Research on the Culturalization of Traditional Industry in Gongjing District under the Background of Industrial Transformation ()
1. Introduction
In the less-developed medium- and third-tier cities, the traditional historical industries supported by the small-scale peasant economy are still evident today. However, with the development of society, cultural industry starts to play an important role in today’s economy. Each district tries to pursue its own development. The word “development” has two connotations: What is development? How to develop? Then, the traditional industries or businesses will be integrated with culture to realize the cultural influence of the contemporary emerging industries, and realize the three-fold development of local economic benefits, cultural influences and ecological environment. Developing industries with culture is a new concept and new method of economic and industrial development. It transforms and upgrades industries with cultural and creative elements, increasing industrial added value, promoting industrial culture transformation and upgrading, and finally making the traditional industries move toward high-end industries. To know the degree of the integration of the tourism and culture, the on-the-spot inspections of such places as Niuwei Xianhua eco-park, Laojie, Hejie, Aiye ancient town and Gongjing ancient city were made in Gongjing District, Zigong City, Sichuan Province. To have a clear idea on the current situation of the tourism industry in this region, the researches on Baimiao Blood Orange Planting Base, Haichuan Industry, Huaxiang Pastoral Scenic Spot and the Dutch Institute in Gongjing District were conducted. After the history, culture and customs of the Gongjing District of Zigong City are carefully reviewed, and the present cultural industry is researched, we can have a clear idea on the status quo, problems and development direction of the traditional cultural industry in the area.
2. Current Situation of Traditional Industrialization in Gongjing District
2.1. The Rich History of Salt Culture
Gongjing District is located in the southwest of Zigong City. It administers 11 towns, 91 villages and two streets including 16 communities, with a total area of 430 square kilometers and a total population of 300,000. Salt historical artifacts witness the rich history of the salt transport culture and the salt merchant culture. There are 327 non-movable cultural relics in the area (more than 85% are related to salt culture), among which 4 are national-level cultural relics protection units, 8 are provincial-level cultural relics protection units, 13 are municipal-level cultural relics protection units, and 7 are district-level cultural relics protection units” [1]. One provincial intangible cultural heritage project is also located in this district (Figure 1).
2.2. The Obvious Cultural Trend of Agriculture and Forestry Industry
Culturalization of the agricultural industry has been greatly improved. People began to value the influence of culture and brands, creating unique cultural brands, special local products and industrial zones. So they strive to create products with local characteristics, making them famous in the province and finally spread
their influence throughout the country. The government attaches importance to environment-friendly products with local charateristics by applying for certifications. At present, there are 28 pollution-free agricultural products certification, 1 green product certification and 29 organic product certification. “Longdu early ripe grapefruit” (grapefruit produced in Longdu) and Wubao Peanut (peanut produced in Wubao) are certified and protected by the Ministry of Agriculture for agricultural products with national geographical indications. Product title, “Chuan Longtan” “Li Bixiang” trademark were identified as provincial famous trademarks” [2]. In the past ten years, the fruit and vegetable industry zone is formed with Jianshe, Chengjia, Baimiao and Longtan as the main body; the eco-tourism forest parks are represented by Lianhua and Niuwei.
2.3. The Fast Pace of Integration and Close Relationship of Nature and Tourism Industry
Gongjing District of Zigong City actively promotes the development of forest tourism, and builds the “Lianhua Niuwei Forest Park” by relying on forest parks and nature reserves. In addition, it cultivates a number of characteristic towns and exquisite villages with tourism as the leading industry by strengthening the integration of new urbanization, characteristic towns, beautiful villages and tourism. At present, the national 4A level scenic spot of the Huaxiang Garden Scenic Spot in Gongjing District has been successfully approved.
2.4. The Development of the Emerging Tourism Industry
The development of the aviation tourism industry in the region, such as the existing Zigong Aviation Industrial Park with a total planned area of about 81 square kilometers, has become an indispensable part of the “1 + 3” industrial layout for the development of aviation and gas turbine industry in Sichuan Province, and is now moving towards high-end equipment manufacturing, aviation and gas turbine new materials research and development, aviation service industry. Energy conservation and environmental protection industry, new materials industry, aviation theme cultural tourism, and other ancillary services industry are also complementary to the rapid development of the multi-industry. At the same time, the automobile trade industry is combined with culture, and the automobile trade and cultural tourism are developed. At present, the cumulative investment has reached 2.8 billion yuan for the Chuanan Automobile Trade Industrial Park characterized by such automobile culture elements as automobile expo, automobile supermarket, car theater and automobile race. The industrial conditions for developing such emerging tourism as low-altitude tourism, automobile-themed cultural tourism have been initially established.
2.5. Initially Highlighted Cultural Brand Benefits
Gongjing District of Zigong City actively develops cultural experience tourism, such as the Lotus Festival, the Picking Festival of Loquat, the Pear Blossom Festival of Santai Village, etc., combined with the local folk culture to promote the local tourism and performing activities that reflect the local culture and folk customs.
3. The Main Problems in the Cultural Development of Traditional Industries in Gongjing District
3.1. Lack of Overall and Long-Term Scientific Development Planning
Because there is no overall plan for scientific development to guide the development of industrial culture, the distinctive features of the city and culture brand are lacking. And there is no multi-level, multi-type tourism product system to enrich the connotation of urban tourism brands. The added value of the cultural connotation of the industry is not enough, such as Wubao Peanut and Baimiao Navel Orange. Market processing, publicity, and resource integration are not enough to promote development. In particular, excellent salt culture is not well integrated with other industries. For instance, there are many snacks such as dry rabbit and dry frog in Gongjing District, but those retailers just compete with each other disoderly by selling the similar products. Actally they could cooperate with each other if some of them sold their products in the local city, some of them sold their products to the other provinces, or some of products were embeded with ideas and creativity. Meanwhile, the evaluations of these products are only based on use values. In addition to the edible salt, there is no in-depth development and utilization of the industrial upgrading. The added value brought by the cultural connotation of the industry is not enough. Take Wubao Peanut and White Temple Navel Orange as examples. Although planting places of Wubao peanuts is relatively concentrated and the peanuts taste good, but the price is almost the same as the market prices of other peanuts, and the cultural value is not reflected in its price. The price of Baimiao navel orange is even lower than the market price because of the lack of cultural added value, being as low as 3 yuan per kilogram when most of them become ripe. We do not highlight the advantages of local salt compared with salt products made in other places. At the same time, the propaganda is not enough, and the advertising effect is not achieved well. All in all, the channels for promoting the cultural soft power are not well developed, and the value of the local characteristic culture is not well highlighted.
3.2. The Insufficient Openness of Tourism Products and Involvement of Tourists
At present, tourism products are mainly tourism-oriented, mostly based on natural resources and historical attractions. The degree of cultural development combined with diachronic development is low, and the degree of contemporary social and cultural connotation is insufficient. With the constant changes in the demand of the tourism market, tourists’ demand for cultural experience and leisure vacations is gradually growing, and the current cultural consumption situation is also underestimated. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the cultural and leisure tourism products to a deeper and higher level for its attractive scenic spots and good air quality.
3.3. A Shortage of Professionals
All-round talents or think tank is urgently needed. The development of cultural industry requires a large number of high-quality management and innovative talents who are proficient in both economy and culture. They can combine the traditional characteristic industry and culture to realize economic benefits while also gaining cultural influence. However, at present, the shortage of talents who are proficient in the management of cultural industries has hindered the transformation of the existing industry culture into a broader and deeper one.
4. Reflections on the Transformation and Development of Traditional Industrial Culture in Gongjing District
4.1. Scientific Planning and Optimized Layout of Cultural Industries to Promote the Integration and Development of Cultural Industries and Other Industries
The Gongjing District should be divided into different zones which will be developed according to their own characteristics. Taking reform and innovation as the driving force, we will break through the development of cultural tourism industry, promote the development of tourism in the whole region, and play the “tourism+” function, and strive to develop unique tourism products such as salt culture, aviation culture, rural folk culture, food culture, etc. Only by this, can we develop a good tourism brand image and enhance the cultural soft power of Gongjing. The shed reform policy of Gongjing District, the protection of traditional villages, the tourism planning of the aviation industry park, the overall planning of the Dagongjing ancient salt culture tourist scenic spot, the establishment of the Lianhua Niuwei forest park and the integration of farming and cultural tourism all will contribute to the early formation of the global tourism industry.
4.2. Multiple Levels of Tourism Products Development to Deeply Explore Product Connotations
First, we should take full advantage of salt culture and lantern culture. Through the storytelling, restoration and display of cultural relics, the salt culture and lantern cultural heritage are transformed into cultural tourism products. The second is to improve the travel experience by relying on Zigong cultural symbols to shape the salt culture and lantern culture atmosphere and experience scenes of the past, and to reproduce the Zigong salt culture and lantern culture scenes. The third is to “advance the integration of theater, amusement, animation and other industries with tourism” [3]. Develop experience tourism products based on religious historical and cultural resources. The fourth is to invite the contemporary film and television media industry to explore the contemporary new cultural connotations of salt culture or lantern culture based on ancient legends, then shoot them into large-scale stage plays, movies or TV series, with contemporary media, and finally make the audience attracted by those things and appreciate them with their hears.
4.3. The Building of an Influential Navigation Tourism
In 2017, Gongjing District successfully held the National Model Flying Competition, which greatly improved public awareness of navigation. Its strong social influence also greatly promoted the navigation development of Gongjing District. Nowadays, more individuals and families will make travel plans from time to time to satisfy their spiritual needs. The comprehensive integration of navigation projects and tourism cultural resources will be a major breakthrough for the navigation market. Therefore, in combination with the Aviation Industry Park Project of Gongjing District, we will actively develop low-altitude tourism and form a comprehensive and systematic tourism flight camp. An aviation tourism town, air travel specialty products and services will be created to enhance the cultural tourism brand.
4.4. Innovation of Talent Training Mechanism and Strengthening the Construction of the Talent Team
Contemporary new-type cultural competition is actually the competition of the mind, while the most powerful mind comes from talents. Only talents can create a brand-new Gongjing District Cultural Industry Park. At present, Gongjing District has few specialized talents who specialize in cultural industry discovery and brand building. In most cases, they have to rely on some advertising companies to do some basic work such as creativity for products or trademark designs. First, we must be good at discovering talents. For those who can work out good ideas, we must work hard to inspire their innovation, and implement the cultural industry talents training project in a planned and step-by-step manner. Second, we should do more in introducing talents. For professional talents, we must expand their knowledge industry, train in multiple channels, and introduce high-quality cultural industry talents. Third, it is necessary to promote cooperation among such talents as economic talents, planning talents, literary talents, film and television talents, agricultural talents, business talents, science and technology talents, and planting talents. In the process, we should use their professional advantages and create conditions to coordinate development in the process of cultural development and jointly contribute to the development of new cultural industries in Gongjing District. Fourth, we must be willing to retain talents and try our best to cultivate talents with superior resources, attract talents with preferential policies, and encourage talents with good mechanisms.
5. Conclusions
The industrial culture transformation and upgrading of Gongjing District will be a long process which needs to mobilize all the talent to participate in. With the overall plan made by the district government, we should try our best to win the support of the city, the province and even the country, and encourage the talents to develop tourism of Gongjing District in multiple levels and different regions. We will make every effort to create a new cultural industry that combines traditional business with modern tourism, technology, film and television, etc. Gongjing District, along with its glorious past, is bound to have a bright future in the history of development.
This topic is only a preliminary macro-discussion of the current status and recommendations of the cultural industry in Gongjing District. It is not comprehensive and thorough. In the future, in-depth and detailed research will be carried out in specific fields according to the industrial patterns of Gongjing District.