According to sources for the promotion of the project, Duplication of China’s Rare Ancient Books, operating expenses on cultural undertakings sponsored directly by the central government in 2002 increased by 46.3 percent, marking a historical high in China’s investment in cultural undertakings and surpassing the growth rate of state fiscal revenue. Now, a batch of state-level cultural projects is under high-speed construction.
The Duplication of Rare China’s Ancient Books is a key cultural development project sponsored by both the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance. The project is to systematically duplicate rare, ancient books and publish duplicated versions. Original editions of the rare works were either handwritten or block-printed. The project aims to protect, develop and utilize rare resources.
When the project was finally set up in 2000, 3.5 million yuan (US$420,000) was allocated for the start-up of the project. Then, in 2001 and 2002, 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) was further allocated for the project. So far, 90 varieties of books in the first phase of the project have been published, gaining wide praise from academic circles. The total investment will reach 120 million yuan (US$14.5 million) for the whole completion of the project.
Another mammoth cultural project, the National Theater, will cost a total investment of 2.688 billion yuan (US$320 million). Located in the west side of the Great Hall of the People, the National Theater, which is under construction, will cover 118,900 square meters. The theater will have an opera house, a concert hall, a drama house and an arts exhibition hall. It will be built into a world-class cultural space with a perfect combination of traditional and modern style, as well as using a romantic and realistic style.
In addition, the New National Library of China is another big cultural project, which has been allocated 1.23 billion yuan (US$140 million) and is under construction at present. Some other cultural reconstruction and extension projects include the National Museum, the China Art Gallery, the National Modern Drama Theater, and Tianqiao Theater.
The project, National Top-notch Artistic Stage Works, with an annual investment of 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) began this year. In two years time, some 60 top-quality plays will be put on the stage and will all have a lengthy run.
The state has also allocated 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) each year for projects on national culture information sharing.
The project of compiling China Canon with an estimated investment of over 100 million yuan (US$12 million) will kick off in the near future.
The Dunhuang Scripture Writing Hall in the National Library of China has unmatched conditions in the world for a cultural relics collection. All the collected articles were put in more than 10,000 specially-made nanmu (Phoebe nanmu) boxes.
In addition, some massive cultural projects will start one-by-one, including compilation of the History of the Qing Dynasty, national folk culture conservation, and collections of 20th Century fine art masters, and so on.
Wang Jiaxin, director of the Education, Science and Culture Department of the Ministry of Finance, said that China’s financial sector is to actively support and coordinate with cultural structural reform, so as to promote development of cultural undertakings and the culture industry. He believes China’s culture field is to become more prosperous.
(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, August 25, 2003)
