Lawmakers voice concern over lack of quality cultural products

Chinese lawmakers have expressed concerns over the lack of quality cultural products in the country. They highlighted their concerns while discussing a report delivered at the bi-monthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature. At the panel discussion on Thursday morning, lawmakers debated the report delivered by the Minister of Culture, Cai Wu, on Wednesday which briefed on the progress in developing the country's cultural sector. Fang Xin, a legislator and professor with Chinese Academy of Sciences, said although the number of cultural products has increased and "China has become the world's largest producer of television series and third in movies", quality ones were insufficient. "Some cultural products are shoddy, over-entertaining, and promoting violence," Fang said, arguing quality ones should be able to touch the souls of people and stand the test of time. Legislator Xu Zhihong, former president of Peking University, suggested a sober mind toward the figures, "although we have obtained a lot in terms of quantity in various cultural sectors, we should do some serious analysis of these figures." Xu believed quality publications were lacking despite the volume, saying, Mo Yan's winning the Noble Literature Prize by no means signaled the flourishing of Chinese literature. Mo won the 2012 Noble Literature Prize this month, becoming the first Chinese national to get the honor. The Wednesday report said, in 2011 more than 3,000 novels were released, and a total of 370,000 books, amounting to 7.71 billion copies, were published. Circulation of daily newspapers ranked number one in the world, with 1,928 newspapers and 9,849 journals competing in the press market, according to the report. Xu also raised concerns of cultural relics protection, saying though China's possession of world heritage ranked among the best in the world, the deterioration of cultural relics occurred from time to time. China's rapid urban development had seen many cultural relics removed or quashed to make way for urban infrastructures. Legislator Yang Bangjie, vice chairman of China Zhi Gong Party, advocated preservation of village culture, as many have disappeared or merged due to rapid urbanization. In an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday, Minister of Culture Cai Wu said young cultural enterprises, weak public cultural services in remote areas, the cultural industry's limited share in the economy and a lack of high-quality talent are problems currently facing the sector. Cai vowed increased investment in building a practical and efficient public cultural service system to ensure basic cultural interests while continuing reforms and innovation to realize the cultural industry's role as a pillar industry for the national economy.