1.1.1 Cultural products
When studying cultural economics, it is important to understand what a cultural product is. People widely see cultural products as cultural arts. What cultural economics sets out to examine is not the production process of cultural products or arts. For example, a novelist authors a novel. A composer creates a song or an opera. A painter creates a painting or copies expert painters. Things like the environment, time spent, and labour requirements do not fall within the scope of cultural economics. This field of economics is also not concerned with the evaluation of cultural arts or whether people trade them. What cultural economics sets out to examine is the nature of cultural products introduced to the market. This is something researchers and government departments are concerned about.
For example, in launching cultural products, we must consider intellectual-property rights violations, such as piracy, impersonation, and plagiarism. This is obviously a legal issue, but we cannot ignore the protection of intellectual property rights when studying and researching cultural products. Another example is the excavation of ancient tombs and whether burial goods had been looted and smuggled out of the country. This is also a legal issue, but cultural economics researchers cannot avoid the issue of the protection of cultural relics.
However, another key area still is untouched, namely, the social benefits of cultural products. We should analyze the social benefits of cultural products because cultural products differ from other industry products. Industries that produce other products are not without social benefits, of course. Producers and sellers are liable if their products affect customersâ health, safety, or hygiene and must compensate those who suffer losses. They might have to halt the production and sales of the products. This means that the social benefits of cultural products may have a much greater impact than the production of other products. We must consider this issue when discussing the social benefits of cultural products.
We can broadly divide cultural products into two categories. The first is the material. This includes audio-visual products, artworks, books and periodicals, and handicrafts such as porcelain, pottery, embroidery, and clothing. The other comprises intellectual-service products, or services provided by cultural arts departments and organizations like song and dance performances, concerts, plays, storytelling, and crosstalk. A theatre troupe, artist, or even a temporary performance team may perform them. They may also become a movie or television series. The production of cultural arts has its own characteristics, as reflected in the fact that they tend to be individual and creative and their social impact may spread through performances or in films and television series. This is the hallmark of cultural products.
When analysing the special nature of cultural products or when evaluating their social benefits, we have no choice but to include cultural products in a separate category for discussion.
However, the particularity of cultural products is not limited to their spread in a material form (such as the publication of books, plays, or audio-visual products) or the intellectual-service products for audiences (such as concerts or dance or drama performances), but rather to the existence of two transaction processes.
Below, let us turn to the analysis of the two transaction processes for the supply and demand of cultural products.
1.1.2 Two transaction processes
Let us start with a simple transaction process. Imagine a writer or a playwright who has spent years at home authoring a novel or script and who is now ready to hand it over to a publisher. This is when the writer or playwright sends their work to the publisher. At this stage of the process, the work (novel or script manuscript) is still in the initial stage and the editors or directors of the publisher, magazine, or theatre must accept and approve it. Only after this step will they publish or perform it.
The other transaction process refers to the transaction that occurs when a publisher or magazine sells the writerâs book or script. From the supply and demand perspective, the publishing house, magazine, or theatre are the suppliers of cultural products. Although the creators are also suppliers, they are just one of the suppliers of these books or plays. The supplier here is different from the first âtransaction,â which occurs when a publisher, magazine, or script performer receives the manuscript. In the first process, the author is only a single creator or one of several creators, and the demand side is the publisher, magazine, or theatre, or the investor, or the director who decides whether to accept the manuscript. As for the second âtransaction,â the publisher, magazine, or theatre takes care of this process. In this phase, people who buy books or watch performances represent the demand side. They are the demanders of cultural products who spend money on books or admission tickets.
We can clearly see that there are undoubtedly two âtransactionsâ in the cultural-products market. One is between the creator and the publisher, magazine, or theatre. In this transaction, the creator is the supplier and the publisher, magazine, or theatre is the demander. In the second, the publisher, magazine, or theatre are the supplier and those who buy books or go to theatre are the demanders. Book and magazine retailers can also be demanders.
Analysing from the perspective of economics, we can see that cultural products in the previous transaction process are not commodities in the general sense, but commodities in a special sense. This is because the creators supply books or plays, which is different from the trading of raw materials in material production or from the acquisition of raw materials by modern processing enterprises. It is also different from the purchase of goods by processing enterprises for household handicrafts or agricultural and side-line products. This is because the manuscripts or scripts supplied by the creators are their creations and the crystallization of their work. Publishers, magazines, or theatres must still read and process them. Thus, we cannot consider this as one of the particularities of cultural products.
In terms of the provision of labour services, the labour provided by the creators of cultural products is also much more complex than that provided by the units responsible for general labour. Below are three examples.
Example 1: I used to see things like sword dancing, juggling, or monkeys in small towns. The artists would travel around and always attracted crowds. After performing for a while, somebody would take a plate and collect money from the audience. This is the simplest transaction for cultural products. The performer is the supplier of a cultural product and the audience is the demander. In this case, the line between supply and demand is clear and the transaction process is clear. Some people in the audience pay for the performance while others slip away without paying. There is no mandatory requirement for how much to pay, nor is there a contractual or credit relationship. After receiving money, the performance starts again. However, it is a different matter altogether if mafia-like gangs are blackmailing the performers.
Example 2: Some people sell paintings in shops, or âgalleries.â People who draw portraits sit at the door and wait for customers. People who like their work will ask an artist to do a portrait drawing. The two sides agree on a price, the customer sits in a pose, and the artist draws. When the artist finishes there is an exchange of money and the process is complete. This is also a common but simple supply and demand transaction process for cultural products.
Example 3: In some villages or on city streets there are workshop-style galleries or workshops that specialize in reproducing famous ancient and modern paintings. I have visited these places. The reproduction program is a flowing operation. They partition famous paintings into sections and divide labour among the painters. Each manages their part and the next painter takes over after the previous one finishes. One by one they complete the âfamous paintingsâ very quickly and then put them up for sale. Since the originals are not available or are often expensive, the reproductions produced by this flowing operation sell well. Some of the shops have quickly made money. In any case, they have become necessary at tourist spots. The reason is simple. There is a demand for copies of famous paintings (tourists are the main buyers) and they supply the reproduction process, that is, the employed painters and the flowing operation. This example also shows that the simple transaction form for cultural products does not have to have âtwo âtransactionâ processes.â Of course, this does not mean that the two transaction processes do not appear everywhere in cultural-product transactions.
1.1.3 Whether it is one transaction process or two transaction processes, the special nature of cultural products does not go away
Now, let us return to the special nature of cultural products.
The special nature of cultural products must be part of the discussion on the âtwo âtransactionââ processes of cultural and related products. In order to make the special nature clearer, we should boil it down to three points: (1) the lag in the social evaluation of cultural products; (2) the criteria for their social evaluation; and (3) whether the social evaluation criteria for cultural products are fixed or variable. If the criteria for social evaluation change, then how does it change? Let us now discuss these three issues separately.
1.1.3.1 The lag in the social evaluation of cultural products
If a creator (or several creators) creates a cultural product like a novel, script, or painting, or even an opera, it still belongs to the creator if it is still stored at home or in the office and has not yet been handed over to a publishing house, magazine, or theatre for public release. Thus, there is no social evaluation issue. Even if it is not a cultural product without publication or rehearsal or without public performance if there has been rehearsal. For a manuscript to be a cultural product, a publisher or magazine must first publish it, or if it is a script, there must be performance in front of an audience. It is irrelevant whether the transaction of either manuscript is done in one or two transaction process(es). A single transaction process (i.e. the creator does not authorize a publisher or magazine to print or sell it but rather prints or sells it directly) or two transaction processes (i.e. the creator hands over the manuscript to a publishing house, magazine, or theatre, who then sells or performs it) are just a feature of the transaction of cultural products. There is no social evaluation in this process.
However, regardless of whether the transaction of a cultural product is completed in one or two process(es), as a cultural product, social evaluation is inevitable. This is something unique to cultural products. Moreover, it is worth noting that there is often a lag in the social evaluation of cultural products, which reflects their special nature.
Lag refers to how we should evaluate cultural products (such as a novel, theatre performance, or figure painting) during the process. We can evaluate some quickly, while others will need more time or more than one evaluation. For example, people will read a novel or see a drama, unless a novel or drama clearly spreads falsehoods, rebellion, obscenity, pornography, murder, or violence, and is harmful or not conducive to social ethics. However, it is difficult for us to judge how certain novels and plays will spread and perform, and audiences and commentators will have different opinions. In this case, periodic social evaluations would be more useful than conducting a scientific and objective evaluation of these novels and scripts.
We might need to repeat the evaluation if it involves a person. It is also possible that researchers will have a new evaluation of a person because of new historical materials, or because the political environment has changed, or because of further research, thereby providing readers with a new understanding of a controversial novel or script and thus changing the social evaluation of them.
In short, when examining a specific cultural product, we cannot ignore or be indifferent to social commentary. We also cannot comment on the beliefs of readers or audiences. Their comments are without a doubt reasonable, and we cannot simply judge whose voice is more important. However, there are people who tout certain cultural products as âgoodâ while criticizing certain others as bad. We should deeply analyzed this to see if anyone is manipulating âpublic opinion,â if someone has bribed the commentators, or even if someone has relied on power to create âpraise.â In short, it is important to know what is what when it comes to the comments made by commentators. Thus, we should realize that the social evaluation of cultural products is often lagging.
1.1.3.2 What are the criteria for the social evaluation of cultural products?
This important task relates to the inner workings of the evaluation of cultural products and it is a problem in and of itself, because the focus of the social evaluation of cultural products is very different. If we do not have a good mastery of the evaluation criteria, then the evaluation will not only be inaccurate, but it might even lead to other problems.
For example, it is difficult to evaluate people and events from ancient times. Early political figures, people who changed the world, and pioneers of new territory each had their own environment and their own merits and demerits. Some were condemned or had their possessions confiscated or were even killed. If we modify the content of certain books or dramas to make them less offensive to some people, what affect would this have on readers or audiences? Doing this would be very controversial. To give an example: It is hard to comment on the merits of the lives of some modern politicians because everyone is in a different environment. It is difficult to say if they are patriots or traitors who have humiliated the country. It is also difficult to make judgements based solely on folklore. It might be even more difficult to deal with a novel or script written around modern political figures than commenting on ancient historical figures, because no one knows the social evaluation criteria well.
Cultural products are different from historical books. Historical books must be faithful to the historical narrative of ancient figures or modern political figures. Otherwise, we cannot really call them historical books. However, we must separate cultural products from novels about ancient figures or modern political figures, or scripts that include them. In general, there are three writing methods.
First, we should be faithful to history. Second, it is fine to exaggerate or glamorize the non-primary plot, but we must base the primary plot on history. Third, if the main plot contains untrue things, it will give people an excuse to be disloyal to history.
Addressing these three methods, we can describe the result of the first as close to accurate. We call this academic work, but not a novel or historical work. The result of the third method is what we might call âmade up.â It is a historical novel in name only. We can consider the result of the second method to be historical, but there is still debate on this issue and endless arguments.
As we can see, there are problems in applying social evaluation criteria to cultural products. There are two unresolved issues.
First, do social evaluation standards for cultural products stretch from ancient times to the present? Can we use ethical concepts or common principles as the evaluation standards? If standards adopted in ancient times still exist, should we consider them classical?
Second, we can apply to cultural products the values that ancient peoples employed to evaluate cultural products, because traditional values such as filial piety are widely recognized and accepted. However, is this really the case? The answer is not necessarily. People pass down the three characters of xiao, ti, and xin and people accept them without a problem. However, what is zhong and for whom? This is the problem. Too many things change across dynasties and we do not know how loyalties will change. This involves overall national interests and the evaluation of the political achievements of the old and the new. As we can see, it is hard to clarify the issue of social evaluation standards in just a few words.
1.1.3.3 Are the social evaluation standards for cultural products static or do they change? If the criteria for the social evaluation of cultural products change, then how do ...
