In the 8th issue of "Qiushi" magazine in 2025, General Secretary Xi Jinping's important article "Accelerating the Construction of a Cultural Power" was published, proposing to "continuously enhance the country's cultural soft power and the influence of Chinese culture". Currently, promoting high-quality development of cultural trade is not only an inevitable requirement for economic transformation and upgrading, but also a strategic choice to enhance the dissemination and influence of Chinese civilization and build a community with a shared future for mankind. Cultural trade is the link between cultural dissemination and economic development. In recent years, some domestic literary works, online games, and online movies and TV dramas have successfully "gone global", and traveling to China has become a new trend for overseas people, demonstrating the power of Chinese culture and the power of opening up to the outside world. Both the literary work "The Three Body Problem" and the online game "Black Myth: Wukong" have had a wide influence in overseas dissemination and are classic cases of successful cultural trade. Continuously cultivating new advantages in cultural trade and promoting high-quality development of cultural trade are of great significance for promoting excellent traditional Chinese culture and facilitating global cultural exchanges and mutual learning. The high-quality development of cultural trade requires technological innovation to empower content creation and production. Digital technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping the global economic landscape at an unprecedented speed. Against this backdrop, the digital transformation of cultural trade presents significant innovative features. Emerging formats such as animation, online games, digital film and television, and interactive publishing based on digital genes have established a competitive advantage in cultural service trade; The traditional cultural resources that carry the code of civilization urgently need to form a new cultural supply system through digital transformation and IP development. On the one hand, it is necessary to consolidate the first mover advantage, rely on a relatively mature industrial production system, enhance the full chain service capabilities of creative research and development, intelligent production, and cross-border operations, and continue to expand the global market share of digital cultural products such as immersive entertainment, virtual idols, and interactive storytelling; On the other hand, we should dig deep into the rich mines of traditional culture, use technologies such as digital twins and augmented reality to decode cultural relics, intangible cultural heritage, and classics from multiple dimensions, incubate new cultural derivatives through the model of "cultural database+creative algorithm", and build a new ecology of digital cultural trade that blends tradition and modernity. This strategic transformation not only strengthens China's pivotal position in the global digital cultural value chain, but also opens up innovative paths for the digital inheritance of cultural genes and provides rich and high-quality supply for the global cultural economy market. Enhancing international market value through brand building is an important way. International brand building is a practical measure for China's cultural industry to achieve high-quality development. It is urgent to fully tap into cultural resources and increase their market conversion rate based on the current situation of cultural trade development; Emphasize brand innovation, focus on brand differentiation and uniqueness, and enhance product competitiveness; Give full play to the advantages of the cluster and use an international operating model to achieve a leap in the global value chain. In addition, the high-quality development of cultural trade requires breaking through the limitations of low value-added product exports, promoting the industrial chain to climb towards both ends of the "smile curve", achieving transformation and structural upgrading from factor driven to innovation driven, and increasing the proportion of knowledge intensive formats such as digital cultural products, copyright services, and creative design. For example, a large number of excellent web dramas, online literature, and online games are going overseas, constantly enriching the types of cultural "going global", and constantly creating a comprehensive service system that integrates creativity, products, branding, marketing, and distribution, promoting the breaking through of cultural barriers and enhancing the international influence of brands. To achieve high-quality development of cultural trade, it is necessary to deeply integrate into the domestic and international dual circulation system. The domestic circulation focuses on activating the cultural consumption market and connecting the integration of culture and tourism; For international circulation, it is necessary to build a cultural and trade corridor for countries along the "the Belt and Road" and promote the systematic launching of technical standards and business models. This internal and external linkage mechanism makes cultural trade a strategic hub for smooth economic circulation and promoting mutual learning among civilizations. For example, relying on cross-border e-commerce platforms, expanding the export of cultural products, and using big data to accurately match international market demand; Build a digital cultural trade platform, promote the digitization of the entire cultural trade chain, and achieve efficient and transparent processes from copyright trading to payment settlement. The high-quality development of cultural trade is not a one-way output. Its essence is to build a bridge for dialogue between Chinese and foreign civilizations by enhancing the quality, efficiency, innovation concentration, and value thickness of cultural trade. In recent years, some cultural IPs have not only created economic value in the global market, but also made the Chinese wisdom of "harmony in diversity" and "great harmony in the world" perceived by the world. In the process of integrating into the new development pattern of "dual circulation", cultural trade transforms cultural resources into products and services with trading value, thereby visualizing and concretizing Chinese culture, attracting more trading partners and international friends' attention, and allowing the world to better understand the real China. Cultural innovation is not only the key to stimulating the vitality of traditional culture, but also the driving force for China to participate in global civilization dialogue. In the future, we must be committed to promoting high-quality development of cultural trade, promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning with a more open attitude, providing the world with public goods that combine Eastern wisdom and modern values, and making solid progress towards the goal of building a cultural power. (outlook new era)

Author: Li Jiashan (Professor at Beijing International Studies University and Executive Vice President of the National Institute of Cultural Development International Strategy)