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UNESCO Creative Cities Network: Creativity and Culture Promote International Cooperation and Sustainable Development
2021-04-02 ICCSD

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Beijing, City of Design (Source: Official Website of UNESCO Creative Cities Network)

What comes into your mind when it comes to cities like Dublin, Rome, Yangzhou and Vienna? The Dubliners described by James Joyce, the classic film Roman Holiday, the delicious Yangzhou Fried Rice or the world-renowned pianist Mozart? These cities offer much more to explore in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).

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Source: Official Website of UCCN

About UCCN    

In 2014, UNESCO launched the project of UCCN to promote international cooperation among cities and enhance the role of global creative industries in facilitating economic growth and social development. The network is composed of Cities of Gastronomy with unique cuisine, Cities of Literature with rich culture and Cities of Crafts&Folk Art which attract a great number of online celebrities and bloggers. By offering a good platform for the public sector, private businesses and civil society to deepen the tripartite cooperation, UCCN hopes to unleash the creativity and the potential for promoting economic growth and social development of characteristic local cultural industries, establish new international partnerships and help UNESCO promote cultural diversity.

In 2004, Edinburgh, a city of Scotland, put forward the initiative and became the first member of UCCN. After years of development, now the network consists of 246 member cities which are creative and strategically sophisticated. These cities have made full use of their respective strengths in Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music, and supported economic growth, social development, cultural diversity and environmental protection via a vast array of well-received events.

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Berlin, City of Design (Source: Kuppel des Reichstagsgebäudes ©Marco Verch, https://foto.wuestenigel.com/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/）

The Joining of 14 Chinese Cities

UCCN started choosing qualified cities as its members in 2004 and the selection is held every two years. On October 31, 2019, the World Cities Day, 66 cities joined UCCN with the approval of UNESCO. Among them were Nanjing, China, City of Literature and Yangzhou, China, City of Gastronomy. Up till then, 14 Chinese cities had joined the network, including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan as Cities of Design, Chengdu, Shunde and Macao as Cities of Gastronomy, Hangzhou, Jingdezhen and Suzhou as Cities of Crafts&Folk Art, Changsha as the City of Media Arts and  Qingdao as the City of Film. 

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Nanjing, City of Literature (Source: Official Website of UCCN)

At present, UCCN is composed of 246 members covering over 100 countries around the globe. Notably, China ranks first among all the countries with 14 of its cities joining UCCN.  

Launch of the 2021 Application

In recent days, the official website of UNESCO has announced the launch of the 2021 application to join the UCCN. The event is open to cities from all UNESCO Member States and Associate Members. The international organization will adjust its specific cooperation patterns with the applicants and continuously attract cities with regional features and cultural competitiveness. Interested cities are encouraged to submit their applications by filling in the official standard forms by the end of June 30, 2021 (0:00 CET). Applicants in China shall submit relevant materials to the Secretariat of China National Commission for UNESCO one month earlier than the above-mentioned deadline. More information could be found at the official website of the UCCN (https://en.unesco.org/creativecities/content/call-Applications).

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ICCSD and UCCN

As the world's first UNESCO Category 2 center with the theme of "creativity and sustainable development", the International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development under the auspices of UNESCO (short for "ICCSD") is always devoted to promoting creativity and fulfilling the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN. In particular, the project of Creativity 2030 encourages all walks of life to share creative solutions, tools and methods. ICCSD has also compiled Chinese and English research reports including Observatory on Creative Cities--The Development of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (2004-2019) and Research on Creativity and Sustainable Development (2019-2020): Creative Economy and and Urban Renewal, keeping an eye on the UCCN development and providing insight into how the creative industry would promote the fulfillment of SDGs by analyzing real cases of cities and industries.

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Distribution of Creative Cities of Countries Along the Belt and Road Routes (as of July, 2019)

(Source: Official Websites of UCCN and Belt and Road Portal)

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Creative Cities Included in All the Categories of UCCN (180 cities in total, as of July, 2019)

(Source: Official Website of UCCN)

ICCSD will launch a series of articles focusing on the creative cities very soon, centering on seven themes, namely Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music. The elaborately planned activity intends to highlight the features of various creative cities around the globe and help the readers learn more about the UCCN members. The first edition will be devoted to the Cities of Gastronomy, and we look forward to taking a bite of global delicacies with all of you!

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About us
The International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development under the Auspices of UNESCO (Category 2) was approved at the 38th session of UNESCO General Assembly in November 2015. In 2017, the People's Government of Beijing Municipality signed the agreement with UNESCO. ICCSD becomes the world's first UNESCO Category 2 center with the theme of "creativity and sustainable development". With the support and guidance of UNESCO, the Center intends to build the world's high-level international platform that aims at creativity and sustainable development, and includes the functions of research, training, cooperation, communication, demonstration etc. The Center shall become a first-class think-tank gathering talents throughout the world, building a global renowned "laboratory of thoughts" with a focus on creativity and innovation. It shall promote cultural exchanges and cooperation, disseminate and support Chinese enterprises, technology and culture.
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