The future of cultural development
By admin on 2014-12-29

With the third session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) opening Wednesday and The Third Session of 11th National People's Congress (NPC) kicking off today, CPPCC members and NPC delegates who are writers, scholars and artists from China's cultural circles are weighing in on potential motions and proposals, contributing their ideas and visions for the future of cultural development.

Topics that are scheduled to be discussed include protecting China's Intangible Cultural Heritage items, preserving the essence of folk music and art and saving the Chinese language.

Penalty cards for heritage

Renowned writer Feng Jicai will deliver a report to highlight the importance of protecting Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) items. He will propose a system of penalty cards, which includes yellow cards and red cards that can be applied to measures put in place to protect nationally-listed ICH items.

For ICH items that are on the list but fail to receive serious protection measures from the local government, a yellow card could be issued as a warning. If no improvements are made, or things get worse, they can be red carded and removed from the list, losing corresponding funding and government support.

"China has made huge progress in terms of protecting intangible cultural heritage in the past several years," Feng said, explaining that since the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China was initiated in 2006, both central and local governments have attached great importance to preserving the items across China.

Up until today, there are 1,028 ICH items included on the list, signifying the great progress made in preserving China's heritage, Feng said.

He added that it is very alarming that many nationally-listed ICH items do not receive proper protection measures and many local governments simply take being listed as a political achievement without paying attention to implementing measures to protect the items.

Returning Chinese treasures

One of Zhang Bai's proposals will focus on options aimed at boosting the return of lost Chinese antiques. Zhang will advise that a system should be established to investigate lost cultural relics and detailed laws and regulations put in place to crack down on the stealing and smuggling of cultural items.

Aside from government efforts, non-governmental strategies, such as investigation units and the purchasing of looted cultural relics should also be encouraged, Zhang said.

Zhang is also suggesting that a fund to deal with safety problems at all museums in the country be established to help limit theft and loss and prevent hazards such as fire, lightning strikes and deterioration of items over time. Zhang said that several safety issues are posing a huge threat to preserving cultural relics.

More than 4 billion yuan ($585 million) is needed to improve safety problems associated with the 2,012 cultural relics protection units and 246 museums that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage investigated in late 2008, he said.

"The present situation is, each year only 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) is injected into keeping cultural relics from being damaged by the range of safety problems outlined all over the country," Zhang said.

"There are still many efforts that need to be put in place done."

Protecting Tibet's Sajia Temple

Tian Qing will present a proposal on strengthening protection measures for Sajia Temple in Tibet and encourage the promotion of its cultural aspects.

"Promoting the art of Tibetan Buddhism on the world stage will allow the international society to learn more about Tibet and China," Tian said.

Tian told the Global Times that he organized a successful cultural show in Macao last year, revealing the art from Sajia Temple. He said the positive response gave him the confidence to suggest promoting the art on the national and international stage.

"Beautiful masks, delicate music and intriguing choreography combine to create a classical performance," Tian said, adding that many people have little knowledge about Tibetan culture and that funds are needed to preserve the dance, art and forms of expressions of the ethnic minority.

Tian has researched Buddhism culture for more than 20 years and he added that Sajia Temple has long played an important role in history and houses historical records, Buddhist sculpture, ancient clothing, frescos and more than 3,000 items of thang-kas (painted or embroidered Buddhist banners).

Tian exaplained that the frescos at Sajia Temple could be compared with those in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, considered one of the greatest artistic treasures in China.

Funding Chinese folk music

Xi Qiang is proposing that a special fund for the development of Chinese folk music should be set up by the government.

"Chinese music is one of the most representative art forms of the nation. It represents the cultural image of China," Xi commented. "However, government funding dedicated to the research and creation of Chinese music is facing a severe deficiency."

Xi said that government support is essential in bolstering music education and the creation and fostering of a performance market for folk music.

The documentation and publication of the latest achievements in Chinese music research, as well as the systematic collecting of folk music scores should also be encouraged, he added.

According to Xi, last year the Ministry of Culture granted 6 million yuan ($879,000) for the development of folk music genres.

"The disparity is quite large compared with the tens of millions of yuan of government investment into symphony orchestras and ballet troupes in China."

Xi suggested that a special fund of 100 million yuan ($15 million) be founded under the Ministry of Culture.

"Last year, a Chinese music concert series that included 100 performances took to the stage at the National Center for the Performing Arts under government support," Xi said. "The event was warmly received by fans of Chinese music and has greatly expanded the influence of the genre among theatergoers. I hope more events like that will be put forward by the government."

Funding older singers' return

Tan Jing will propose to establish a special fund for veteran performing artists in mainstream culture to give them a chance to return to the stage.

"There are quite a few older generation artists like famous soprano Wang Kun [75] and Guo Lanying [71] who are still very much revered among the audience," Tan said.

"The revolutionary songs that were made popular by these artists have a great influence over Chinese folk song lovers."

"It is necessary to establish a special fund that will create staging opportunities for the old artists who are still very much alive," Tan added.

"It will play a significant role in the promotion of mainstream culture and value in the overly-commercialized entertainment industry."