Cultural consumption, which includes buying books, watching performances and visiting exhibitions, has become an important means to promote economic growth and urban development.

To boost cultural consumption, in 2016 the Ministry of Culture published a list of 26 cities that would pilot cultural consumption, followed by another 19 in 2017.

Over the past two years, these city governments have increased financial support for cultural enterprises and projects to increase supply of cultural products. They have also provided subsidies for local residents to buy cultural products and services.

Many pilot cities have developed tourism attractions featuring traditional or local culture. For instance, some are hosting cultural festivals to spread their culture and promote tourism.

Many cities have launched e-commerce platforms for cultural and creative products as well as public accounts on WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, to provide information on cultural events.

New technologies such as mobile Internet, big data and artificial intelligence have also upgraded the cultural consumption experience. For instance, Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province, where the headquarters of Alibaba is located, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Internet giant to launch new forms of cultural consumption such as unmanned bookstores. This has improved the quality and variety of cultural products, transformed cultural industries and upgraded cultural consumption.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Oriental Outlook on March 7)