Cultural desert refers to a place or group that lacks cultural atmosphere and vitality, that is, a "desert zone" where culture and art do not exist. In these places without culture, people lack the will and ability to pay attention to and participate in culture and art.

Cultural desert usually appears in backward and resource-poor areas, not only in cultural facilities, art activities and cultural heritage, but also in education, medical care, science and technology. Cultural desert is not only a hardware problem, but also a software problem, including venues, equipment, technology, cultural industries, artists, cultural media and so on. This is a complicated system engineering.

The emergence of cultural desert not only affects the image and cultural soft power of cities and regions, but also restricts people's spiritual pursuit and all-round development. To improve the present situation of cultural desert, we must improve the cultural quality of the whole society, strengthen the construction and operation management of cultural facilities, and increase investment and support for cultural industries.