If culture is the superstructure of society according to Marxism-Leninism, industry is the concrete manifestation of economic policy, at least under a planned system. The socialist planned economy championed by Mao Zedong in the 1950s and 1960s began to be phased out in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping assumed leadership and introduced his economic reforms. The results transformed the nation and the lives of Chinese people. China now has a domestic market of over a billion consumers; its double-digit economic growth from 1978 to 2011 saw the emergence of thousands of millionaires. China is an industrial behemoth. Its global economic presence is made visible by the brand recognition of ‘Made in China’. Its infrastructural muscle is felt in neighbouring nations through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Its economy moreover represents a curious hybrid of state planning and cutthroat market entrepreneurialism.

China's internet industries have gathered momentum over the past decade. Their founders and CEOs frequently feature on the evening national CCTV news. Policy makers and officials seek out their opinions. China's film industries have also seen millionaire high-flyers, names like Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and Fan Bingbing. Their work has won recognition outside the mainland, albeit without scaling the commanding heights of Oscar success. Since the late 1990s, China's popular entertainment media has taken on a more international look: its formats and genres are recognizable worldwide. E-sport and games industries have reached dizzying heights of mass participation while social media use is ubiquitous, even among older demographics.

The Chinese government recognizes the importance of making money from its cultural resources, although the proposition that media production could be commercialized and still serve the state's goals took a long time to come to fruition. In fact, by the time media industries gained formal government recognition in 2002, they had experienced over a hundred years of commercial development in the West. Of course, China did have a film industry and a bevy of film stars, dating from as early as 1913. This industry generated significant commercial presence in Shanghai during the 1930s and as with the field of literature there were vestiges of a revolutionary left-wing consciousness.