighttime economic prosperity. Gather industry resources, expand artistic influence, and make performance viewing one of the core elements of modern humanistic lifestyle.