China's cultural and related industries recorded steady revenue growth in the first half of 2026, driven largely by emerging business formats, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday.
Revenue of large cultural enterprises, each with annual revenue from principal business reaching 20 million yuan or above, was 7.2026 trillion yuan (1.061trillion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 4.6 percent year on year, according to a survey of 82,000 such enterprises nationwide.
The 16 subsectors with notably distinctive new cultural business formats, including digital publishing and internet-based cultural entertainment platforms, generated 3.5239 trillion yuan in revenue, surging 9.6 percent year on year.
By industry, cultural manufacturing revenue edged down 0.4 percent year on year to 1.7851 trillion yuan, while wholesale and retail dipped 0.1 percent to 1.094 trillion yuan.
However, cultural services played a key supporting role. In the first half of the year, the cultural services sector generated 4.3235 trillion yuan in operating revenue, up 8.1 percent year on year.
Revenue from cultural services enterprises accounted for 60 percent of all large cultural enterprises of the kind, rising 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, subsectors such as cultural investment and asset management, as well as cultural event services, achieved double-digit revenue growth.
China's cultural industrial sector revenue up 4.6 pct in H1
China's cultural industrial sector revenue up 4.6 pct in H1
An autumn job fair opened in Beijing on Sunday at the China National Convention Center, drawing more than 400 employers with around 20,000 job openings.
Hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, together with multiple government departments, the job fair was designed to better match job seekers with employers in line with the capital's industrial planning and talent needs.
The venue was divided into 11 dedicated zones, covering various sectors, such as next-generation information technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and biomedicine, to allow job seekers to speak directly with recruiters about job requirements, salaries and benefits.
To improve job matching, the fair also featured a new occupations experience area to show 10 recently developing roles, including robot data collectors and patient companion service providers.
"With the economy grows, especially the development of AI, many new occupations have emerged, for example, the generative AI trainers and data collectors. Some job seekers may not know much about new occupations, so we've brought these new careers here at the job fair to help job seekers better understand the prospects and the current state of these jobs," said Du Yang, director of the Beijing vocational introduction service center.
On site, many vocational skills training institutions cooperated with employers in such areas as AI and elder-friendly services to offer job seekers skills training and employment recommendations as part of a one-stop service to combine skills training, career experience and on-site recruitment.
"I often see this [AI comic drama producer] job mentioned in shorts of video apps, so I'm really interested in the workflow, the tools they use, and the current standard of the industry. I come here to see what the specific training process looks like and where it leads afterward. It helps me gain a further understanding of what the job market will demand in the future," said Yuan Yicheng, a job seeker.
Beyond offline job fair, all job openings from the fair have also been posted on the job service platform of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security's website. Job seekers can search openings and submit resumes online, with related services running through October 20.
Beijing hosts autumn job fair with around 20,000 jobs available
