Culture is the soul of a country and a nation. The Seventh Plenary Session of the 14th Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China will “build it into a socialist advanced cultural highland” as one of the 13 major landmark achievements to accelerate the formation of a Chinese style and Zhejiang identity. How to build a socialist advanced cultural highland that is compatible with the “important window”? The reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department.
Culture is the humanistic gene and spiritual code of Zhejiang’s past development, as well as the more fundamental, profound, and sustainable force for Zhejiang’s future development. It is a shining window for building an ‘important window’. The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Party Committee’s Propaganda Department believes that the key to creating a socialist advanced cultural highland is to ‘highlight one theme and develop five major cultures’.
One theme is to further deepen the “Eight Projects” and embark on a new cultural journey in Zhejiang. Previous provincial committees have attached great importance to cultural construction, adhering to a blueprint drawn to the end and working one after another, persistently promoting the “Eight Projects”, and pushing Zhejiang’s cultural development and reform to a new level. The power of culture has deeply integrated into the innovation and creation of the people in the province, becoming a powerful engine for Zhejiang’s economic and social development. Entering a new stage of building an “important window”, the “Eight Projects” remain an important strategy guiding the cultural construction of our province and a fundamental principle that must be consistently adhered to in building a socialist advanced cultural highland. Developing the “Five Major Cultures” means focusing on the construction of “important windows” and assigning new tasks to culture, vigorously developing advanced culture led by the Party’s innovative theory, red culture represented by the Red Boat Spirit, traditional culture based on Zhejiang’s history, innovative culture based on Zhejiang’s spirit, and digital culture supported by the digital economy, enhancing the recognition and leadership of Zhejiang culture. These five major cultures are the pillars of building a socialist advanced cultural highland.
What are the specific ways to develop the ‘Five Major Cultures’? The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department suggested that efforts should be made to polish spiritual symbols, build cultural landmarks, establish cultural industry benchmarks, and create external cultural windows.
Focus on polishing the spiritual identity. To build a socialist advanced cultural highland, we must vigorously promote the spirit of the Red Boat and the Zhejiang spirit, firmly guard the “roots” and “soul”, “spirit” and “charm” of the Zhejiang people, and inspire cadres and the masses to truly transform the Zhejiang spirit into a spirit of “endless”, a spirit of “seeking new achievements”, and a spirit of “demonstrating responsibility” in their work and entrepreneurship. Innovate the dissemination methods of the Red Boat Spirit and Zhejiang Spirit, and root the Zhejiang Spirit.Rooted in the hearts of every young person and transformed into a powerful driving force for creating a better future for Zhejiang.
Focus on building cultural landmarks. We need to plan and promote a number of major engineering projects to create a new era cultural landmark, such as the Zhijiang Cultural Center and the Grand Canal World Cultural Heritage Park. We need to systematically implement a number of major heritage protection projects, focusing on promoting the protection, inheritance, and utilization of world cultural heritage sites such as West Lake, the Grand Canal, and the Liangzhu Ancient City ruins, and building a high-level Zhejiang Grand Canal National Cultural Park. We must continue to implement the Zhejiang Cultural Research Project, conduct in-depth research on the historical context, cultural origins, and practical significance of the Zhejiang spirit, delve into the “Zhejiang genes” in traditional Chinese culture, explore the rich connotations and contemporary values of Yangming culture, Hehe culture, Nankong culture, Yongjia school, and other cultural traditions, and promote the creative transformation and innovative development of Zhejiang’s excellent traditional culture.
Focus on building cultural industry benchmarks. We should effectively leverage the demonstration and driving role of large platforms and projects, create a number of national and provincial major cultural industries and cultural inheritance platforms, and deepen the construction of platforms such as the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, Zhijiang Cultural Industry Belt, Shilu Cultural Belt, Hengdian Film and Television Cultural Industry Agglomeration Zone, “Two Mountains” Cultural Development Demonstration Zone, and Binhai Cultural Tourism Industry Belt, in order to expand and strengthen the Songcheng Performing Arts Group. Deeply explore the profound cultural heritage and rich resources of Zhejiang’s “book” culture, and build a Jiangnan study room filled with the fragrance of books. Expand and strengthen the digital cultural industry, making it an important part of the development of cultural and strategic emerging industries.
Efforts will be made to create a window for foreign culture. We should vigorously promote the “important window” and effectively spread the good voice of Zhejiang and the good system of socialism with Chinese characteristics through telling good stories. To create an international communication platform for “Beautiful Zhejiang” and tell the story of Zhejiang well by integrating the discourse systems of China and foreign countries. Build an international cultural exchange platform and establish a number of international cultural exchange bases. Strengthen the excavation and extraction of urban historical and cultural business cards, and disseminate them overseas through multimedia forms and various channels. Deeply integrate into national strategies such as the “the Belt and Road” construction and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, implement the cultural exchange and cooperation plan, build a number of online and offline international cultural exchange and cooperation bases and platforms, implement the “Classic Zhejiang” translation project, Zhejiang academic translation project, and promote Zhejiang’s excellent literary works, books, film and television products to go global.
It can be said that building a socialist advanced cultural highland is not only an important part of Zhejiang’s construction of an ‘important window’, but also a bright window to showcase the ‘important window’. The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Party Committee’s Propaganda Department believes that it is necessary to continuously enhance the leading, creative, broadcasting, service and competitiveness of Zhejiang culture, and use cultural soft power to support Zhejiang’s hard power.