Cultural Publicity

China has pushed on overseas cultural publicity with clearer ideas and directions. It has primarily formed a series of name brand activities and made active use of all sorts of platforms to promote its say over international cultural affairs. It has constantly strengthened its positions for cultural communication in overseas areas, and construction of foundation projects.

The priorities of China’s cultural publicity towards overseas areas are to make culture as the carriers and means, take people as the foremost, adhere to the principle of largely focusing on and influencing the mainstream society of foreign countries, and launch a series of specific diversified and colorful cultural activities to introduce and promote China to the world.

Since it implemented the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, China has carried out bilateral, multilateral, regional and international cultural cooperation, participated in and organized large-scale international conferences for cultural exchanges, so as to promote its foreign policy of peace, development and cooperation, and advocate cultural diversity. It has also actively attached itself to internationally concerned subjects of protecting cultural heritages, fighting against piracy and cultural relics smuggling, and recovering cultural relics lost to the overseas areas. In this way, it has strengthened its say in multilateral cultural affairs in the world.

1. In 1997, China joined the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. On this basis, China has recovered quite an array of cultural relics from Britain, the United States, Japan and Denmark.

2. Since 2002, the cultural delegation of the Chinese Government has participated in the fifth and sixth ministerial conferences of the International Network on Cultural Policy. It also sponsored the seventh ministerial annual conference of the International Network on Cultural Policy in Shanghai, which delivered the Shanghai Statement.

3. In 2003, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) sponsored the ASEM – Culture and Civilization Meeting under the theme of Unity of Cultural Diversity. In 2006, China was elected a member state of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage with few opposing votes. It joined the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It entered the leadership of three major international organizations for cultural heritage, which are the International Council of Museum, International Council on Monuments and Sites, and International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. These movements enabled China to have a say in the course of establishing rules for protecting cultural heritages and intangible cultural heritages in the world.

4. Up to 2009, China has successfully nominated 38 places and items into the world heritage list, including 27 cultural heritages and 4 intangible cultural heritages. They have greatly accelerated the protection of Chinese cultural heritages. China has also actively organized cultural and art talents to participate in international competitions in the fields of singing, instrumental music, dance, opera, drama, acrobatics, photography, fine arts, TV and films. They have elevated the Chinese cultural and artistic standards, extended international impacts of the Chinese art, and enabled a large number of cultural and artistic talents to distinguish themselves and step towards the greater world of art.