Nanfang Daily, Nanfang Plus:

Chinese culture has a long history, and Xizang boasts a rich and diverse cultural heritage. What measures has Xizang taken in cultural preservation and development? Looking ahead, what plans are there to continue promoting cultural prosperity and development? Thank you.

Xu Zhitao:

Thank you for your questions. The culture of Xizang has been created by people of all ethnic groups living on the plateau over thousands of years. It has been enriched and developed through interactions and mutual learning with Central Plain Culture and surrounding cultures. Xizang culture has a long history and unique forms. It is a treasure of Chinese culture and an important component of it. At the same time, Xizang culture enjoys a high reputation and is deeply loved by many people and countries worldwide.

The People's Government of the Xizang Autonomous Region attaches great importance to the preservation and development of Xizang culture. First, we aim to protect the valuable cultural heritage left by our ancestors. Xizang now has three national famous historical and cultural cities and five famous historical and cultural towns, with 50 traditional villages added to the state protection list. Tibetan opera, Gesar epic tradition, and Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa have been included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace of Lhasa has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Second, culture should be shared by the people. With the support of the CPC Central Committee, all of the more than 5,000 administrative villages in Xizang have established their own art troupes, spreading across the plateau like Galsang flowers to perform folk songs and dances and Tibetan operas for villagers. At present, there are various full-time and part-time art performing troupes consisting of 100,000 people, and there are over 100,000 free or subsidized performances every year. In recent years, libraries, ancient book museums, and intangible cultural heritage museums have been built in famous temples in Xizang, such as Jokhang Temple, Drepung Monastery, and Nenang Nunnery. This allows monks and nuns to better access various kinds of knowledge and enables more people, including tourists, experts and scholars, to learn about the cultural treasures housed in these temples. Third, culture should serve economic development and improve people's living standards. Xizang now has 106 items listed as state-level representative intangible cultural heritage items and 460 at autonomous region level. Hundreds of intangible cultural heritage workshops distributed throughout the region are not only a platform for cultural inheritance but also an important channel for ordinary people to increase their income. At present, there are over 8,000 cultural enterprises of various types. The output of the cultural industry in Xizang has reached 8.987 billion yuan in 2023, with an increase of 42% on a year-on-year basis.

Regarding our follow-up plans, while preserving Xizang culture as a treasure of Chinese culture, we will further innovate our working ideas and optimize supporting elements to promote the prosperity and development of Xizang culture. We will focus on conducting a survey of cultural artifacts and intangible cultural heritage to understand our resources better and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of more fine traditional cultures. We aim to create high-quality literary and artistic works that become well-known nationwide, like "Laundry Song" and "A Walk in New Lhasa," and create more good songs, plays, and operas with Xizang characteristics that can be popular in the new era. We will further build the culture and tourism industry into an important pillar industry in Xizang, bringing more benefits to people of all ethnic groups and meeting people's expectations for a better life through the high-quality development of culture and tourism. Thank you.