Interview experts:
Fan Zhou, Dean of the School of Cultural Industry Management of China Communication University and Dean of the Institute of Cultural Development.
Zhang Xiaoping, a researcher at the Marxist Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences.
Qi Shuyu, Chief Expert of Innovation Engineering at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National School of Administration)
Interviewer: Economic Daily China Economic Net reporter Jiang Tianjiao Zeng Shiyang
What role will culture play in building a well-off society in an all-round way? What practical changes have cultural construction brought to people’s lives? Material life is rich, how can we build a spiritual and cultural home that matches it? Economic Daily-China Economic Net reporter interviewed Fan Zhou, Dean of the School of Cultural Industry Management of China Communication University and Dean of the Institute of Cultural Development, Zhang Xiaoping, a researcher at the Marxist Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences, and Qi Shuyu, chief expert of innovation engineering at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National School of Administration).
An important way to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation
Reporter:What is the internal relationship between cultural construction and building a well-off society in an all-round way? What role does culture play in the process of building a well-off society?
Fan Zhou:Cultural development is the spiritual motive force for building a well-off society in an all-round way. Specifically, the significance of cultural development in building a well-off society in an all-round way is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
First of all, developing culture is an important way to build a well-off society in an all-round way and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It helps to strengthen cultural self-confidence and promote the construction of a strong socialist cultural country. The significance of cultural development in building a well-off society in an all-round way lies in improving spiritual life, enhancing spiritual strength and promoting spiritual civilization. Giving full play to the role of culture is not only the internal demand of building a well-off society in an all-round way, but also the systematic composition of regaining national cultural self-confidence and cultivating and carrying forward socialist core values.
Secondly, cultural development to help build a well-off society in an all-round way can enhance cultural soft power and enhance international cultural influence. The enhancement of cultural power in the new era can consolidate the foundation of national cultural soft power and promote the construction of spiritual civilization. At the same time, show the unique charm of Chinese culture on the international stage.
Finally, developing culture can meet people’s multicultural needs and promote people’s all-round development in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way. This is the starting point and the end result of building a well-off society in an all-round way. The people’s total demand for culture is increasing, and the requirements for the quality of cultural products and services are getting higher and higher, showing a trend of individualization and diversification.
Public cultural services have reached a new level.
journalistDuring the 13th Five-Year Plan period, great achievements have been made in China’s cultural construction. What progress has been made in the public cultural service system? What practical changes have been brought to people’s lives?
Fan Zhou:In recent years, China’s government-led cultural projects have made remarkable achievements. Based on the needs of public culture, the government has continuously promoted public cultural services and safeguarded citizens’ basic cultural rights. Specifically, first, the investment in public cultural undertakings has steadily increased, and the state has continuously increased its investment in public cultural undertakings and promoted the construction of public cultural service infrastructure; Second, the number of people serving public cultural services is constantly expanding, and public libraries, museums, art galleries, cultural centers and township comprehensive cultural stations are open free of charge, providing places for cultural activities; Third, important progress has been made in five public cultural service projects, such as radio and television coverage of every village and national cultural information resource sharing project, and new achievements have been made in exploring public cultural service innovation.
At present, important progress has been made in the construction of modern public cultural service system, laws and policies in the field of public culture have been further improved, and financial guarantee for public cultural services has been further strengthened. A six-level public cultural facilities system covering urban and rural areas has been basically established, and products and services in the field of public culture are increasingly rich. Data show that there are currently 2,753 county-level libraries, 2,938 cultural centers, 33,997 township comprehensive cultural stations and 640,000 farmer’s bookstores in China. The promotion of public cultural services has made people’s access to information more diversified and cultural life more colorful.
Reporter:Well-off is not well-off, the key depends on fellow villagers. Some people say that the backward cultural construction in poverty-stricken areas is a "short board" for building a well-off society in an all-round way. How do you think to fill the "short board"?
Qi Shuyu:The key point of building a well-off society in poverty-stricken areas is economy, while the difficulty lies in culture. Problems such as lagging cultural concepts, lack of cultural products and boring cultural life exposed in poor areas have become the bottleneck of building a well-off society in an all-round way. Spiritual "poverty" breeds negative thoughts such as "waiting, relying on and wanting", which indirectly leads to the lack of family viability and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. These problems should be seriously solved in the construction of a well-off culture.
At present, the cultural well-off society is facing the realistic problems of expanding the total amount, enriching varieties, optimizing the structure and strengthening the supply-side structural reform. There are still "shortcomings" in economic and social development, especially in the field of cultural undertakings, and a well-off culture still faces prominent contradictions in strengthening the foundation, supplementing the "shortcomings" and promoting balance.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, cultural departments all over the country have strengthened their cultural self-confidence, adhered to the new development concept, focused on filling the "shortcomings", improved their efficiency, vigorously promoted the standardization and equalization of basic public cultural services, enriched the supply of high-quality public cultural products, and the construction of public cultural service system has reached a new level. Focus on the "People’s Republic of China (PRC) Public Cultural Service Guarantee Law" as the basis, expand the transfer payment, accelerate the improvement of the public cultural service capacity and level in the old revolutionary base areas, ethnic areas, border areas and poverty-stricken areas, and promote the balanced and coordinated development of public cultural services throughout the country. Continue to deepen the supply-side structural reform in the cultural field, improve the transmission mechanism of cultural demand, and encourage and attract the whole society to participate in cultural creation and cultural supply. Change people’s passive acceptance into people’s independent choice, so that people can not only read books, read newspapers, listen to the radio, watch TV and watch performances, but also understand art, learn non-legacy, practice unique skills, form teams, hold performances, hold Spring Festival Evening and create brands. Change the fragmented pattern of "fragmented" and isolated islands, and form a cultural network system with interconnected facilities, resource sharing, service linkage and urban-rural integration. Actively use modern advanced technology, change the way of niche and close service, and maximize the potential of cultural development and service efficiency.
Cultural consumption upgrading has become a new economic growth point.
Reporter:The core of cultural construction is to meet people’s spiritual needs and people’s new expectations for a better life. With the people’s money bags bulging, the demand for cultural consumption is getting higher and higher. How do you think the cultural market will provide more spiritual and cultural food for the masses? How should cultural consumption be upgraded?
Qi Shuyu:As material life becomes richer, consumption problems also follow. In the era of consumption upgrading, cultural consumption upgrading symbolizes the improvement and even change of the quality of life of the public, and the public expectation and market potential make it a new economic growth point.
According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2019, China’s per capita expenditure on education, culture and entertainment was 2,513 yuan, an increase of 12.9%, accounting for 11.7% of the per capita consumption expenditure; China’s comprehensive index of cultural consumption shows an overall upward trend, and the proportion of cultural consumption in daily consumption will increase in the future.
To meet the growing cultural needs of the masses, efforts should be made in two aspects. On the one hand, we should create more masterpieces worthy of the times; On the other hand, efforts should be made to cultivate and develop cultural industries and create rich cultural life.
There are many proud data in China’s cultural industry: the number of books published in the world is the first, the number of TV dramas produced and broadcast is the first, and the number of movie screens is the first. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a large number of outstanding literary and artistic works have emerged in the field of literature and art in China. However, it is undeniable that there are still some phenomena in literary and artistic creation, such as quantity lacking quality, plateau lacking "peak". In the next step, we need to prosper the creation and production of culture and art, optimize the structure and supply mode of cultural products, improve the cultural facilities system adapted to modern society, vigorously promote universal reading, universal art popularization, universal inheritance of excellent traditional culture, universal fitness, universal popularization of law and universal popularization of science, and guide people to consciously pursue a rich and healthy spiritual life.
In terms of developing cultural industries, in recent years, China has adopted the "internet plus" strategy to transform and upgrade traditional industries, accelerate the development of emerging industries such as mobile multimedia, network audio-visual, digital publishing, animation games, 3D and image maximum, and promote the vigorous development of Internet services, games and entertainment industries.
There is still more room for development of a well-off culture.
Reporter:What aspects should we focus on in building a spiritual and cultural home that matches the material living standard?
Zhang Xiaoping:To meet the people’s new expectations for a better life, we must provide rich spiritual food. There is still more room for development and promotion of a well-off culture.
First of all, promote the coordinated development of urban and rural public culture and change the unbalanced situation of urban and rural cultural development. In recent years, through the development of cultural projects for the benefit of the people, rural residents have enjoyed the same rich and high-quality digital public cultural products and services as urban residents, and promoted the coordinated development of public culture between urban and rural areas.
Secondly, to realize the organic integration of cultural public welfare and marketability, so that the social benefits of public cultural services and the economic benefits of cultural industrialization can be coordinated. In recent years, many cultural consumption measures have improved the convenience of cultural consumption, improved the market environment, upgraded and expanded public cultural services for public welfare, and made market-oriented cultural products more colorful.
Third, highlight the organic combination of hard power of science and technology and soft power of culture. Promote the integration of excellent traditional cultural content, socialist core values and modern technology forms, open a new era of digital public culture based on technologies such as 5G, ultra-high definition and artificial intelligence, and change the imbalance between hard power and soft power in China in recent years. To promote the construction of public digital culture, local governments should speed up the construction of public cultural information centers, improve supporting electronic facilities, and especially ensure the full coverage of rural digital cultural services.
Fourth, the national image and the citizen image are shaped in an interactive and two-way way. Only by improving the cultural quality of the whole people can we show the image of a civilized country. The state vigorously implements the project of benefiting the people by culture, aiming at improving the moral quality and cultural accomplishment of the whole people, so that the people can enjoy a cultural feast with better quality and higher level, thus enriching their own cultural self-cultivation, realizing the interactive and two-way shaping of the national image and the citizen image, and creating a friendly, mutual-help, positive and healthy civilized social atmosphere.
In a word, a well-off culture is of great significance for enhancing the country’s cultural soft power, displaying the image of a big country’s civilization, casting a solid sense of the Chinese nation’s community, rallying the recognition of core values and shaping a good citizen image, and also laying a profound cultural foundation for realizing the goal of the second century.