While the view that  cultural industries is sequential to and a consequence of economic prosperity is yet to be proven, I would go further to argue that Asia has reached a turning point where the development of cultural and culture-related industries is crucial and basic to Asia's sustained economic growth and social cohesion. I make my case on Asia's growth engine to shift to domestic demand, and its exports to be led by high and/or higher value products and services.

Asia's value to the world, therefore will have to shift from being a manufacturing platform with its cheap labor and friendly foreign investment policy for industrial production to it exporting services and products with values derived from Asia's rich cultural heritage.

The challenge in front of public policy makers, private business and intellectuals, is do we know how to nurture cultural industries? Do we know how to serve up a feast for the mind, nourishment for the soul for our own people, and for the world?  Do we know how others want this feast, in what format and style this feast is best served?

Can other cultural products, books, music, dance, fashion be promoted for example like Chinese cuisine around the world?  How do we persuade the world, especially in a "consumption obsessed society" things alone don't make a happy life. How could people be persuaded that it is spiritualism, experiences, stories, good values, warmth that make life fulfilling? Finally, does Asia have the relevant contemporary images, sounds and vocabulary to convey these messages?

To answer these questions, we have to inquire whether Asian economies, political and social systems are willing to adjust to the new realities, whether our entrepreneurs are prepared to invest in the skills, our bankers the vision and expertise, just like they know how to finance real estate and industrial production?

For Culture to be popular it has qualities that are relevant and fitting for the times we live in. It must have value that is wanted, and the true test of that value is when people are willing to pay for it, even not minding paying a high price for it. Popular Cities, Best-selling books, blockbuster movies, and Evergreen music --ALL have the above characteristics.

Although the urgency of developing cultural industries is written on the wall, public policy is still paying lip service, and private sector investors have yet developed adequate interest. Resources have yet been redirected, in spite of the glut in traditional industries. 
 
 

Where is the New Asian Face?
There are tremendous improvements in physical infrastructure all over Asia; from Singapore to Shanghai, from Kuala Lumpur to Kyoto. Almost every major city now boasts an impressive, and for many state-of-the-art museum, opera house and symphony hall.

But there is a loud and crying need for content. Soulful, authentic, original, maybe even "provocative or sensational" content that reflects the images of the New Asia.

What are indeed the images of the New Asia? Asia to many, even to Asians themselves, is historical, traditional, communitarian, moralistic and exotic. When and how will Asia be perceived as futuristic, contemporary, confident and cool? What are the new Asian stories?

In the last 500 years, non-Japan Asia has offered the world few things new, some may add exciting. If ever we want to enrich the global civilization in the next millennium, we will have to get serious with developing cultural industries. 
 
 

Popular Culture
To begin with, the most promising area for development is popular culture. Many people are concerned about the overwhelming embrace of American popular culture, especially by Asia's young people. This situation exists simply because of the lack of alternatives, some may even suggest, better alternatives.

Intellectuals and political leaders can fret about this, while the middle class happily befriends their children with Disney's Mickey, yuppies hang out at fast food joints, and men faithfully turn on their TV set for "Bay Watch."  Private businesses cash in on quicker returns, "Why reinvent the wheel" is their justification for introducing another ready-made western solution to the region. Anything else? Yes, even Asians' own brands took Italian and French names. Why? Because Consumers have decided that Pierre Cardin is more stylish than Emperor Shih Huang Ti.  Market-savvy businessmen listen to the customer.

Nationalists and conservatives are upset, but I urge them to relax.  If we are working on renovating and repackaging our culture, there is no need to fret. We are familiar with passing fads. I can't tell you how relieved my mother is when my nieces and nephews are giving up on McDonalds when they found  Dim Sum and dumplings delicious. It is important to have Good alternatives, and we should be reminded that Good alternatives don't come by accident. A Malaysian entrepreneur manufacturing biscuits using western recipes is researching on indigenous pastry making using local materials.  "How can we compete with western cookies? They originated it, they are way ahead. Whatever we do, we just follow behind. It is different with our own pastries, I lead all the way," he realized.
 
 

Renaissance at the grass-root
There is a vibrant renaissance among cultural entrepreneurs across the region; tremendous innovation and initiatives are going on at the grassroots.  Popular forms of culture such as food, fashion, music, movie, dances and publishing, in time, are going to give form and shape the New Asia that we all dreamt about.

To name some examples:

• Taiwan based Chinese cartoonist Chai Shih Chung started out to help children (and some adults) to understand the classical philosophy of Confucius, Lao Tzi,  Buddha and other ancient sages whose original texts are inaccessible to the average reader.   Chai is now one of the most successful and wealthy cartoonists in Asia. He has published some 20 titles in 19 different languages, with total sales standing close to 30 million. He is not only helping Asian young people to get to know Confucius and Buddha through witty cartoons.  Confucius also speaks Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Thai and Bahasa to foreign readers. Chai also has a private collection of Buddha statures, some 3000 of them, believed to be the largest private collection in the world. Chai revealed his ambition of documenting and interpreting Buddhism by going back in time to the different era these statures were created.

• Another visible example is the House of Shanghai Tang, from Hong Kong where the old backward image of  "Made in China" is replaced by the glorious civilization of  " Made by Chinese."  Entrepreneur David Tang is a hardcore anglophile before he fell in love with his own native culture, when he returned from Britain to live in Beijing. "Shanghai Tang" - a line of Chinese jackets and Qipao for women and robes for men -- is Tang's way to show off the fine art of Chinese dressing. From his flourishing store in the Central district in Hong Kong, David has taken Shanghai Tang to a glorious location on Fifth Avenue in New York.

• The House of Mao in Singapore is an experiment of fusion cuisine set amidst an ambience of revolutionary memorabilia and Chairman Mao's charisma. Here the waiters and waitresses dressed in Mao jackets and addressed their guests as comrades. The food is good, and the menu is sprinkled with the chairman's famous poems along with drinks bearing memories of the Long March.  I was told that this first house of Mao is so successful that the entrepreneur is thinking of setting up a second revolutionary base for the Chairman.

• Combine Asian Heritage and Western presentation techniques, you get a rich and sophisticated look and feel.  The next time you are in Hong Kong, check out Allan Chan's designs -- a line of Chinese cultural memorabilia, fine mugs, organizers, tea boxes, stationeries. Award winning graphic designer Allan Chan also has an elegant tea house called  "The Language of Tea" in Takashyma department store at Tokyo's Shinjuku station. Allan tells me that the Japanese knows only two personalities from Hong Kong; Kung Fu Star Jacky and design guru Alan Chan.

Who discovered water?
One frustrating question often brought up by Asian artists is Asians' muted interest in things Asian. This sad state of affairs has driven Asian artists to struggle in the West. It is almost a necessity for many Asian artists to make it big in the West first before they are given proper respect at home. This reminded us of the question posed by the famous media scientist Marshall MaLuhan, "Who discover water?" When no affirmative answer was forthcoming, he offered, " Surely it is NOT fish."

Interestingly, foreigners' appreciation of Asian culture has indeed helped many Asians discover and better appreciate their own heritage. Many of the successful entrepreneurs in Asia testified to their discovery as a result of influence of foreign friends or colleagues. To think about it, this foreign inducement is useful. With regards to learning about traditions and heritage, isn't everyone foreign. Thus a foreign eye, more professional habit and greater depth of inquiry can be most useful to help us gain new perspective which we could very well be blinded by familiarity.

If foreigners can throw helpful light on interpreting our culture, an open investment policy in the development of cultural industries in Asia may be a good proposition.  To answer our quest to develop a cluster of high quality, professional and profitable cultural ventures, Asian public policies can welcome foreign participation, confining NOT only to participation by Western players. This applies to the media, publishing, movies, music and other performing arts.

What about the concerns on unwanted influences from other cultures, such as too much violence, sex and political in-correctness in the creation of contents if more liberals minded investors and managers own and manage them.  The experience of America tells us that freedom can be abused, and totally unregulated creative industries have their pitfalls. For example the many school killings in America has focused attention on the destructive effects of violence on children, dished out by entertainment media including TV, internet, movies and video games.

John Naisbitt pointed out in his new book High Tech/hitouch, " the video games industry in the US alone is a US$16 billion industry, twice that of Hollywood box office gross of $7 billion and more than 30 percent of the US playthings market."  Not surprisingly, VIOLENCE is a recurring theme that made bestsellers. The free market does have its imperfections, and everyone is responsible to give voice and blow the whistle when decaying signs in cultural products start to appear.
 
 

Systematic nurture
There are noteworthy efforts directed at research and development, especially on studying and reviving traditional art forms. Attempts are made to bring about innovations to make them compatible with modern values and interests of art lovers. Active NGOs, partially funded by governments are leading the way. Some governments are also providing seed money to help kick start private initiatives. The now world famous Cloud Gates Dance Company of Taiwan is one example.

While these efforts are important, they themselves are NOT enough to accelerate the development of cultural industries. Entrepreneurship is the key. Many private initiatives witnessed in Asia today are not primarily driven by profit; but by passion, love and a fascination with the cultures of one's heritage. Many of them are profitable because they are well managed as businesses.

While exceptional talent and extraordinary entrepreneurs are rare to come by, systematic nurturing does pay off dividends in the long run. What more can be done? Here are 4 suggestions:
 

1. Space: Allow greater room for expression and encourage people to ask questions in the broad social culture. It is time Asians be less sensitive on others' perception of them. Let go of the hang up of only putting their best foot and /or best face forward. One has to remember the all good is not real, and that is not the whole story. In culture and art, people are interested in reality; the triumph, the failure, the pain and everything. Openness, honesty and accelerating liberalization is useful. In fact, creative chaos is good for Cultural Business as many entrepreneurial adventures are encouraged under such conditions. 

2. Support: Asian individuals have given generously to education. It is now time they give to the arts.  Private corporations' contribution to culture and the arts must NOT only be confined to being sponsors and collectors. They would be more helpful as Venture capitalist and Financiers to worthy projects.  Asian banks, most skilled in real estate and manufacturing, do not understand cultural industries. Government leadership is needed to persuade and influence more resources to be directed to this end.  Bankers and investors have to learn about the risks of cultural industries, whose profile may be different but not necessary any higher than ventures in high tech --hard technology processes or products.  Famous Chinese Director Hoo Siow Sian, who directed the beautiful movie, The Flowers of Shanghai is among activist artists giving voice to this issue. At the same time, Artistic entrepreneurs must be prepared to answer tough questions from financier backers, and not be offended that financiers first look at the bottomland!

3. Stabilization programs: Like support for entrepreneurs in other fields, supporting services at affordable prices are important to help solo artists to an easy start. The availability of production facilities, computers, video labs and other facilities expensive to acquire on their own can lower the barrier to entry to budding artists. Making an advance to an interesting book or publishing project can help relieve financial stress of the writer, and better focus the mind and adrenaline on the creative work. The adage that starving artist makes the best art is not true. In fact, community and local government can do a lot in this respect. In the city of Boston in the U.S, the city council has an initiative to attract artists to live in the city. The City makes land available to builders at concession rates on condition that some of the completed units are sold to artists.

4. Services: The artist's job is to create, not to manage. Artist does not like it and they are lousy at it.  But someone has to do the job of selling and attend to the details, especially in today's competitive world. Good artists need business managers who can deliver an audience.  Artistic products need strong marketing and communication, especially if one aims for global distribution. Again, many Asian enterprises neglect to set aside money for promotion while they draw up project budgets. The availability of such services to artists would help to bring out their potential.

The way forward for Asia's cultural enterprises must begin with a change of mindset. Cultural industries could be viewed as hard business. In fact, it is not quite accurate to describe those institutes that are devoted to artistic and cultural initiatives as non-profit. It is true that their raison d 'tre is not for profit, because they are passion-driven, and if well managed, they are definitely profitable, so are the thousands of other NGO organizations in other fields throughout the world. In fact many of them are more profitable than some for-profit enterprises.

Finally, there is an important and critical role for the state in this juncture of Asia's development.  From now on, the State should recede as a leading provider of cultural activities, but emerge as a guide, offering proactive leadership, creating the conditions for private investors to engage in its development. Resources must be committed with a seriousness to make them into a key sector. Throughout the world only those countries with a strong and vibrant cultural industries boost strong economies.
 
 

(Foong Wai Fong is the author of The New Asian Way and partner of Megatrends Asia. This article is adapted from a speech delivered at the Asia-Europe Foundation's conference on Cultural Industries.)
 
 

Kuala Lumpur, May 31, 1999

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