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在线翻译:
szdaily -> In depth -> 
The costs of culture
    2012-03-27  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Helen Deng

    RENT for a one-night show at Shenzhen Bay Stadium is 200,000 yuan (US$24,067). Rent at Hong Kong Coliseum? HK$50,000 (US$4,900) per night.

    No wonder a Shenzhener has to pay much more to see a show than a Hong Konger does, said Gong Jun, CEO of Shenzhen-based performance organizer AC Orange Corp.

    Shenzhen, still a young city in terms of urban history, is feeling some growing pains with cultural development. While event promoters cite costly venue rentals and travel expenses for imported performers, some residents say resulting high ticket prices put many shows out of their reach.

    In an interview with Shenzhen Daily in mid-March, Gong suggested Shenzhen’s government should increase subsidies to offset venue rentals and build more performance venues. AC Orange owns www.juooo.com, the city’s largest online seller of performance tickets. Established in 2007, AC Orange has more than 100 employees with branches in more than 10 Chinese cities as well as in the United States.

    “Cultural enterprises worldwide have three sources of income,” Gong said. “The first one is retail, or ticket sales to individuals. The second one is sponsorship from companies. The third one is government support.”

    Shenzhen lags far behind Beijing and Shanghai in terms of ticket sales, he said, adding that last year, only 500,000 performance tickets were sold in Shenzhen, compared with 7 million in Shanghai and 11 million in Beijing.

    The populations of Beijing and Shanghai are each nearly double that of Shenzhen, but the ticket-purchasing gap is even wider — at least partly because of price.

    Performances in Shenzhen don’t get as much sponsorship revenue as those in Beijing and Shanghai, Gong said, because most Fortune 500 enterprises that invest in China set up their China headquarters in Beijing or Shanghai.

    “Shenzhen has few original stage dramas, and so all the stars and props have to travel all the way to Shenzhen. That also makes a show more expensive,” he added. “The cost for a world-class symphony is at least 3 million yuan. Shenzhen Concert Hall has about 1,600 seats. That means the cost for each seat would reach nearly 2,000 yuan. How could an average citizen afford that?”

    Belgian investment promoter Quentin Gailliet said even the cost of seeing a movie in Shenzhen is higher than in his home country — let alone the cost of hearing a symphony.

    American designer Paul Goetz said performance promoters could help themselves by advertising to a wider audience.

    “I feel that Shenzhen is not a very culturally active city, either because there are not enough events going on here, or because there are not enough promotions of such events in English,” Goetz said.

    Shenzhen has only four high-level performance venues — Grand Theater, Children’s Palace, Poly Theater and Shenzhen Concert Hall.

    Shenzhen Concert Hall and the Grand Theater raised their rents by nearly 20 percent this year.

    “Rents are rising, star payments are rising, but we cannot raise ticket prices — they are already too high,” Gong said.

    Although AC Orange makes ends meet by carefully choosing shows likely to attract a broad market, Gong regrets that he can’t introduce some highly artistic projects that might draw smaller, more selective audiences.

    Gong acknowledged that local governments at all levels are trying hard to develop cultural industries.

    “However, government policies are usually too vague and how to implement them is a question,” he said.

    Despite the difficulties, Gong believes there is a bright future for China’s cultural market. Some venture capitalists share that confidence — this year, AC Orange obtained a very significant venture capital investment.

    “The figure amounts to tens of millions of yuan,” Gong said.

    But such large investments remain rare in Shenzhen’s cultural entertainment industries. Many local performance organizing and ticketing companies struggle to offer quality shows without the benefit of that kind of windfall.

    Gong’s plan is to get listed on the Chinese stock market in three years. For that to happen, AC Orange’s annual profit would have to reach 30 million yuan — and, possibly, Shenzheners’ access to affordable, quality performances would have to improve.

 

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