Cultural Creativity Metaverse (Shanghai) Research Institute

Chinese name

文创元宇宙（上海）研究院

The Cultural Creativity Metaverse (Shanghai) Research Institute (文创元宇宙（上海）研究院) is a Tongji University-anchored think tank unveiled in Shanghai on 18 November 2023, during the Fourth Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo, with the Shanghai Municipal Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Leading Group Office as guiding unit and Tongji University’s School of Humanities as lead organizer, established to advance industry-academia-research integration across the cultural metaverse with the virtual digital human as a central concern. It had been announced in preparation, as 文创元宇宙（上海）研究院（筹）, ahead of the unveiling ceremony, and it operates as a multi-institution consortium platform rather than as a registered institution of its own: Tongji’s research-platforms directory lists the internal unit that carries it under the name 文创元宇宙（上海）研究中心 (Research Center), while 研究院 (Research Institute) is the outward-facing name used in press releases and co-organizer credits. Professor Xie Xuefang (解学芳) directs it, with Zang Zhipeng (臧志彭) — separately named as the institute’s head (负责人) and chief editor of its Digital Culture Industry Research series — and Huang Song (黄松) as deputy directors. The institute frames digital humans as a key medium connecting virtual and real worlds and empowering cultural communication, pursuing this through domain-specific expert digital humans powered by Tongji’s digital-intelligence cultural large model for cultural-museum science popularization, research into AIGC-driven full intelligence upgrades of virtual digital humans, and promotion of digital humans in the overseas expansion of China’s digital culture industry. It is a recurring co-organizer and authoritative endorser of national metaverse solicitation programs such as the National Metaverse 1000 Outstanding Products Directory and the 2024 and 2025 AI Metaverse outstanding product, demonstration case, and star-rated supplier roadshows, each of which carries a dedicated virtual digital human category. The institute also anchors an academic and publishing stream, including the Digital Culture Industry Research series and the Chinese-Style Cultural Metaverse Frontier research series, which examine how digital humans empower cultural exports and contribute to new quality productive forces, and its launch coincided with the release of the China Cultural Metaverse White Paper.