Shanghai ranks ninth for culture in the world

Shanghai has been placed ninth in an international ranking of cultural metropolises.

The rankings were jointly produced by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Southern California who studied 51 cities around the world. The rankings were based on 52 indicators in 10 areas, including public cultural facilities and public participation in cultural events.

New York, London and Paris took the top three places, while Beijing and Shanghai were ranked at seventh and ninth.

Shanghai was also in the top 10 lists for public culture, public involvement in cultural events, cultural education, Internet development and cultural tourism.

It took first place in public involvement in cultural activities, followed by Beijing.

However, Xu Jian, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a leader of the research group, said Shanghai still had insufficient cultural influence in the world, though its cultural strength was improving.

“Shanghai’s core cultural industries lack characteristics, compared with other top international cultural metropolises,” said Xu. 

“The city should develop recognizable, competitive cultural industries, such as e-sports and movies.”

He also said Shanghai should improve per capita public cultural resources, utilization efficiency of these resources, capacity in public cultural services and public cultural consumption structures.