Students learn paper-cutting at school. The new development project focuses on excellent traditional Chinese culture and extends to various stages of public education.

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The General Office of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council of China jointly issued The Opinion on the Development Project of Excellent Traditional Culture on Jan. 25. Scholars hold that the opinion charts a clearer blueprint for the innovative transformation and development of excellent traditional Chinese culture.

The opinion proposed a development project to carry on the legacy of traditional Chinese culture. The project focuses on cultural essence and extends to human production and activities as well as various stages of public education. It also aims to protect cultural heritage, nurture artistic creation and boost global cultural exchanges.

It is a cultural strategy for China to protect, interpret and promote excellent traditional culture and integrate it with current Chinese society. In this way, excellent traditional culture will undergo innovative development through its fundamental exchange with modern civilization, said Dang Shengyuan, deputy director of the Institute of Foreign Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Chinese New Year has rich cultural elements and modern life enriches it by adding new connotations. Thus, customs undergo transformation in the process of heritage, which is an example of innovative development of excellent traditional culture,” said Yu Xiaohui, a research fellow at the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

Chen Wenjiang, a professor of sociology at Lanzhou University, said, the government has paid unprecedented attention to the project, promoting cultural inheritance and development to a strategic level.

Currently, strong cultural awareness and confidence are urgently needed so that excellent traditional culture can provide fertile soil for modern China.

Cultural confidence is the central element of the Chinese national community and a crucial component of China’s cultural soft power. Excellent traditional culture serves as the bedrock of cultural confidence and indicates rich cultural details, referring to the past, the present as well as the future, said Zhou Jianxin, deputy director of the Research Center of Cultural Industry at Shenzhen University.

The opinion also touches upon academic research. For example, it emphasizes compilation of Chinese achievements and CPC history as well as local chronicles. It calls for research achievements that can reflect the pathway of Chinese civilization. Also, the opinion proposed to further construct the disciplines concerning excellent traditional Chinese culture, and to protect and develop unpopular studies that are of great cultural value and heritage significance. Scholars have a long way to go to pursue these crucial tasks.

Studies of excellent traditional culture should revitalize historical culture in the context of present society. This is the goal of efforts to preserve the nation’s cultural legacy, said Zhu Xiaojin, deputy director of Nanjing Normal University. We aim to identify through reflection and selection of historical culture. Also, we should uncover and clarify the significance of historical culture. In this process, more value will be added to excellent traditional culture, Zhu said.

 

 

 

ZHONG ZHE is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.