Reforming Chinas cultural sphere: position of the Communist Party of China (late 20th - early 21st centuries)

The article discusses the cultural policy of theCommunist Party of China (CPC) in the late 20th - early 21st centuries. Analysis and comparison of each of the three stages of reformsin China's cultural system is based on core documents. The first stage (1978-1992) saw the formulation of goals of the cultural systemreform and inception of three major initiatives: reorganization of professional performance companies, establishment of contract-basedresponsibility for cultural institutions and introduction of "dual-track" approach to reform. In essence, one "track" was suggested forsupport to state-sponsored institutions and another - for community-supported creative units. During the second stage of the culturalsystem reform (1993-2002), CPC put forward further objectives and set new directions, one of them being the introduction of the conceptof "cultural industry", which marked the Party's recognition of the role and place of cultural industry in the country's market economy.A distinctive feature of this period was close attention to legalization of cultural activities and strengthening of legislation. Thethird phase began after the 16th Party Congress (2003) when CPC embarked on deepening the reform of the entire cultural system. Themain difference between this stage and the previous two lies mainly in the starkly different background the cultural reforms are setagainst. While earlier reforms were carried out first in the context of planned economy, and later at the initial stages of transition to socialistmarket economy, in the third phase market economy was already fully operational. Finally, the analysis of the Guidelines ofChina's 11th Five-Year Plan for Cultural Development is given. The Program can be regarded as the framework document for culturaldevelopment aimed to form a society of modest prosperity (xiaokang shehui), build socialism and attain social harmony (hexie shehui).Thus, the author concludes that the present Chinese leadership is trying to create an updated ethical system appropriate to the socialistmarket economy by advancing the agenda of moral governance, which is not feasible without reforming China's cultural tradition.

Keywords

Authors

References