China Vows to Improve People's Cultural Life

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 24, 2002

China Vows to Improve People's Cultural Life

The first national conference on bettering the cultural life of people living at remote and poor villages and towns since the founding of new China in 1949 is being held in Beijing from Monday to Wednesday.
"It is a matter of urgency and importance that we offer advanced and edifying cultural feed at the grassroots level," said Sun Jiazheng, Minister of Culture.

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The first national conference on bettering the cultural life of people living at remote and poor villages and towns since the founding of new China in 1949 is being held in Beijing from Monday to Wednesday.

Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng said: "The conference itself indicates that Chinese culture, especially culture at the grassroots level, has been upgraded from a departmental activity to a governmental undertaking."

With steady improvement in material living standards and the obvious changes in knowledge levels, the cultural needs of both urbanites and farmers have been increasingly diversified and encouraged.

A study shows that per capita expenditure on cultural items in urban areas at the end of the 1990s was about 400 yuan (some 48 U. S. dollars), an increase of almost 10 times from the early 1980s.

However, for a long time, the governmental investment in China for people's cultural life remains a quite low level.

Taking grassroots public cultural infrastructure as an example, by the end of 2000, 201 counties still had no cultural centers or libraries, and 365 counties had no routine premises for cultural events.

Vice-Governor of Qinghai Province Deng Bentai said the drab and scanty cultural life in some areas had led to widespread gambling and superstition, which hindered economic growth and affected social stability.

"It is a matter of urgency and importance that we offer advanced and edifying cultural feed at the grassroots level," said Sun.

With the establishment and development of China's market economy, Chinese farmers are pursuing an enriched cultural life.

So far, 270 million books, 6 million opera performances and 20 million movies have been delivered to villages in the vast countryside.

In Shanghai, a family-reading scheme, organized by the Municipal Government, has been going on for 11 years, about 800, 000 families joining in the project.

From 2002, the Ministry of Finance will increase subsidies on local cultural infrastructures from 11 million yuan (1.3 million U.S. dollars) to 30 million yuan (3.6 million U.S. dollars) .

The State Development Planning Commission is also expected to allocate 100 million yuan (about 12 million U.S. dollars) yearly for county-level cultural centers and libraries.

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