Voice of America (VOA) published an article on the development of the socialist arts and entertainment industry in China. The article stated that the Political Bureau recently passed an opinion based on a talk that Xi Jinping gave during the culture industry conference held in Beijing last year. The opinion was intended to provide guidance for the development of the arts and entertainment industry and to enable it to provide “positive energy” to the China Dream. VOA reported on some interviews it conducted on this topic. Some had a concern that the opinion emphasized Party leadership as the fundamental guarantee of the “prosperous growth of cultural development.” The concern was that, because the industry would be under the influence of Party ideology and have to meet the Party’s requirement to “provide positive energy,” it would lack high quality and creative products. Some felt that in this diversified Internet era, China still uses the old fashioned approach which involves a clear lack of public trust and creativity. As to the fact that the opinion indicated that the Party will encourage the development of Internet arts and entertainment, a concern was that the real intent of the Party was to control the people who have the talent and prevent them from using their own ingenuity to produce the material. Currently the biggest challenges that Internet artists face include that they lack copyright protection, their online browsing is limited, and the Internet writers’ human rights could be violated.
Source: Voice of America, September 11, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/china-socialist-art-20150911/2961033.html