Up to 2009, China has successfully nominated 38 places and items in the world heritage list, including 27 cultural heritages and four intangible cultural heritages. They have greatly accelerated the protection of Chinese cultural heritages. China has also actively organize 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.

To date, China has set up 96 culture sections in embassies and consulates in 82 countries. It has also made steady progress in establishing Chinese Culture Centers in overseas areas. The Chinese Culture Centers are important means to regularly promote the Chinese culture. In 1988, China set up Chinese Culture Centers in Mauritius and Benin. In 1999, under the guidance and support of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, China initiated an effort to work with foreign countries to establish culture centers in each other. This gave birth to Chinese Culture Centers in Egypt, France, Malta, Republic of Korea, and Germany.

In addition to the existing seven, China is actively preparing to exchange construction of culture centers in Britain, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, and Mongolia. Since the establishment, the overseas Chinese Culture Centers have effectively and continually held diversified activities under the idea of Great Culture. Through extending Chinese culture to the doors of the people in the resident countries, the Chinese Culture Centers have enhanced mutual understanding and friendship between the people, and contributed to cultural publicity efforts of the Chinese embassies and consulates, and improvement of the image of the country. These days, China is actively preparing and discussing with Italy, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Mongolia, India, Singapore, Sudan and Sri Lanka to set up culture centers in each other’s countries. By 2011, China will complete discussion and construction of six culture centers and put them in operation in Thailand, Japan, Mongolia, Spain, Russia and Mexico, as approved by the State Council. They will expand China’s overseas Chinese Culture Centers to total 13.

In recent years, China has made great progress in promoting the Chinese language in the world largely through constructing the Confucius Institutes. So far, China has set up 268 Confucius Institutes and 71 Confucius classrooms in 83 countries and regions across the world.

China has achieved enormous progress in basic projects to promote Chinese culture in overseas areas. In the past decade, in order to further elevate the international communication capacity and cultivate globally first-class media, China has vigorously promoted access of Chinese radio and TV programs to overseas subscribers. Each day, China Radio International (CRI) broadcasts 700 hours of programs to overseas areas in multiple languages through FM and medium-wave radios. The international channel of China Central Television (CCTV) has had more than 100 million overseas subscribers. The Great Wall series platforms for Chinese television programs have had more than 100,000 overseas paid subscribers.

Editor: Wen Yi and Yan Fei