Ministry of Culture (September 14, 2009)

In the last 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese culture has been exploring its way through twists and turns. In line with the direction of "serving the people and serving socialism" and the principle of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thoughts contend", great efforts have been made to inherit and promote the good traditional cultures of China and actively absorb the outstanding cultural achievements of the world, resulting in great prosperity and progress in both public cultural undertakings and cultural industries. Thanks to the trials and developments of the last 60 years and in particular the last 30 years of reform and opening-up, Chinese culture has witnessed brilliant progress in all aspects, entering one of the best periods of growth in Chinese history.

1. Cultural and artistic creations have been thriving.

Cultural administrations of all levels have steadily stepped up their support and guidance to artistic creations. By organizing such events as China Arts Festival and China Theater Festival, giving such awards as Wenhua Prize and Galaxy Prize and launching such projects as the National Project of Works of Excellence on the Nation's Stage (WENS) and the National Project of Fine Arts on Major Themes (FAMT), among others, they have created a good environment for artists to give full play to their talents, and helped foster a large number of outstanding artistic works with great ethic, artistic and entertainment values, which have met with the cultural needs of a large majority of audiences in China. Since the establishment of Wenhua Prize in 1991, there have been 96 programs winning the "Wenhua Grand Prize" and 329 programs winning the "New Theater Prize". The Works of Excellence on the Nation's Stage project has highlighted 50 most prominent productions and more than 100 outstanding productions, and the Fine Arts on Major Themes project has gathered 104 outstanding works of fine art, which will be exhibited in the National Art Museum of China. Meanwhile, special rejuvenation plans for many traditional operas such as Kunqu Opera and Beijing Opera have been implemented, injecting new vitality to these age-old forms of art; public outreach programs such as "Bringing Culture to the Countryside" and "Art on Campus" have been in place for many years, largely enriching the cultural life of grassroots communities and lifting the artistic taste of the youngsters. It is estimated that from 2002 to 2008, cultural troupes from all levels in China have given 2.02 million performances to more than 3.25 billion audiences in the countryside. In the field of theoretical research and academic studies, new horizons are also being constantly broadened for cultural and artistic scholars in China. Since 1983, more than 850 research projects have received the subsidies of the State Social Sciences Fund and the Ministry of Culture. The academic system of Chinese culture studies have been substantiated by such works as The Comprehensive History of Chinese Art.

2. A nationwide network of public cultural services has taken shape.

With the changing of people's notions for cultural work, the conception of community culture has also expanded from merely "singing and dancing" or organizing local events to the idea of establishing a nationwide network of public cultural services. As the nation increases its input to public cultural undertakings, the building of cultural infrastructure has enjoyed tremendous support across China, forging an extensive network of public cultural services covering both rural and urban areas. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, there were only 55 libraries, 896 cultural centers (including amateur arts centers) and 21 museums all around China, whereas after 60 years of development, particularly after 30 years of reform and opening-up, there have been 2,820 public libraries, 3,218 cultural centers (including amateur arts centers) and 1,893 museums in China, respectively 51.28 times, 3.59 times and 90.14 times those of 1949. Most counties have realized the goal of having at least one library and one cultural center by the end of the "Tenth Five-year Plan", and township cultural stations and village or community cultural rooms have developed from none to 4,107 and 247,332 respectively by the end of 2008, formulating a far-reaching network of public cultural services covering both rural and urban areas. At the same time, there has been constant increase on the building of national key cultural infrastructures, with larger scales and better functions. Not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, China established a batch of key cultural projects such as the China History Museum, China Revolutionary Museum and the National Art Museum of China. Since the reform and opening-up and especially the "Tenth Five-year Plan", both the scale and input of cultural facilities have increased steadily, and a number of large cultural landmarks have been constructed, for example, the National Center for the Performing Arts covers a land area of 118,000 square meters and floor space of 217,000 square meters, and holds altogether 6,002 seats. The Second Phase of the National Library of China or the National Digital Library Project which was completed in September 2008 covers a floor space of 250,000 square meters and is the third largest library of the world. The National Museum of China whose expansion project is to be finished in 2010 will cover a floor space of 191,900 square meters, ranking the first in the world.

Public cultural projects are also very well implemented in China, including the establishment and designation of "Counties of Outstanding Culture", the Project of "Cultural Corridor along Ten Thousand Miles of China's Frontier", Project Knowledge and Dandelion Project for children's culture, etc.. In recent years, a great many beneficial programs such as the National Project of Cultural Information Sharing, "Bringing Books to the Countryside" and "Traveling Stage Trucks" have largely expanded the coverage of public cultural services and further enhanced the public cultural service capacity of China. Since 2004, a policy has been adopted by which free access or discount ticket is provided to the public by museums, memorials, galleries and educational bases of all levels and all kinds in China. By the end of 2008, 1,007 museums and memorials across China have provided free access to the public, attracting more than 154 million visitors in total. Meanwhile, cultural activities in urban and rural communities are very dynamic and diversified, cultural needs of special communities such as seniors, minors, the disabled people and migrant workers are given special attention, and major assistance for cultural development has been provided to ethnic minority regions in such forms as on pair support, yielding very good results.

3. Cultural market and cultural industries have boomed.

 Up to today, an integrated, open, competition-based and orderly cultural market system has been established in China, comprising entertainment market, performing arts market, audio-visual market, film market, internet culture market, artworks market and others. A monitoring system for cultural market based on integrated administrative approaches, social surveillance, trade self-regulation and technical support has been formed to implement cultural market legislations which are also being updated. In recent years, the growth rate of China's cultural industries is above 17%, 6-8 percent over the concurrent GDP growth rate, and the contribution of cultural industries to the national economy is constantly on the increase. The overall strength and competitiveness of publicly owned cultural companies have improved greatly, and privately run cultural enterprises have been burgeoning. An overall structure of cultural industries has been formed in which public ownership plays the leading role and diverse forms of ownership develop side by side. According to rough estimation, for-profit cultural industrial enterprises under the jurisdiction of the official cultural administrations alone have amounted to 320,000, and a network of cultural industries has been set up including entertainment industry, performance industry, audio-visual industry, internet culture industry, cultural tourism industry, antiquity and artworks industry. While many traditional forms of culture are getting revitalized, various newly emerging cultural industries such as cartoon, animation and online gaming have also escalated. The Ministry of Culture has successively designated 137 National Model Bases for Cultural Industry in three groups, and together with Chinese Artists Association co-designated 10 Model Bases for Cultural Industries (Fine Arts). And another 429 provincial model bases for cultural industries have been designated by 22 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government. The policy framework for cultural industries is being updated, among which the Guidelines for the Promotion Cultural Industries endorsed by the State Council Routine Conference has provided strong legislative guarantee for the promotion of cultural industries.

4. Protection of cultural heritage has yielded remarkable results.

With the changing of times and concepts, the definition for the protection of cultural heritage has greatly broadened. Based on such legislations as the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics and Provisional Measures on the Identification and Management of Cultural Relics, a full-range framework of protective legislations has been completed. China has also designated a Cultural Heritage Day for public awareness every year since 2006. General investigation and documentation of cultural heritage have been deepened, which have gathered materials of some 10 billion Chinese characters for 10 anthologies of Chinese traditional and ethnic literature and arts. More than 400,000 immoveable cultural properties were investigated and registered for the third national cultural heritage survey. An inventory system for heritage protection on the national, provincial, municipal and county levels have been established, and the State Council has designated a total of 2,351 national key heritage sites in 6 groups, and 1,028 national intangible cultural heritage items in 2 groups, 1,328 representative inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage items, 109 cities of historical importance, 251 towns and villages of historical and cultural importance and 4 cultural ecological protection pilot area including Minnan, Huizhou, Regong and Qiang Community. Protection and maintenance of historical buildings such as the Potala Palace have proven to be very effective, archeological excavations of major national projects such as the Three Gorges have been carried out with great depth, protection of large heritage sites such as the Great Wall is being executed in a progressive way, protection of industrial heritage and rural heritage have been put on the working agenda. Meanwhile, the identification of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage items is being carried out nationwide, and efforts to recognize and protect Chinese cultural heritage as noteworthy world heritage sites and human intangible cultural heritage have made many breakthroughs. China now ranks the third of the world with 38 heritage sites inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list, and has 4 items proclaimed as "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".

5. International cultural exchanges have made far-reaching impacts.

China maintains good cultural relations with 160 nations and regions and has signed governmental cultural cooperation agreements and about 800 executive programs with 145 nations. Its international cultural exchange has evolved to be multi-dimensional and multi-layered, with wide ranges and multiple channels. Many major cultural events such as "China-France Cultural Years", "China-Russia Cultural Years", "China-Japan Culture and Sports Years" were very influential, and the advantages of cultural diplomacy have become ever more eminent. Meanwhile, 1,500 pairs of sister cities or sister provinces (states) have been forged on local levels between China and 120 nations, and friendly cooperative relationship has been established between Chinese organizations with 458 non-governmental groups and organizations from 148 nations. The annual numbers of cultural exchange programs and people involved in those programs for the recent years have surpassed the total sum of those in the 30 years before the reform and opening-up era. China is also having more and more outlets of culture abroad, including 96 cultural sections in the Chinese embassies and consulates of 82 nations, and 7 Chinese cultural centers abroad. Right on this moment, another 9 Chinese cultural centers are just being discussed or constructed under the approval of the State Council. Cultural interaction with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions have been very active, several feature programs such as "Ocean of Arts" and "Journey to Chang'an" have deepened the cultural understanding and recognition of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots for the Chinese culture as a whole.

6. Reform on the administrative system of culture has been deepened.

Following the targets and tasks of the central government, related reforms on the administrative system of culture are getting deepened. A group of for-profit cultural enterprises have finished their transformation from public undertakings and established modern corporate systems. According to rough estimation, a large number of performance companies, exhibition agencies, film studios, audio-visual enterprises and theaters have finished this transformation, among which 40 are of provincial level, 147 are of municipal level and 240 are of county level. The internal reform of non-profit public cultural companies has also been deepened, including many state-owned companies and troupes. A circular entitled Recommendations on the Deepening of Reform on State-owned Cultural and Performance Troupes was issued in 2009, and up to now 77 state-owned art troupes have transformed themselves to enterprises, and anther 59 provincial troupes and troupes directly under the capital cities of different provinces will start their experimental transformation from public entities to enterprises. At the same time, reforms on the integrated administration of cultural market have yielded good effect, and the first 9 pilot areas have finished preparatory work for integrated administration, and among the 89 pilot areas, 19 regions have already organized task forces for integrated administration, the long-existent problem of overlapping responsibility and redundant administration will be fully solved.

7. Supporting mechanism for cultural development has been strengthened.

Firstly, different levels of national budget have all increased their support to culture, thus laying a very solid material basis for the prosperity of culture. In the first Five-year Plan, the cultural spending of China was 497 million RMB, whereas this number rocketed to 2.204 billion RMB in 1978. By the year 2008, the national input to culture has reached 24.805 billion RMB, respectively 49.91 and 11.25 times of those in the first Five-year Plan and 1978. Both central and provincial government budgets have set up special funds to strengthen support to rural areas and in particular areas of long history, ethnic minority, poverty and remoteness. Secondly, China is constantly improving its cultural policies. It has staged a series of fiscal preferential policies for the promotion of culture, so as to encourage social forces to support culture. Thirdly, cultural legislations are greatly strengthened, a framework of cultural documents has taken shape and the administrative approval procedures have been largely shortened and streamlined. Concerning the licensing rights of the Ministry of Culture, items necessary for administrative approval have been reduced from 66 to 9 in total. Fourthly, the strategy of "relying on talents for cultural promotion" has enabled us to recruit a team of cultural talents specializing in history, professional techniques and management respectively, encompassing a spectrum of young, middle-aged and old members, so as to provide necessary human resources and intellectual support to the development of culture in China.

China is and will for a long time maintain at the preliminary phase of socialism, the major social conflicts remain as the discrepancy between the ever increasing demand of the people for material and cultural fulfillments and the backward power of social productivity. Cultural development in China still has a large room for improvement in terms of general competence, management system and method, etc., and its vitality and soft power still need to be enhanced.

On the new starting point of history, China will hold high the great banner of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and follow the scientific outlook on development, earnestly enhance the quality of cultural products and services to fulfill the diversified cultural needs of the people. It will further deepen reforms on the cultural administrative and management system, further emancipate and develop cultural productivity as part of the soft power of China. It shall increase the cohesive power, influence and attractiveness of Chinese culture, to strengthen human resources and legislative development and shift the functions of the government for the purpose of providing intellectual support and policy guarantee for cultural development. In so doing, it is expected that a new surge of cultural booming and prosperity will be achieved all around China.