Research Status Arts District

The emerging of the art districts is mainly because of social transformation.Under the influence of globalization, cultural industry has been a new growth point ofeconomy in the developed countries. China, as a developing country, are behind thosedeveloped countries in cultural productivity and comeptitive edge. Art as an importantcarrier of cultural indstry, has been an indispensible part in the prcess of thedevelopment of cultural industry. But there still existed such phenomenon as “Startedwith art, but ended with commerce” during the uneven road of development of artdistrict in China.This passage takes Beijing798Art District as the object of study, as it is not onlythe witness of the new China industial civilization and historical development, butalso the pioneer in the Beijing cultural industry. So it is a complex which indicates thetransitions of art, culture, politics, economy, and society. During its developmentprocess, corporation(Sevenstar Group), the government, the art world, and othergroups of power fighted with each other, altered or replaced each other, which leadedthe art district towards different function direction, as such, the position and futuredirection of798became complicated and vague. This study trys to use the culturalsociology theory by Pierre Bourdieu(1930-2002), to find a reasonable explaination forthe problematic phenomenon in798art district. This essay employs documentresearch and field investigation to find the problems and contradictions behind the798and bring up suggestions to the future development of China art district, throughanalyzing the transformation process of798, and clarifying the interralationshipamong Sevenstar Group, the art world and the government.After the analysis towards the798art district in some degrees, this essay reachesa conclusion that the power game between culture and economy is the key point in thetransformation of the art district, while the intervene of the political power plays abalance role here. In the power game, the Sevenstar Group who has the economicpower was in the domination role, and it kept transferring cultural capital intoeconomic capital, which evolved into a one-direction process with the mighty of economic power. The cultural capital in798kept disappearing without recreationefficiently, leading to the result of erosion of the art district byover-commercialization. This is actually the outcome of the conspiration betweenpolitical and economical power, as well as the “imbalance” of political power. Thus, itis crucial and determinal to the future development of the art district how thegovernment balance art and commerce.