On Dec 18, Guangzhou's Tianhe district unveiled a series of policies to support its digital culture industries at the 2025 China Digital Entertainment Conference. The policies offer multi-faceted support related to industrial carriers, content creation, emerging formats, and cultural-tourism integration.

To support industrial carriers, one-time subsidies are offered to operators of cultural industry zones. The maximum amount is 1 million yuan ($142,287) for national demonstration zones, 500,000 yuan for provincial demonstration zones, 300,000 yuan for municipal-level demonstration zones, and 100,000 yuan for municipal-level parks.

To support content creation, enterprises launching original games with official publication numbers will receive up to 100,000 yuan per title. For performing arts, projects designating Tianhe as an exclusive national stop, premiere, or first tour stop will receive subsidies of up to 180,000, 240,000, and 300,000 yuan, respectively.

Tianhe builds itself into a digital culture hub. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

Enterprises releasing over 5 eligible horizontal-screen live-action short dramas annually on mainstream platforms can receive up to 800,000 yuan, while those with over 5 vertical-screen ones receive up to 600,000 yuan.

Additionally, the policies promote culture-tourism-sports integration and public services. Newly awarded national, provincial, and municipal public cultural spaces can receive up to 200,000, 100,000, and 50,000 yuan, respectively. Newly recognized municipal, provincial, and national cultural-tourism integration projects or leisure tourism streets can receive 300,000, 500,000, and 1 million yuan in subsidies.

Covering the entire industrial chain, the policy framework underscores Tianhe's commitment to consolidating its leading position in the digital cultural industry, fostering format integration, and supporting innovation-driven high-quality development through systematic policy backing.