Your browser does not fully support modern features. Please upgrade for a smoother experience.
Creative Digital Platform Work and New Labour Protection in China: Comparison
View Latest Version
Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Abigail Zou and Version 1 by Emma Louise Duester.

The digital labour economy is a system where work is mediated through digital technologies and online platforms. Work is often also called platform labour or gig work. China has brought out new labour protections to promote and support these new forms of employment (NFE) to address gaps in existing labour rights, personal data protection, and AI governance. However, a new type of work in the digital labour economy is creative digital platform work, which is distinct from other kinds of digital work and gig work that only uses AI and digital platforms to receive work, gigs, and tasks. Visual artists’ work is mediated by multiple digital software, AI programs, platforms, and apps. However, they do not have the usual ‘labour relationship’ like gig workers or platform labourers, as they are not employed by any single platform.

  • visual artists
  • work
  • creative digital platform work
  • digital platform labour economy
  • new forms of employment (NFE)
  • digital labour
  • gig work
  • visual artists
  • international policy recommendations
  • China
The fourth industrial revolution (2011–present) has brought about digital and AI transformations. These entail the inclusion of digital technologies and AI in the organisational and creative processes of everyday work. The rise of generative AI software marks a particularly transformational point in the fourth industrial revolution that focuses on human–machine interactions in work [1]. Various industries have gone through varying degrees of change in terms of job needs, skills, and automation tools in the past decade due to the effects of digital transformation and the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution [2]. It is restructuring work in many industries, including the art industry [3[3][4],4], the music industry [5], the hospitality industry [6], and the sports industry [7]. As Glebova et al. [7] argue, the integration of digital technologies and AI into the sports industry has transformed jobs by automating tasks and creating new kinds of work that combine AI, digital skills, and sports field knowledge, and, as Limna et al. [8] argue, it has improved operational capacity and redesigned work structures and processes in the hospitality industry.
However, the fourth industrial revolution has disrupted work. In particular, AI has disrupted creative work with increased competition due to lower barriers to entry [9,10][9][10]. The increase in open-source digital software and AI programs has lowered the skill barriers needed to create artworks. Meanwhile, easily accessible editing software enables the general public to simply create professional-quality artwork [10]. In response to increased pressure, competition, and access to digital and AI tools for creation, professionals feel pressure to continually maintain and refresh their technical skills or face obsolescence. Hence, further disruption comes from the threat of losing their job and profession, as already seen in changes in firm size and composition, increases in outsourcing, freelance, and short-term contracts, and the casualisation of cultural work.
A variety of creative approaches and various degrees of technical involvement with machine learning are now used to create AI art [11] (p. 39). AI art is surrounded by doubts about how AI learns and ‘knows’, confusion over what defines art or creativity in a digital context, clashing views about whether AI is a tool or a creator, debates and language barriers in how we talk about machine-made works, and concerns regarding copyright, bias, and impacts on human artists [12]. Similarly to other digital art disciplines, AI art has had an uncertain relationship with the mainstream contemporary art world [12] (pp. 252–254). In a bid to give artists agency and professionalism in this practice with AI, Grba [13] offers a way to analyse the elegiac, sensitive, and ethical aspects of AI art while critiquing the impacts of AI on creative practices, including the jeopardy to artists’ jobs. Similarly, Anantrasirichai and Bull [14] argue that the greatest benefit from AI will be when it is human centric—when it is designed to strengthen, rather than cease, human creativity.
The fourth industrial revolution in China, with associated advancements in digital and AI transformation and integration into various industry sectors, can be connected to the directions outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025). China’s developments in the gig economy and the rapid growth of the online creative economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025) highlight a widespread shift in labour towards online modes and digital platforms. While the gig economy is a specific model based on short-term, platform-mediated, and task-based work, NFE is a broader, overarching concept that includes various flexible work. These new forms of digital employment include a range of types of work, but all are different from standard forms of employment, namely, employment through labour contracts. NFE differ in the contract, employer–employee relationship, organisation of work, working hours, and work location. As Wang [15] notes, this work “challenges conventional understandings of work” as platforms introduce new modes of labour organisation by positioning themselves as intermediaries rather than employers. Xue and Weiju [16] further this point by arguing that, compared to developed economies, the scale of the NFE in China is much larger and more associated with digital platforms.
The Chinese government focuses on “encouraging innovation” to develop the platform economy and has an “inclusive” approach towards its regulation [17]. The government has created new legal designations for digital platform workers and associated labour protections [18,19,20][18][19][20]. New work protections have been set out for these new forms of digital work. For instance, China’s regulation for self-employed business owners, published in 2022, helps with protecting the legal rights and interests of self-employed people, and recent laws reinforce the legal rights and equal treatment of self-employed individuals [21]. Additionally, the government has encouraged entrepreneurship amongst freelancers, self-employed professionals, and creative and cultural industry professionals who work independently (artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers) by offering preferential policies and tax incentives like tax breaks and subsidies, streamline registration processes, and provide access to financing and training to boost development in the online economy and digital work culture.
Creative professionals’ positions within the digital platform labour economy are currently seen as freelance or contract-based roles. The number of freelance creative professionals across the contemporary art sector (including artists, curators, and collectors) in China is increasing, driven by the digital economy and younger generations turning to gig work. In 2022, a study documented 621,428 creative e-freelancers (including visual artists, musicians, designers, and filmmakers) on the zbj.com platform [22], suggesting a significant online creative freelance sector in China. Freelance artists, like other self-employed individuals, operate within a framework regulated by the government. This includes requirements for permits, registration, and taxation. Chinese nationals working as freelancers in China can operate through sole proprietorships or service contracts and are subject to individual income tax (IIT) based on their earnings. Chinese citizens can legally freelance by either registering as a sole proprietorship (个体户) or operating under a service contract (服务合同).
However, there have been growing concerns about working conditions in NFE. Often referred to as ‘platform labour’, criticism is directed towards the working conditions of the internet economy, gig economy, and new unfair employment relationships between workers and platforms [23,24][23][24]. In addition, the sharing economy, as with ride-hailing platforms, is criticised for the need for the precarity of this work [25] and the need for more worker protection laws [26]. This relates to broader discussion about the “Do What You Love” (DWYL) mantra, and associated rhetoric about finding pleasure and self-actualisation from labour, as Hegel [27] argued, which serves as an ideological tool for worker exploitation and corporate profit and justifies worker exploitation [28]. Moreover, most discussion on work in the digital labour economy is related to blue-collar gig workers or digital platform workers, with many discussing lacks in regulatory frameworks for digital labour platform work and gaps existing in labour rights, personal data protection, and AI governance [29].
Yet, in the digital platform labour economy, visual artists occupy a complex and often precarious position, characterised by a fundamental tension between new opportunities for visibility and autonomy and significant challenges regarding economic stability, platform dominance, and labour protections [30]. Visual artists’ ‘creative digital platform work’ is distinct from other forms of NFE, digital labour, gig work, or platform labour, as it is mediated by online platforms, but there is no employment relationship with any one platform. Unlike gig workers or platform labourers who maintain labour relationships with one digital platform, visual artists’ digital platform labour occupies a unique, emerging position in the digital platform labour economy, working across multiple different digital software and AI programs at a professional level; however, they are not employed by these platforms. In China’s labour relations, there is no position setting for independent artists who are often defined as “freelancers”. Freelance work status in China, particularly for artists, involves navigating specific policies regarding work permits and taxes. Moreover, artists do not fit into the ‘freelance’, ‘platform worker’, ‘entrepreneur’, or ‘NFE’ protections. Freelancers operate under civil service agreements rather than labour contracts. This means they are not protected by Chinese Labour Contract Law and are not entitled to statutory benefits like social security or severance pay. This is distinct from a formal employment relationship. A significant number of digital artists are classified as independent contractors rather than employees, which often means they cannot access traditional labour protections like collective bargaining or certain social protections.
Proper recognition of creative professionals’ position in the digital platform labour economy is required. Assessment is required on how artists’ work has become a part of the digital platform labour economy and how much freelance creatives fall through gaps in legal protections as they carve out a new position of work in NFE and the digital platform labour economy. Existing discussion centres on the need for updates in copyright law to fit the digital and AI environment to properly protect artists’ work [31[31][32],32], artists’ multiple jobs to gain a stable income within the uncertainty of creative work [33[33][34],34], and precarious working conditions in the digital and online environment [35]. Furthermore, much of the literature on Chinese creative professionals, including visual artists, is about those employed by companies or by the government [36[36][37],37], power, politics, and censorship in artists’ work [38], or the history of the culture and creative industries (CCIs) and contemporary art in China [39]. Very little has been explored regarding artists’ labour designation and protections and how this has changed since the digital and AI transformation.
Proper protections are required for the latest stage in the digital and AI transformation for artists’ work and labour and a distinct designation in law for artists’ position in the new digital platform labour economy. This Entry aims to assess the Chinese government’s cultural policies and national-level strategy policies on cultural digitisation that have directly shifted the nature and position of artists’ work and the updates in laws for protecting artists working conditions in response to the new digital and AI environment. It asks the following: How have cultural policies developed such a technology-focused work environment for artists? What are the main policies that have led to the digitisation of work? What are the protections for their working conditions and labour in policy and law?

References

  1. Islam, T.; Sepanloo, K.; Woo, S.; Woo, S.H.; Son, Y.-J. Review of the Industry 4.0 to 5.0 Transition: Exploring the Intersection, Challenges, and Opportunities of Technology and Human–Machine Collaboration. Machines 2025, 13, 267.
  2. World Economic Forum. Future of Jobs Report. 2023. Available online: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf (accessed on 14 January 2026).
  3. Samsudin, F. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the art and design industry. In RISE: Catalysing Global Research Excellence; Universiti Teknologi MARA: Selangor, Malaysia, 2023; Volume 5, pp. 1–4. ISSN 2805-5883.
  4. Gao, Z. Art and Machines; Scholar Publishing Group: London, UK, 2023; ISBN 978-1-80053-915-0.
  5. Bryce, D. Artificial Intelligence and Music: Analysis of Music Generation Techniques Via Deep Learning and the Implications of AI in the Music Industry. Bachelor’s Thesis, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, USA, 2024.
  6. Cain, L.N.; Thomas, J.H.; Alonso, M., Jr. From sci-fi to sci-fact: The state of robotics and AI in the hospitality industry. J. Hosp. Tour. Technol. 2019, 10, 624–650.
  7. Glebova, E.; Madsen, D.Ø.; Mihaľová, P.; Géczi, G.; Mittelman, A.; Jorgič, B. Artificial intelligence development and dissemination impact on the sports industry labor market. Front. Sports Act. Living 2024, 6, 1363892.
  8. Limna, P.; Kraiwanit, T.; Tanantong, T.; Chumwatana, T. Revolutionizing Hotel Operations with AI: A Case Study on the Power of ChatGPT and Gemini Integration. Acad. Tur.-Tour. Innov. J. 2025, 18, 39–55.
  9. Nguyen, C.T.M.; Lee, C.S.; Goh, Z.H.; Tandoc, E.C. Generational Differences and Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence in Singapore. In HCI International 2025 Posters. HCII 2025; Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S., Salvendy, G., Eds.; Communications in Computer and Information Science; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2025; Volume 2529.
  10. Williams, P.; McDonald, P.; Mayes, R. The impact of disruptive innovation on creative workers: The case of photographers. Creat. Ind. J. 2021, 14, 130–151.
  11. McCormack, J.; Gifford, T.; Hutchings, P. Autonomy, Authenticity, Authorship and Intention in Computer Generated Art. In Computational Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design (EvoMUSART 2019); Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2019; Volume 11453, pp. 35–50.
  12. Grba, D. Brittle Opacity: Ambiguities of the Creative AI. In Proceedings of the xCoAx, 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X Proceedings, xCoAx, Graz, Austria, 12–16 July 2021; pp. 235–260.
  13. Grba, D. Deep Else: A Critical Framework for AI Art. Digital 2022, 2, 1–32.
  14. Anantrasirichai, N.; Bull, D. Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Industries: A Review. Artif. Intell. Rev. 2022, 55, 589–656.
  15. Wang, T.; Cooke, F.L. Internet platform employment in China: Legal challenges and implications for gig workers through the lens of court decisions. Relat. Ind./Ind. Relat. 2021, 76, 541–564.
  16. Wei, T.; Xueyu, W. New forms of employment and labour protection in China. In ILO Working Paper 103; International Labour Office: Geneva, Switzerland, 2024.
  17. Gao, R.; Zhang, F. Research on Anti-monopoly Regulations of Internet Platforms in China and Comments on the “Anti-Monopoly Guidelines on the Platform Economy Field”. In Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Innovative Management and Economics (ISIME 2021), Moscow, Russia, 2–3 June 2021; Atlantis Press: Paris, France; pp. 201–209.
  18. Eurofound Working Paper. The Digital Age: Implications of Automation, Digitisation and Platforms for Work and Employment; Challenges and Prospects in the EU Series; Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg, 2021.
  19. De Stefano, V. Negotiating the algorithm: Automation, artificial intelligence, and labor protection. Comp. Lab. L. Pol’y J. 2019, 41, 15.
  20. Harris, S.; Krueger, A. A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for 21st Century Work: The “Independent Worker”. 2015. Available online: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-proposal-for-modernizing-labor-laws-for-21st-century-work-the-independent-worker/ (accessed on 19 January 2026).
  21. Aloisi, A. Commoditized Workers: Case Study Research on Labour Law Issues Arising from a Set of ‘On-Demand/Gig Economy’ Platforms. Comp. Labor Law Policy J. 2016, 37, 1–38.
  22. He, J.; Peng, J.; Zeng, G. The Spatiality of the Creative Digital Economy: Local Amenities to the Spatial Agglomeration of Creative E-Freelancers in China. J. Knowl. Econ. 2023, 14, 4608–4629.
  23. Ban, X. On the Expansion of the Protection Objects of the Labour Law in China under the Sharing Economy from the Perspective of Internet Ride-hailing Cars. J. Sichuan Univ. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 2017, 2, 154–161.
  24. Gardiner, D. Balancing act: The role of digital platforms in shaping the conditions of creative work (No. 123). In ILO Working Paper; International Labour Office: Geneva, Switzerland, 2024; Available online: https://www.ilo.org/publications/balancing-act-role-digital-platforms-shaping-conditions-creative-work (accessed on 12 December 2025).
  25. Slinn, S.J. Exploring Sectoral Solutions for Digital Workers: The Status of the Artist Act Approach. Louis ULJ 2020, 65, 93.
  26. ILO. Decent Work Country Programme for China 2023–2025. International Labour Organisation, 2023. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/publications/decent-work-country-programme-china-2023-2025 (accessed on 14 January 2026).
  27. Hegel, G.W.F. Early Theological Writings; Knox, T.M., Translator; Chicago University Press: Chicago, IL, USA, 1971; ISBN 978-0812210224.
  28. Tokumitsu, M. Do What You Love: And Other Lies About Success and Happiness; Regan Arts: New York, NY, USA, 2015.
  29. ILO. Decent Work in the Platform Economy. International Labour Organisation. 2024. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/ILC114-V%283%29-%5BWORKQ-250714-001%5D-Web-EN.pdf (accessed on 1 December 2025).
  30. Thomas, A.; Battisti, M.; Kretschmer, M. UK Authors′ Earnings and Contracts 2022: A Survey of 60,000 Writers. In CREATe Working Paper; CREATe Centre: Bristol, UK, 2022.
  31. Michael, M.K. Precarious Practices: Artists, Work and Knowing-in-Practice. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK, 2015.
  32. Stefanitsi, M. Artists’ Perceptions of Precarious Working Conditions Within Mobility Programs. Master’s Thesis, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2025.
  33. Ay, S.; Canlı, K. Creativity and Labor in Digitally Driven Market: The Case of Freelance Illustrator. In Management and Organizational Studies on Blue-and Gray-collar Workers: Diversity of Collars; Emerald Publishing Limited: Leeds, UK, 2023; pp. 241–252.
  34. Hermanto, Y.A.L. Online marketplace characteristics for freelance designers. KnE Soc. Sci. 2020, 2020, 345–356.
  35. Lin, J. Be creative for the state: Creative workers in Chinese state-owned cultural enterprises. Int. J. Cult. Stud. 2019, 22, 53–69.
  36. Jiang, J.J. The Extermination or the Prosperity of Artists? Mass Art in Mid-Twentieth Century China. Third Text 2004, 18, 169–182.
  37. Mantell, E. Political Art Censorship: A Productive Power. Bachelor’s Thesis, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA, 2017.
  38. Zhang, X. The cultural industries in China: A historical overview. In Handbook of Cultural and Creative Industries in China; Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK, 2016; pp. 105–115.
  39. ILO. Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work Report. 2019. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/about-ilo/mission-and-impact-ilo/ilo-centenary-declaration-future-work-2019 (accessed on 21 November 2025).
More
© Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Academic Video Service
Feedback