How will China move from “Made in China” and “Service in China” to “Creativity in China” while achieving further transformation and upgrading of its manufacturing and service industries? How can China find the future “creative growth point” in the chain of historical development and the pattern of world competition? How can China guide itself to become a competitive creative country in the world through effective planning and practice? This is an urgent problem facing humanists and litterateur, which requires the humanities and litterateur to construct a discourse system of the theory about creativity and its related issues, which will help the construction and practice of the strategic thought of “creative China”.
The concept of creativity is derived from Western psychological terminology. In English, the expression of “creativity” originated from the biblical story about creation in “Genesis”, At first, the term “creativity” was applied only to the praise of God, and man\\u0027s own “creativity” was gradually recognized with the Renaissance and Enlightenment. In the 20th century, western psychology began to pay attention to human “creativity” and “creative thinking”. John Hawkins, the father of “creative economy”, believed that “creativity is the ability to generate something new..... It must be personal, original, profound and applicable (POMU for short)③. Hawkins emphasizes the “personal” character of creativity. Although team cooperation can produce “creative group”, the “creative contribution” of each person needs to be recognized. Creativity can be divided into implicit and explicit creativity. Implicit creativity refers in particular to the activity of creative thinking in the brain, like the thought, concept and image that has not been materialized. Explicit creativity is the realization of “creativity” through industrialization, which is the manifestation of implicit creativity. It is the creative product we usually see, such as a book, a painting, a mobile phone and so on. Creativity can also be divided into big ideas and small ideas. The big idea refers to the original idea from scratch, while the small idea refers to the integrated innovation of existing ones. In the era of creative economy, creativity is the core driving factor to promote social and economic development.
From the perspective of the origin of creativity, the British government issued the British Creative Industry Path Document in 1998, which emphasizes the individuality of creativity, highlighting the originality of literature and culture as well as the creativity of humanities and art. Measuring the creative industry by its “creative products”, the core creative industries are literature, radio, film and television, audio and video recording, books, newspapers and magazines, drama and performing arts, advertising, computer software and data processing. In the era of creative industry, the creative ideas of humanities and arts are catching up with the innovative ideas of science and technology in a sense④, highlighting their dominant significance to social, cultural and economic development. In the era of creative economy, both academia and government pay more attention to the importance of cultural creation and creativity, which means there is a must in the disciplinary to turn from the traditional humanities to crossover creative ideas and innovation to respond to the ideas of social and economic change. This phenomenon occurs profoundly in many fields such as pedagogy, sociology, political science, where the core is literature and art.
In his book the Rise of the Creative Class, Florida argues that the core force driving society in the future is the creative class. “I think the creative class is made up of two types of members: one is the super-creative core group (poets, novelists, artists, etc.), and the other is the vanguard of ideas in modern society (journalists, editors, scholars, etc.)”⑤. Paul Dawson stressed in his book Creative Writing and New Humanism that the applied humanities represented by creative writing should attach importance to the diverse and autonomous functions of creativity in society, especially the goal of cultivating literary citizens and applying creativity in social feedback and public cultural services. For example, creative writing workshops are held in prisons and communities, using creative stimulation as a tool for spiritual healing and caring for the vulnerable and promoting social harmony.⑥
Therefore, in the creative economy times, literature will not only become the IP source of the whole creative industries through industrialization, but also the source of originality of creative industry, so that it will become the core of a country\\u0027s creative ability and promote the development of the creative economy. At the same time, literature will also become an important driving factor to promote the development of the society through providing direct social services.
2. The vision of “creative Country” and the creative transformation of contemporary world literature.
In the middle and late 1990s, developed countries began to transform their economies into creative economies. In order to promote this kind of transformation, some raised creativity to a strategic height and formulated the strategy of \\\"creative country\\\". At this point, the concept of \\\"creative country\\\" surfaced.
Around 1994, Australia published a set of policy ideas, and first put forward the strategy of \\\"Creative Country\\\" with the banner of building \\\"Creative Australia\\\". The strategy aims to integrate various cultural fields, such as literature and art, cultural heritage and creative industries, and treat creativity as the primary driving force of the socioeconomic development, where five goals were put forward⑦ as follows: 1. Recognize, respect and praise the unique indigenous culture of Torres Strait Islanders and protect their cultural resources. 2. Ensure that the government supports the diversification of Australia, which means all citizens, regardless of background and circumstances, can have power to participate in the work of constructing cultural diversity to achieve multiple autonomy. 3. Support outstanding artists and creative literary workers to establish original works and creative libraries to encourage the telling of \\\"Australian stories\\\", support creative literary talents, and develop Contemporary creative literary works. 4. Strengthening cultural creativity is beneficial to improve national life qualities, social well-being and economic development by combining creativity into life. 5. Activate the Internet digital economy, support innovation, creative content, creative knowledge and the development of creative industries, emphasizing the fusion effect of creativity and new media such as the Internet. In the Australian national creative strategy, literature has assumed a very important function through writing Australian history and reality, undertaking cultural and historical inheritance and innovating cultural community, cultivating creative talents, in order to provide basic originality and spiritual support for the creative country, which proposes the transformation requirements that traditional Australian literati, the work of a traditional writer professional should meet, that is, industrialization of creativity and social services.
In 1997, after the British Labor Party came to power, Prime Minister Tony Blair reorganized the cabinet, and proposed the \\\"New England\\\" plan, setting up cultural media and sports department as a creative industry promotion agency. The Ministry announced the creative national strategy(Creative Britain)⑧ , which stipulates seven goals: 1. Promote creative education to children and young people. Launch \\\"Discover Your Talents\\\" program, and pilot a five-hour cultural and creative course every week. 2. Use creativity in work. Encourage the use of creativity in entrepreneurship and job hunting, provide support for student entrepreneurship, encourage companies to set up creative research spaces and center, and encourage colleges and universities to provide citizens between 14 and 25 with training about creative skills, and develop career education about creativity. 3. Support research and innovation. The Board of Technology Strategy provides 10 million pounds to support related research on the theory and practice of creative industries. It also provides 3 million pounds to support the “Creative Innovator Program” to build a \\\"knowledge transfer network\\\". Innovation, universities and technical committees give special support to related research on improving the economic efficiency and social value of creative industries. 4. Financial plan to support the development of the creative economy. English art committee and local development committee guide the development of creative industries, especially supporting the relatively backward areas. It encourages investment, bidding, and financial support projects. 5. Promote and protect copyright. Enact legislation to protect copyright, severely punish piracy, protect the rights of Internet service providers and creative subjects, and establish a British IP organization to carry out copyright protection of publicity and education. 6. Support creative industries. In the southwest and northwest of the country, government is supposed to set up a strategic pilot for creative economy, to build a local creative economy by investing in infrastructure and develop the mixed media industry (music, film industry, etc.). 7. Promote the UK as a global creative hub. According to the five-year plan, English enhances the influence of the British creative industry in the world and develops exhibition of creative festivals and culture, and host world creative business conference. Based on that strategy, among the top 100 universities in the UK, more than 80 universities have established the discipline of creative writing to cultivate creative talents. With their efforts, the pure literature transforms to creative literature in English. A large number of creative talents become the main force of cultural services in the industry of magazines, films, advertisements and communities.
In 2011, the European Union proposed the \\\"Creative Europe\\\" development plan, which can be seen as an enlarged version of the creative country strategy. The time span of the plan extends from 2014 to 2020. It will integrate culture, media and other projects into one system, advocating transnational cooperation and operation, and providing financial support for creative industries. It also provides funds for the restoration of cultural relics, cultural infrastructure and services, the protection of cultural heritage and cultural export. In 1998, Singapore designed the creative industry as a strategic pillar industry in the 21st century and introduced \\\"Creative Singapore\\\" project. In 2001, Singapore proposed two goals of \\\"ushering the Renaissance in Singapore Creative Economy Era\\\", and \\\"Building a New Asian Creative Center\\\". As the creative country strategy advances, Singapore emerged in the economic wave. Also in this year, South Korea, Japan also successively proposed creative national strategies. Korea promulgated the \\\"Cultural Industry Revitalization Law\\\", whose slogan is the \\\"limited resources, unlimited creativity\\\". In the same year, Japan proposed \\\"Strategy for Building a Country through Culture\\\", with the slogan of \\\"Creativity determines the rise and fall of a country\\\". Relating to this strategic transformation, Korean TV series and Japanese anime have become world-class Cultural wonders.
Judging from the practice of the \\\"creative country\\\" in the above developed countries, the concept of \\\"creative country\\\" is not a shorthand for the concept of \\\"creative economy\\\", but new characteristics of the creative economy development and governance after the world entered the creative economy era. Then what is a creative country? First, the creative economy is valued at the national strategic level, and the country deals well with the copyright and industrialization mechanism of \\\"creativity ideas\\\" in literature, culture and art and technological \\\"Innovative ideas\\\". It has greatly released the ability of creativity which drives social and economic development, making the creative economy a core position in the national economy and a pillar industry, for which it embraces the position of leader and promoter in the world. Second, The government recognizes the diversity and historical heritage of literary culture, which has a positive effect on the construction of a creative country and solve the dialectical relationship among the protection of literary and cultural traditions, cultural heritage inheritance and creativity. Its creative economy has the ability of outputting multicultural value and the ability to make traditional culture transform and produce modern creative industrialization globally. Thus the development of creative industry and the high prosperity of spiritual culture reach a high degree of unity. Third, focusing on cultivating creation, creative and innovative talents, the education system has undergone a creative transformation, capable of self-innovation by encouraging creative talents to form a creative atmosphere for the whole people through innovation and entrepreneurship. Creativity as a productivity factor, has been raised to an unprecedented height, and has become the root of national development. Fourth, the connotation of national governance tilts towards cultural governance. The atmosphere of innovative and creative culture stimulates social vitality and build a creative community. It promotes the residents’ sense of community by encouraging cultural diversity through the residents’ participation in the construction of community culture. It encourages cultural diversity to promote ethnic integration, and incorporate the stimulation, expression and appreciation of creativity into social welfare to reflect a new type of national well-being (the transformation from material well-being to spiritual and cultural well-being). Fifth, take the implementation of creative national strategy as the most important way to improve the quality of life of the people, rebuild the national image and enhance the soft power of national culture through the construction of creative country, build creative citizens and thus create a new type of national identity and pride, and become a major country of cultural production and export and a world-class cultural power.
To sum up, in the era of creative economy, \\\"creative country\\\" is the same strategic choice for the development of all developed countries. In fact, there are more than a few western pioneers who take the lead in entering the developed \\\"creative country\\\" through the strategy of \\\"creative country\\\". Based on this, this paper puts forward the concept of \\\"creative China\\\", and holds that it is the proper intention of China\\u0027s development in the era of creative economy to accelerate the process of China\\u0027s entry into the \\\"creative country\\\" through the strategy of \\\"Creative China\\\". The \\\"creative China\\\" proposed in this paper can be understood from the following two perspectives. One is to catch up with and surpass the \\\"creative Country\\\" in the world by contrasting with the \\\"creative country\\\" strategy of developed countries. The second is to study and sort out existing policy resources and strategic plans, so as to fully understand the policy basis and social and economic basis with Chinese characteristics of the \\\"creative China\\\" strategy.