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Cultural Websites to Be Better Regulated
China will continue to encourage the development of cultural websites while drafting a set of regulations to address problems raised by a survey released by the Ministry of Culture Tuesday.
The survey found that Chinese Internet users are not going to appreciate works of art and literature.
Instead, they go on the Internet to search for information, send e-mail and read news, said Xu Wenbo, an official in charge of the survey.
Most cultural websites on civilization, books and art have very simple structures and are updated infrequently, he said.
Only 17 per cent of the 768 investigated websites are updated daily, and nearly half update once a month, according to the survey.
Some cultural websites set up by governmental organizations, which account for one-third of the total, simply put their written documents on line.
In addition, most people over the age of 30 said they cannot find cultural websites catering to their tastes because the sites tend to only provide entertainment information on movie, TV, music and pop literature for younger Internet users.
More than a half of those surveyed said they are willing to pay 144 yuan (US$17) each month to browse cultural websites.
Problems also exist in the ineffective management of cultural websites, Xu added.
The lack of regulations enables some cultural websites to put pornographic material on-line or infringe on others' copyrights.
A few individual websites are named after words like Chinese or All-China, confusing foreign Internet users with official websites.
"We should take measures to regulate the industry and establish more well-designed, influential websites to spread genuine Chinese culture to the world," said Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng.
The survey also announced the 15 best cultural websites selected by experts from both culture and information technology circles.
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