What are the cultural industries in Singapore?

Overview of Singapore's main cultural industries

(1) Performance and exhibition industry

In the past 10 years, Singapore's art has made great progress. The government's "Renaissance City Report" in 2000 proposed building Singapore into a world-class cultural city, and decided to allocate an additional S$50 million in the next five years to give art groups and companies more resources to develop fine arts and improve the professional level of art. The total number of performances related to the performing arts was 1,915 in 1993 and increased to 4,654 in 2003, an increase of 143%. Ticketed performances increased from 1,609 in 1993 to 2,437 in 2003, an increase of 52%. The number of visual art exhibitions increased from 150 in 1993 to 537 in 2003, an increase of 258%, and the cumulative number of exhibition days increased from 1,441 to 11,380 days. According to statistics in 2003, there were 247 art groups and 302 art companies in Singapore.

(2) Media Industry

The Singaporean government hopes to develop Singapore into one of the major media centers in the Asia-Pacific region and form its own advantages in media development. In recent years, Singapore has taken several major measures in media development to further promote the development of the media industry. Pay television was introduced in 1995. In 2000, the government passed policies that allowed the two major media groups, Singapore Press Holdings and MediaCorp, to enter each other's business areas and enter the Internet business at the same time. Singapore media began to enter a stage of comprehensive competition. Prior to this, Singapore's newspaper and radio and television industries were controlled by Singapore Press Holdings and New Media Group respectively. In 2002, the Singapore government launched the "Media 21" plan and entered the stage of comprehensively building a world media city. In July 2003, the Singapore government announced at the "Media 21" forum that it would invest S$100 million in the next five years to export media products made in Singapore, cultivate high-quality media talents, develop digital media and expand overseas markets. In July 2004, Singapore won the American Lucasfilm Company (LUCASFILM) to establish a digital animation studio in Singapore. This will promote the development of Singapore's media industry, provide a new platform for Singapore's creative talents to enter the international stage, and help Singapore transform from an information economy to an innovation economy.

From 1990 to 2000, Singapore's media industry grew at an annual rate of 7.7%. The Singaporean government plans to increase the output value of the media industry to 3% of GDP by 2012 and increase the number of employees to 50,000.

In terms of television broadcasting: Singapore has 2 free-to-air television companies, providing 7 television channels; 5 free-to-air radio stations, providing 18 radio channels. Free broadcasters include: MediaCorp Television Pte Ltd, Singapore Press Holdings Press Communications, MediaCorp Radio, Alliance Communications Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore Armed Forces Radio, National Arts Council, BBC World Service (BBC WORLD) . International satellite broadcasters operating in Singapore are AXN, BBC, CNBC Asia, Discovery Channel Asia, ESPN Sports, HBO Movies Asia, MTV Asia and Disney Television International. Pay TV is operated exclusively by Singapore's StarHub Cable Company. As of 2003, there were 380,000 pay TV subscribers in Singapore.

Newspapers: Singapore has 10 daily newspapers, including 5 English newspapers, 3 Chinese newspapers, the Malay newspaper "Daily News" and the Tamil newspaper "Tamil Daily". Among the 10 newspapers, except "Today", which is published by Mediacorp Newspapers, the other newspapers are owned by Singapore Press Holdings. In 2002, the circulation of daily newspapers was 1.53 million, with the largest circulation of English newspapers being about 1.03 million, Chinese newspapers about 430,000, Malay newspapers about 60,000, and Tamil newspapers about 10,000.

Film: The Singapore Film Commission was established in 1998 to support the development of Singapore's film industry with seed funds and cultivate Singapore's talents in film production and production. Singapore's films are mainly imported. From 2000 to 2002, the number of films imported into Singapore each year was 950, 832 and 928 respectively. The number of locally produced films in Singapore is very small. In 1995, Singapore produced only 1 film locally and 5 films in 2002, which simply cannot meet people's needs. Local films can be produced for a modest cost, ranging from as high as US$2.5 million to as low as US$30,000. The top-grossing local film is "Kids Are Not Stupid" directed by Singaporean director Leung Chee-keung. The film cost just S$1 million to make and grossed S$3.8 million at the box office. Currently, Singapore has 5 major cinema chains and 147 cinemas, which can accommodate 38,000 people. Movie attendance in 2003 was 14.6 million.

(3) Art training

The Singaporean government believes that the creative industry will play an important role in the development of future society. To make Singapore more competitive in the future economy, the Singapore government believes it is necessary to cultivate talents with technical skills and innovative thinking. In 2002, the Junior College (equivalent to our country's high school) and Junior Secondary Education Review Committee recommended that the government need to establish junior colleges for physical education, mathematics, science and arts. Subsequently, the "Reinventing Singapore Committee" also recommended that the government establish art schools at the secondary education level.

Currently, there are art and art-related courses in higher education in Singapore. The National University of Singapore has the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and offers degree courses in drama, architecture and industrial design; Nanyang Technological University offers degree courses in mass media. In addition, some polytechnics and art colleges offer diploma courses related to art, design and media. The private Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts also offer art-related courses. In contrast to higher education, secondary education does not seem to provide a path for further development for those children who are interested in art or show artistic talent at an early age. Children who are interested in art can choose to study art courses as a subject in junior high school and high school, but most schools have problems such as insufficient teachers in art education; "Art and Music Selected Courses" are also limited to selected middle schools. and several junior colleges. As a result, the development of some gifted students suffers at this stage.