China to focus on cultural development
The powerful voice of a Mongolian pop diva filled the packed two-storey music hall of the National Museum of China on April 12 during the opening ceremony of the Mongolian cultural month. The event is a part of China’s wider plan to enhance international cultural exchanges.
Under a cultural agreement between Mongolia and China earlier this year, month-long Mongolian cultural activities, including stage performances and exhibitions, will be held in China from April 12. Series of Chinese programs are scheduled to be held in Mongolia in August.
The opening ceremony of the Mongolian cultural month included traditional Mongolian music and dances, Chinese folk music, and pop songs about friendship performed in Chinese and Mongolian.
Cultural ministers from both countries attended the ceremony.
Yondon Otgonbayar, Mongolian Minister of Education, Culture and Sciences said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart that he hoped China would help train Mongolian cultural talents such as film makers and animation producers in the venerable Beijing Film Academy.
Before the opening ceremony, a Mongolian dancer in his twenties spoke of the opportunities that China's developing cultural environment provided.
“I learned all the skills back home and hope to further my study in China one day,” he said.
However, the road to China's current cultural environment has been a lengthy process.
Despite cultural restructuring and development starting from 1978, the economic reforms of the time meant that building its economy was prioritized.
Alice Rawsthorn, design critic for theInternational Herald Tribune, explained in a media interview that the restructuring of China’s economic system was favorable toward broadening peoples’ minds and enriching its culture, but limited economic development in the 1980s hindered cultural developments.
After positioning itself as the second largest global economy, China has now been able to focus on cultural activities.
Late last year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China agreed upon a national effort to deepen the country’s cultural restructuring. An official outline for cultural development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period was formulated in early 2012, which underlined the importance of broadening international cultural exchanges.
The intake of international students in China in recent decades is an integral part of its global cultural exchange scheme.
There were approximately 33 international students in 1950, while the number skyrocketed to around 290,000 in 2011, according to the Foreign Ministry’s statistics quoted in media reports. It is estimated that the number will rise to 500,000 by 2020.
Although US students originally enroll in Chinese classes to improve their career prospects, they become attracted to the profound culture afterwards, said Vera Schwarcz, who studied at Chinese Peking University in the early 1980s and is now a US professor of East Asian Studies
Initially interested in China because of its politics, Schwarcz later discovered the true magic of the nation—its cultural traditions —and in 2009 publishedThe Singing Crane Garden，a book about the historical derivation of an imperial garden in feudal China, which is now located at Peking University.
In the 1960s the garden served as the “ox pens”, where dissident university professors were imprisoned during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). In the 1990s it was built into an art and archeology museum, although the building proposal was originally rejected by university administrators in the 1980s.
While some argue that cultural activities in China are largely restricted, the publication of Schwarcz’s book in China, which referred to a tumultuous period, suggests otherwise.
It has taken the country over 30 years to boost its economy and its culture. Without models for guidance, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping likened the process to a man wading across a river by feeling for stones. Deng’s words suggest that the country’s development needs to stay grounded, even feel its way forward is amidst uncertainty.
Although problems still exist, the nation intends to continue to create a better economic and cultural environment.
Under a cultural agreement between Mongolia and China earlier this year, month-long Mongolian cultural activities, including stage performances and exhibitions, will be held in China from April 12. Series of Chinese programs are scheduled to be held in Mongolia in August.
The opening ceremony of the Mongolian cultural month included traditional Mongolian music and dances, Chinese folk music, and pop songs about friendship performed in Chinese and Mongolian.
Cultural ministers from both countries attended the ceremony.
Yondon Otgonbayar, Mongolian Minister of Education, Culture and Sciences said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart that he hoped China would help train Mongolian cultural talents such as film makers and animation producers in the venerable Beijing Film Academy.
Before the opening ceremony, a Mongolian dancer in his twenties spoke of the opportunities that China's developing cultural environment provided.
“I learned all the skills back home and hope to further my study in China one day,” he said.
However, the road to China's current cultural environment has been a lengthy process.
Despite cultural restructuring and development starting from 1978, the economic reforms of the time meant that building its economy was prioritized.
Alice Rawsthorn, design critic for theInternational Herald Tribune, explained in a media interview that the restructuring of China’s economic system was favorable toward broadening peoples’ minds and enriching its culture, but limited economic development in the 1980s hindered cultural developments.
After positioning itself as the second largest global economy, China has now been able to focus on cultural activities.
Late last year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China agreed upon a national effort to deepen the country’s cultural restructuring. An official outline for cultural development during the 12th Five-Year Plan period was formulated in early 2012, which underlined the importance of broadening international cultural exchanges.
The intake of international students in China in recent decades is an integral part of its global cultural exchange scheme.
There were approximately 33 international students in 1950, while the number skyrocketed to around 290,000 in 2011, according to the Foreign Ministry’s statistics quoted in media reports. It is estimated that the number will rise to 500,000 by 2020.
Although US students originally enroll in Chinese classes to improve their career prospects, they become attracted to the profound culture afterwards, said Vera Schwarcz, who studied at Chinese Peking University in the early 1980s and is now a US professor of East Asian Studies
Initially interested in China because of its politics, Schwarcz later discovered the true magic of the nation—its cultural traditions —and in 2009 publishedThe Singing Crane Garden，a book about the historical derivation of an imperial garden in feudal China, which is now located at Peking University.
In the 1960s the garden served as the “ox pens”, where dissident university professors were imprisoned during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). In the 1990s it was built into an art and archeology museum, although the building proposal was originally rejected by university administrators in the 1980s.
While some argue that cultural activities in China are largely restricted, the publication of Schwarcz’s book in China, which referred to a tumultuous period, suggests otherwise.
It has taken the country over 30 years to boost its economy and its culture. Without models for guidance, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping likened the process to a man wading across a river by feeling for stones. Deng’s words suggest that the country’s development needs to stay grounded, even feel its way forward is amidst uncertainty.
Although problems still exist, the nation intends to continue to create a better economic and cultural environment.
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