Research On The Impact Of Digital Distance On My Country's Cultural Export

In 2021,China’s import and export of cultural products reached US $155.81 billion,an increase of 43.4%,and the import and export of cultural services reached US $44.22 billion,an increase of 24.3%.In recent years,the all-round development of digital technology has consolidated the foundation of digital cultural trade and spawned a new form of cultural trade.Digital culture platform and digital technology are empower for the cultural industry chain and boost the quality and efficiency of cultural trade.Digital technology and cultural trade mutually reinforce each other’s achievements,enrich the cultural trade form.At present,the research has expanded the influence factors of cultural trade export from the traditional trade Gravity model with single factors such as geographical distance and economic distance as the main influencing factors to the CAGE distance model with multiple factors such as cultural distance,institutional distance,geographical distance and economic distance.However,with the continuous integration of digital technology and international trade,the CAGE distance model still has obvious shortcomings in studying contemporary cultural trade,The development of digital technology has driven the development of international trade,including cultural trade.By incorporating digital distance into the CAGE model,we aim to explore more comprehensively the impact of digital distance on China’s cultural exports,which affects the differences in digital technology development levels among countries(regions)in the digital economy era.Therefore,this article is based on the perspective of digital technology gap,proposed to narrow the gap in digital technology levels among countries(regions)and shorten the digital distance to promote China’s cultural exports,providing a new breakthrough for expanding China’s cultural international influence.This article first analyzes the theoretical basis and research hypothesis of the impact of digital distance on China’s cultural exports from a theoretical perspective.Secondly,based on the UN Comtrade database and the OECD database,we selected cultural export data from China to 33 countries(regions)from 2007 to 2018 and empirically tested the effect of digital distance on China’s cultural exports using a bidirectional fixed effects model;At the same time,the mechanism of interaction between the two was analyzed and validated.Finally,the impact of economic development level heterogeneity and free trade agreement heterogeneity on China’s cultural exports was analyzed from the perspective of heterogeneity.The results show that:(1)The digital distance has a negative correlation with China’s cultural exports.In other words,the greater the difference in the level of digital technology development between China and the trade target countries(regions),the more detrimental to China’s cultural exports,which in turn restricts the promotion of China’s cultural exports in the trade target countries(regions).(2)Digital distance has an effect on China’s cultural exports through the trade cost mechanism,that is to say,the smaller the gap between countries(regions)in the level of digital technology development,the greater the effect of reducing bilateral trade costs.Besides,the more obvious the role of digital distance in promoting the export of cultural products and services of a country(region),and vice versa.(3)For developed countries(regions)and countries(regions)not bordering China,digital distance has a more significant effect on reducing China’s cultural exports.According to the above conclusions,specific measures are proposed to reduce the digital distance between countries(regions)and enhance China’s cultural export by improving the application and promotion capacity of digital technology,increasing support for the "iterative" innovation and development of digital technology,strengthening the application of digital technology in various cultural fields,and reaching regional digital trade rules.