Cultural consumption took the spotlight during the Chinese New Year, with consumers willing to embrace intangible cultural heritage experiences with cultural connotations and interactive appeal, Economic Daily reported on Monday.

Moviegoers flocked to films such as Detective Chinatown 1900, and Ne Zha 2, driving demand for movie-related merchandise.

The popularity of Ne Zha 2 is not only boosting the box office revenues but also driving the consumption of a range of related derivatives.

With China’s national per capita GDP exceeding $13,000 (94997.5 yuan) in 2024, the continuous growth of per capita GDP has laid a solid foundation for the expansion of China’s cultural consumption.

The cultural industry is a sector that is permeable and interconnected and has a good foundation and broad space for integration and development with other industries, especially when associated with cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and virtual reality, further boosting the quality development of the industry.

The recognition and devotion of young people promoted the prosperity of the cultural industry and injected new vitality into the consumer market.

Data from Alibaba’s travel portal Fliggy shows that the popularity of “intangible heritage tourism” increased by 40 percent compared to the year before, and the search volume of intangible cultural heritage surged 212 percent year-on-year, according to data from Meituan Travel, with nearly 40 percent of the searchers born after 2000.