China eyes wider coverage for public cultural services

The Chinese government has set a goal of ensuring free public access to nearly all museums, public libraries and art galleries by 2015.

According to a plan concerning the construction of a public cultural service system released on Monday by the Ministry of Culture, every city at or above the prefecture level should have at least one cultural center and one public library that meet state standards concerning content, facilities and functions.

Every administrative village and urban community should have its own venues for cultural activities, such as exhibitions, performances and film screenings.

According to the plan, with financial support from the central government, local governments at multiple levels should set up cultural service networks that allow for the regular staging of folk art performances and other cultural activities for multiple villages and towns.

In order to realize these goals, the government will encourage non-profit cultural groups to play a key role while mobilizing cultural resources from the market to assist in building a "shared, competitive and diversified" public cultural service system.

The government will procure quality cultural products and services from private groups and encourage private entities to participate in the operation of cultural projects through a bidding procedure, the plan says.

Cultural workers will be encouraged to present more works that target specific groups, especially grassroots communities and minority groups.

According to the plan, more efforts will be made to make art collections and digitalized cultural works more accessible for speakers of minority languages.