Located on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, east of China and the front end of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai is the largest commercial and financial center and leading economy city of China with an area of 6,340.5 km2 and population of 241.8 million inhabitants. Recognized internationally for its mixture of Western and Eastern cultures, Shanghai has the history for the first creative industry units as the first design studio of China, the first film studio and music studio etc.
On February 2010, Shanghai joined UNESCO Creative Cities Network as “City of Design”, which represents its strong determination to improve design performance and innovation. Creativity is crucial for sustainable and inclusive economic growth while design is a significant tool to drive economic and consumption stimulations. Since then, Shanghai Municipal Government has set up a strategic framework, a systematic public platforms to build private and public partnership, a series of policies for establishing initiatives to promoting design as an important driven factor for improving added value for the industry development and social sustainability. Shanghai set up the UNESCO Creative Cities (Shanghai) Promotion Office within the framework of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization in 2010. It is the leading government organization to promote sustainable urban development; to coordinate and promote the development of the creative design industries in Shanghai and the construction of “city of design”; to promote the planning and implementation of policies; to support international cooperation and exchange in the creative design industries.
In 2018, the creative industries in Shanghai reached an added value of 422.772 billion Yuan, increasing by 8.9% to the previous year. Design plays an important role in the innovation process and economy transformation. The creative design industry made considerable progress while integrating into urban renewal, industry transformation and upgrading, improving citizen’s lives, international cooperation, promoting sustainable development.
In recent years, Shanghai unites various resources to develop creative design and has organized a series of influential design events, including Shanghai International Creative Cities Design Innovation Forum, Shanghai Interior Design Festival, Design Shanghai, Shanghai Couture Week, Shanghai Design Week, Shanghai Fashion Week etc. Till now, Shanghai has worked closely with international metropolises and other UNESCO creative cities of design to successfully hold a series of International Creative Design Dialogue, Innovation Design Exhibition showing the latest creative design concept, innovative products, and promote the best design talents.
