Culture growing into strong pillar of China's economy

Workers make glass crafts for exports at a workshop of the Qixian Shanxi Red Sea Glass Co Ltd in Shanxi province. LANG SHA / FOR CHINA DAILY

After a few failed attempts to co-finance movies with US companies, Huayi directly invested $130 million in 2014 to establish a wholly owned US subsidiary. The arm will produce and distribute movies and TV shows in the US.

Huayi also plans to work with STX Entertainment, a California-based film and TV company, to co-produce 18 films, to be distributed worldwide by 2018.

It is the first such formal agreement between a Chinese company and Hollywood and the first time that a Chinese film company will take proportional profits at the global box office. In recent years, Chinese people have attached importance to spiritual and cultural life. Demand for travel, sports, educational and entertainment services grew.

Global demand for Chinese cultural products may boom in the foreseeable future, if the success of Dynamic Yunnan is any indication.

The company is the country's first large-scale producer of an original song-and-dance play. The drama is rooted in the traditional exotic Yunnan culture of southwest China.

Dynamic Yunnan has staged performances nationwide and worldwide, especially at popular travel sites. The company's operations gathered momentum after it went public on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, also known as the New Third Board, in 2014.