Invited speakers discuss the opportunities provided to cultural development in an era of media convergence at the forum, Beijing, Jan 17, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A forum titled Global Design: Inspired by China was held in Beijing from Jan 17 to 18. During the forum, a new website focused on creative Chinese culture, discoverychina.org, was launched.

The website, in partnership with websites of Time, Fortune and Wallpaper, aims to promote Chinese culture around the world through a series of new designs that contain Chinese cultural elements. Each year, the website will issue creative lists, themed on international leading designers embracing Chinese culture, and will hold an Oriental Design Gala Event.

The forum had four sessions, involving a group of media representatives, scholars, designers and artists.

The first session centered on the opportunities provided to cultural development in an era of media convergence. The invited speakers for the session included John Marcom, president of Time Inc; Wang Hao, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily; Zhai Huisheng, former Party chief of the All-China Journalists' Association; and Wu Keyu, director of program research and development at China Central Television.

Speaking of media convergence, Wang said the new trend made the work more interesting. Yet the trouble was survival -- for example, how to make a profit from the influence of traditional media.

Zhai said media convergence was unstoppable and the best solution was to embrace it. He said President Xi Jinping had pointed out that the most important thing is to know what people need and how to tell a good story through new media.

Cultural industries and new media were the topic of the second session. Shen Weixing, deputy editor-in-chief of Guangming Daily; Alan Griffin; and Jonathan Siboni, founder of Luxurynsight, discussed "culture plus internet".

The third and fourth sessions focused on the inspiration that Chinese culture provides to global design and cultural industries. The guests had a talk about how to promote global industries through the impetus of Chinese culture.
During the forum, the first season of a documentary about Chinese weddings in Ordos premiered.

Supported by the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs Cyberspace Administration of China, the forum and launch ceremony will be organized by the China Nationality Culture Foundation; the Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development Fund (CHSDF); Educational—Scientific, Cultural and Communication Committee of the UN Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance Project (UCESCC); and the Oriental International Modern Art Council. China Daily Website and Time Inc are the two media partners of the event.