“In recent years, digital technology has fully empowered the cultural industry, and digital works of arts and culture have come into being,” said Tian Qinxin, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and president of the National Theater of China. “How to ensure sustainable growth of the digitized performing arts sector has thus become a pressing issue.”

During the ongoing two sessions, Tian proposed a set of measures based on her experiences in this field.

As an internationally acclaimed playwright and theater director, Tian has dedicated herself to popularizing traditional Chinese culture over the past decade through well-received live-streamed stage performances such as China in Stories and China in Classics.

With the pandemic occurring over the past three years, online broadcasting or cloud live-streaming has become popular as people could not go to theaters in person.

However, online broadcasting should not be treated merely as an expedient measure in time of emergency for theatre operators, Tian said.

“In this booming digital era, there are unlimited possibilities for the performing arts circle,” Tian explained. “Online broadcasting has broken the traditional mode of cultural communication, enriched people's cultural life, and profoundly changed the creation, production and dissemination of digitized literary and artistic works.”

The predominant channels for online broadcasting of stage performances are video platforms such as iQiyi, Tencent and Youku, the Chinese equivalents of Netflix. However, the offline, physical theaters can also help broaden the dissemination channels for stage performances if the operators can create customized services for different theater audience groups, Tian said.

In her opinion, the operators of theaters should adopt a strategy of "diversified marketing plus customized services", creating a differentiated advantage and maintaining their theaters’ attendance rate for matinees except in key slots.

In so doing, Chinese theaters may end up surviving and thriving the competition against other players in the market such as the production companies of Web series and internet movies, Tian concluded.