wow！ What kind of experience is it to attend classes in Wangfujing Bookstore？

On the morning of April 27, 2018, a unique homework report was held in Wangfujing Bookstore. This is a roadshow activity of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" jointly launched by the Department of Economics and Management of China Communication University and Wangfujing Bookstore. The homework review that should have been held in the university classroom was directly held at the target unit-Wangfujing Bookstore.

The audience was actually faced with members of the leading groups from relevant offices of Beijing Distribution Group and their affiliated Xinhua Chain Company, China Bookstore, Foreign Language Bookstore, Wangfujing Bookstore, Zhongguancun Book Building and Asian Games Village Book Building, leaders of the Publishing Department of the Propaganda Department of Beijing Municipal Committee, and relevant experts and tutors from China Communication University.

This lesson is the last lesson of Creative Architecture taught by Mr. Bu Xiting, Cultural Development Research Institute, Department of Economics and Management, Communication University of China.

The last lesson

Roadshow venue

Creative practice and bookstore updating: an innovative revolution in classroom work

In 2011, the physical bookstore in China experienced the worst closure frenzy in history, and there were endless comments about the death of the "physical bookstore". How to revive the physical bookstore? What changes have taken place in the functions of physical bookstores? For traditional bookstores such as Wangfujing Bookstore, what changes should they make to continue the important position of bookstores as the spiritual lights of the city?

Creative Architecture is a creative method course tailored for students majoring in cultural industry in Cultural Development Research Institute, aiming at providing thinking dimensions, thinking methods and creative paths for cultural industry, public culture, urban renewal and cross-border upgrading under the background of new urbanization. Since the start of the course in 2015, it has been widely praised by students and provided a reference for relevant units in the industry.

Keywords: transformation and upgrading

Based on the objective needs of the transformation and upgrading of Wangfujing Bookstore and the operational requirements of the teaching practice training of Creative Creation, after a special investigation of Wangfujing Bookstore, Mr. Bu Xiting from the Cultural Development Research Institute and Li Bailin, secretary of the Party branch of Wangfujing Bookstore, jointly agreed that the graduate students of the 2017 Cultural Development Research Institute should be divided into five groups to put forward five creative creation schemes for the transformation and upgrading of Wangfujing Bookstore, and invited the leaders of Beijing Publishing Group, the superior department in charge of Wangfujing Bookstore, to listen to the report and give feedback.

A class assignment report has evolved into a practical process of creative proposal with a real knife and a real case, which has realized the effective docking of university teaching practice and industry transformation and upgrading.

Zheng Junbin, director of the Publishing Department of the Propaganda Department of Beijing Municipal Committee, and Cai Ning, deputy director, visited the site to observe and guide.

"Creative Breakthrough" of "The First Store in the Republic"

The students who participated in the roadshow of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" were divided into five groups. In nearly one month, they completed many tasks such as on-the-spot investigation, data consultation and analysis, case collection, project planning, etc., and finally provided five creative transformation design schemes with different styles for Wangfujing Bookstore.

The first group of programme themes 　

"New landmark of cultural reading"

When the first group reports,

Team photo

Following the principle of "minor repairs and minor changes, without losing the original", a group proposed to build Wangfujing Bookstore into a comprehensive book store with the theme of "a new landmark for cultural reading", and to create a spatial layout of "one map, one standard, one district, one library and multiple main business areas", and to enhance brand stickiness with rich offline experience activities, such as special reading meetings, youth training activities, signing meetings and meetings.　

The second group of programme themes 　

"Project 1614"

Group 2 reporters

Members of the second group

Founded in 1949, Wangfujing Xinhua Bookstore is a large-scale cultural enterprise of the same age as People’s Republic of China (PRC). At the same time, it is also the first Xinhua Bookstore in Beijing. The words "Xinhua Bookstore" inscribed by President Mao Zedong hang on the threshold of the bookstore and become a unique cultural symbol of Wangfujing Bookstore. Starting from its long history, complete categories of books and positive energy corporate image, the two groups planned the "1614" creative creation scheme. "1614" is the Gallery Art Exhibition, the historical timeline of "One Axis-One Scholar", six bookstores and four exhibition halls, showing the design concept of connecting the past and the present in series.

The third group of programme themes

"The Road of Transformation and Upgrading of Old Bookstore with Feelings in the New Era"

The third group reported to the scene.

For a city, bookstores witness a period of history and bear the feelings of a generation. Therefore, the theme of the three groups is "Feelings for the transformation and upgrading of the old bookstore in the new era", and the development goal is "Continuing feelings, upgrading the bookstore brand and creating a new landmark of Beijing urban culture". From the creation of the store environment to the establishment of a leisure area that highlights Beijing characteristics, displays Beijing culture and undertakes the memory of old Beijing, the traditional brand of Wangfujing Bookstore will not die out with the development of the times, but become more and more vital as a cultural symbol.

Group iv programme themes

"SHOW‘’ Beijing flavor’ outside the book"

Team members of the fourth group

For the contemporary entity bookstore, in addition to transforming into the aesthetic experience space of humanistic life, cross-border refined management is essential. The four groups think that Wangfujing Bookstore should have an all-round display of Beijing culture-"SHOW‘’ Jingweier’ outside the book", and should be based on Wangfujing business district to create a "Wangfujing Bookstore with charm and Jingweier". The planning idea of this group is to attract people into the bookstore with activities such as "Wangfujing Bookstore" label and 30-minute cultural circle as the starting point, and then upgrade the bookstore configuration, enhance the reading experience and promote the transformation of people flow to passenger flow. First "keep" consumers, then try to "keep" them, and cooperate with marketing strategy to expand the marketing publicity effect of bookstores, so as to attract public attention and drain them into stores, and the three links are promoted step by step to form a closed loop.

Group 5 programme themes

"the light of the city-let the soul live poetically"

The fifth group put forward the design goal of "city light"

Bookstore is not only a cultural landscape, but also can promote the upward growth of urban spiritual life. "The light of the city-let the soul live poetically" is the theme of the fifth group, and it is also their expectation for Wangfujing Bookstore. The five groups believe that Wangfujing Bookstore should have a world vision, an international vision and a capital style. From the aspects of development orientation, format selection, brand operation and bookstore mechanism, efforts should be made towards a new cultural complex with benchmarking and demonstration significance, centered on knowledge dissemination and experience, so as to show the important role of bookstores in developing and upgrading citizens’ cultural taste, serving the economic construction and the people.

Situational teaching: writing papers on the earth

Wonderful comments from the judging experts

Professor Wu Xuefu, Director of Art and Design Research Center of Communication University of China and Master Supervisor of Economics and Management Department: The results of the students’ final report are very remarkable, and five groups have put forward innovative planning schemes respectively, including many surprising ideas. However, the significance of the course is not limited to this. The course of "Creative Creation" moves from the classroom to the society, giving full play to the social service function of academic research in colleges and universities, so that the teaching effect can be verified in the real environment, thus promoting the further optimization of the course. This teaching mode is particularly worth learning and learning from teachers.

Associate Professor Wang Xiaoyan, Director of the Department of Business Administration of the Department of Economics and Management, Communication University of China, and Master’s Supervisor: This innovative teaching course grafted the theoretical teaching into the entity hall, so that the creative creation could fully land in Wangfujing Bookstore. The roadshow of the five groups fully reflects the students’ solid theoretical foundation, the ability to collect and refine interview documents, and the practical ability to fully apply theoretical knowledge to practical links. Especially, based on the actual layout of Wangfujing Bookstore, they boldly put forward creative ideas such as showing "Beijing flavor" culture, creating "city business cards" and "city light" by using creative design concepts such as sound, light, color and big data, which is full of sense of the times and creativity. The design of roadshows in each group is remarkable, students are prepared to be attentive, emotional and intelligent, and the roadshows rooted in the actual needs give fresh vitality to the creative creation course, which praises the wonderful performance of students’ roadshows.

Associate Professor Zhang Lin, the head of the light environment design major in the Art Department of China Communication University, and the tutor for master students: This course is very practical and enlightening to the teaching reform. Relying on the real project design, students face the real Party A, make real plans, and build a more real scene for creative creation. To a certain extent, it goes beyond the teaching mode of classroom scene simulation, which well reflects the practical characteristics of the subject. In the teaching process, the project is divided into five groups for team learning, and each group’s scheme has its own bright spots. This kind of team-based learning is problem-oriented, which improves students’ ability to find, analyze and solve problems with collective efforts, makes students change from passive learning to active learning, and from knowledge accumulation to improving their ability, and provides a model for cooperation between teaching institutions and social entities. No matter the upgrading and transformation of Wangfujing Bookstore or the teaching reform of the school, it is a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation.

Cai Ning, Deputy Director of the Publishing Department of the Propaganda Department of Beijing Municipal Committee: The course "Creative Creation" of China Communication University takes the upgrading and transformation of Wangfujing Bookstore, a cultural landmark of Beijing, as the research object, which is very suitable for the current environment of Beijing vigorously supporting the development of physical bookstores and building a "scholarly capital" and has strong practical significance. Focusing on its own characteristics, advantages, existing problems and development potential, teachers and students of Wangfujing Bookstore gave full play to their professional advantages, and with open creative inspiration and pragmatic design concepts, they launched five groups of design schemes with different styles, especially the fourth group of "SHOW‘’ Jingweier’ in the book and outside the book", which made people shine at the moment and provided a lot of useful help for the ongoing renovation of the bookstore. We hope to continue to cooperate closely with Communication University of China in the future and contribute more wisdom and help to the construction of the national cultural center.

Mr. Zhang Qiang, General Manager of Wangfujing Bookstore: The rigorous and vivid style of study of China Communication University and the students’ realistic and innovative learning ability are commendable. The most important thing for the transformation and upgrading of physical bookstores is to gain the recognition of a new generation of readers, among which college students are the most representative. The students’ plans and suggestions provide new ideas for the transformation and development of physical bookstores, so that the operators of physical bookstores can more truly see the needs of target customers. I am especially grateful to China Communication University for its intellectual support for the transformation, upgrading and development of physical bookstores. I hope that there will be deeper and broader cooperation between schools and enterprises in the future.

Mr. Geng Zhenwei, Deputy General Manager of Wangfujing Bookstore: This activity is the first time to realize the combination of institutions of higher learning and physical bookstores. The student team combines classroom teaching with project practice, and puts forward many innovative opinions and suggestions on the transformation and development of Wangfujing Bookstore from a brand-new perspective and with a brand-new way of thinking. For the students, although they have no experience in working in a physical bookstore, they finally put forward five very creative marketing plans through preliminary research, reading materials and organizing and analyzing materials. These schemes, from different angles, face the various problems encountered by Wangfujing Bookstore in the process of transformation and upgrading, and also deeply analyze the causes of these problems. For every student, this is also a vivid practical lesson. Walking into the physical bookstore, out of the field of knowledge research and into the practical work, there is research and experience. This marketing plan is very grounded. I hope that Wangfujing Bookstore and China Communication University will carry out more comprehensive cooperation and further upgrade Wangfujing Bookstore into a cultural landmark of urban culture and urban spirit.

Mr. Gao Wenning, Managing Director of Beijing Hanzang Culture and Art Communication Co., Ltd.: The intentions and effective creative contents presented by the students in the report plan are touching. Each group of students conducted in-depth research more than once, photographed and interviewed on the spot, and their earnest attitude was the foundation of learning and doing things. In addition, the students’ exploration and application in the cross-border field are also worthy of praise. The upgrading and renovation of Wangfujing Bookstore is a complex project, ranging from architectural renovation, marketing management, format layout, creative design and product positioning to Yi Deng, a picture and an image, all of which are involved in the students’ plans and have relatively clear and complete ideas, which is commendable. This activity is a very meaningful mode to bring the classroom into the enterprise. For students, it is a rare exercise opportunity with practical value, and for enterprises, it can provide extremely strong reference value and more possibilities. This mode of interactive integration of educational resources with enterprise resources and social resources has laid a solid foundation for win-win and multi-win.

Mr. Zhang Yubiao, Chairman of Beijing Zhongchuan Pinmu Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Secretary-General of the International Business Service Association: This time, the students put forward creative creation schemes from different angles from the layout of business forms to product positioning. This spirit of exploring the subject and the ability of teamwork are worth encouraging. In the era of rapid cultural and economic growth, the development of enterprises urgently needs the support of think tanks. Based on colleges and universities, the teachers go deep into enterprises, and create a brand-new teaching practice concept by combining Industry-University-Research and situational teaching mode. Let students put their own creative design from practice to practice, and "write the paper on the earth" by entering the enterprise and understanding it, so as to capture information from practice and get recognition from the industry. At the same time, enterprises can also rapidly transform and upgrade and thrive under the support of powerful think tanks.

Dongfang, an alumnus of China Communication University and the host of the roadshow of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore": It is exciting to participate in and witness the reform and innovation of Wangfujing Bookstore, which is the same age as the Republic. The students of the Cultural Development Research Institute are gratified by their creativity and exploration spirit in front of the audience and the judges. At the same time, I hope that the students, as spokespersons of young readers in the new era, will convey the most useful opinions and suggestions to Wangfujing Bookstore. I hope that more and more friends will continue to do this thing. I believe this activity will continue.

Mr. Bu Xiting, the lecturer of "Creative Creation" in the Cultural Development Research Institute of the Department of Economics and Management, Communication University of China, commented on each group of solutions of this roadshow of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" at the event site. He pointed out that the event was held in Wangfujing Bookstore, which was once a cultural landmark and city business card of Beijing, and was full of cultural memories of many scholars. It will also play an important leading and exemplary role in the future construction of Beijing Cultural Center. However, the bookstore in the future should not stop at selling books, but should become a spiritual home and cultural experience space for urban residents, and become a "third space" for ordinary people to read, communicate, experience culture, enhance aesthetics, and stimulate creativity.

The theme of this assignment is "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore", which is to combine the academic concept of "Creative Creation" with practical courses, and to combine the creativity of post-90s young people with the transformation and upgrading of traditional bookstores, fully practicing the educational concept of "writing papers on the earth", which is an exploration and attempt of situational teaching reform for graduate students.

Write the paper on the earth.

Get out of the "talk on paper" and go deep into the front line to "train" students’ practice.

A group of Wang Jing students: The teaching method of "Creative Creation" course is relatively novel. On the one hand, the teacher tells us the latest cases about creative creation around the world with his rich practical experience, which broadens our horizons; On the other hand, the course effectively combines practical topics with theoretical courses, completes the training of creative thinking in the classroom, and can be put into practice, with high gold content in the homework. During the roadshow, although we were very nervous, students could exchange ideas and learn from each other, and get the most pertinent comments and suggestions from experts and teachers at the first time, so we benefited a lot: ideas that were originally invisible and intangible could be put to the ground by various ways of thinking, and all the learning results were condensed into collective planning projects, which also enabled each team member to get full creative thinking training.

Two groups of students, Li Chenchen: "Creative Architecture" combines knowledge theory with field practice creation in the form of classroom learning and practice performance. This model is an innovation, which can stimulate students’ divergent thinking. At the same time, through classroom teaching, group activities, live experience, professional exchanges, field roadshows and other interactive teaching methods, this course provides us with a variety of ways to realize creativity in the process of creative exploration, and also trains our ability to adapt to the situation and express our language.

Three groups of students, Xu Ziwei: The teaching mode of the course "Creative Architecture" is novel and unique. It is of great practical significance to encourage graduate students to actively walk out of the academic classroom and let students really learn the skills of making specific project planning in the form of in-depth practice, group research and brainstorming. At the same time, the teaching content is diversified, which expands students’ horizons to the greatest extent and stimulates students’ thinking vitality.

Four groups of students, Liu Shunxin: I am proud and honored to have taken the course of "Creative Creation" and thought that I can use what I have learned to put forward some fresh ideas and feelings from our young people for the upgrading of Wangfujing Bookstore with a long history and a famous brand. I also hope that I can continue to apply the ideas and methods of creative creation to more fields of society in the future, so as to apply what I have learned.

Five groups of Qi Yinmo: The practice of the course "Creative Architecture" once again made us feel the hardship of making a complete project plan. In just one month, we went to Wangfujing Bookstore for on-the-spot investigation many times, consulted a large number of business cases of contemporary physical bookstores, constantly put forward ideas within the group and self-overturned, and finally formed a plan that everyone recognized. Fortunately, we unconsciously mastered the method of creative creation, which may be the charm of situational teaching. Thanks to the teacher for giving us a chance to show ourselves, this roadshow has made us gain a lot and realized our own shortcomings.

Universities and bookstores work together to create cultural landmarks in the capital and promote urban creativity renewal.

Bookstore is an indispensable and important space for a city, because its existence not only shows the city’s cultural heritage, but also serves as a platform for people-to-people exchanges, where the city’s culture can be renewed from generation to generation. The teaching reform practice of Communication University of China has been strongly supported by Wangfujing Bookstore and its superior Beijing Distribution Group. Schools and enterprises have jointly created the creative atmosphere and cultural space of the Capital Cultural Center with creativity.

Li Bailin, secretary of the Party branch of Wangfujing Bookstore, said in his speech at the event that the cooperation between Wangfujing Bookstore and China Communication University is a bold attempt of cooperation between physical bookstores and universities. The upgrading of Wangfujing Bookstore is one of the key tasks of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee and the Party Committee of the Group. Bookstore hopes to form a closer strategic cooperative relationship with Communication University of China in the future, and become a teaching and research base for teachers and students in the Department of Economics and Management of Communication University of China. The mutual borrowing and support between schools and enterprises will surely promote the transformation and upgrading of Wangfujing Bookstore and make greater contributions to "scholarly Beijing".

Mr. Li Zhanjun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Beijing Publishing Group, said in his concluding speech that Beijing Publishing Group attached great importance to the roadshow of the special report on "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" and thanked the students for their innovative design and brand-new ideas. These proposals were very enlightening for the upgrading and transformation of bookstore enterprises. The five schemes of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" have methods, research, experience and suggestions, especially in the use of light, the concept of "city light" and the development and research of derivative cultural and creative products in bookstores, which have some inspiration for the upgrading and future development of our physical bookstores. I hope the further cooperation between schools and enterprises can be longer and deeper. I hope that students will study the book culture industry more, brainstorm, investigate and think, and foresee the future and greater development of bookstores.

The next step of Beijing Distribution Group will be to study the storefront image of physical bookstores, create a "third space" for citizens’ lives and build an important social place for the capital to lead cultural life and cultural creation. It is hoped that more experts, scholars and students can make suggestions around this theme and work together to create an innovative model that can make the physical bookstores affiliated to Beijing Distribution Group develop better. For physical bookstore workers, the roadshow activity of "Creative Creation of Wangfujing Bookstore" is both warm and encouraging, hoping to arouse more experts, scholars and students’ attention and love for book distribution and jointly create a bright future for the development of book culture industry.

Finally, let’s take a group photo with Zhang Da!

Reporter | Chen Chunhui

Photography | Wang Xiya

Cover | Zhu Yuhong

Editor | Luan Xiaoyun

American editor | Zhang Xiaojun

Editor | Liu Fan

Editor | Pei Ming