"Cultural confidence represents a fundamental and profound force that sustains the development of a country and a nation […] We should do more to foster a Chinese spirit, Chinese values and Chinese strength to provide a source of cultural and moral guidance for our people." This significant role of culture was highlighted in the report General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on October 18.

While emphasizing the importance of cultural construction over the past five years, Xi propounded the new thought, and new concepts and requirements to foster the prosperous development of socialist culture.

As China has entered a new era in which people have ever-growing needs for a better life, culture has acquired added significance. During the past five years, public libraries, museums and the movie industry have made huge strides, setting a solid foundation for building a culturally strong country and enriching people's spiritual lives.

Improving public libraries is a basic approach that governments all around the world have taken to meet the cultural needs of the people. Over the past five years, for instance, county libraries across China have gained access to more than 1.6 million digital books, over 1,000 magazines and about 600 newspapers of the national library, according to information released at a news conference on Friday. This proves that the quality of public cultural services has improved significantly over the past five years and enriched people's daily lives.

Building and modernizing museums are another way to enrich public life. Since China takes pride in its long history and boasts many good traditions, the Chinese government places high importance to the protection of historical relics. As Xi said: "We will strengthen protection and utilization of cultural relics, and better preserve and carry forward our cultural heritage."

Museums have increased manyfold since the 18th Party Congress in 2012. Official figures show their number increased from 2,650 in 2011 to 4,109 last year, and the authorities created favorable conditions to improve public cultural services.

Books, which still form the core of libraries, play a very significant role in the social and cultural uplift of the people. The upgrading and transformation of the publishing industry, especially digital publishing, has progressed smoothly, and the number of people reading books has greatly increased. According to official statistics, last year China published some 500,000 books on different subjects, 62.7 percent more than in 2011－the publishing industry's production value also expanded in line with the rising number of readers.

Movies are another cultural product the people love. They also constitute the most dynamic side of the culture industry. During the past five years, the number of movies produced and the box office collection have increased significantly. In fact, the box office returns last year alone was more than 49 billion yuan according to the latest figure at the news conference on Friday.

In the future, however, China will not only take measures to further develop the movie industry, but also to help instill in them Chinese values.

These impressive statistics show an even brighter future for China's cultural construction. The public libraries and museums, once they are fully upgraded, will provide better, more efficient cultural services for the people. And the rapid growth in quality and the number of books published along with the improvement of the movie industry will offer diverse choices for the people to enrich their spiritual life.

In short, the prosperous development of the culture industry will pave the way for the construction of a culturally advanced country and help realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The author is the dean of the School of Information Management, Wuhan University

Source:China Daily