From foreign movies and TV
programmes to books and concerts, China is ringing up a huge cultural deficit, a
senior official said yesterday.
The unfavourable balance of trade in the cultural sector will remain acute
for a long time to come, Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng told China Daily on
the sidelines of a press conference addressed by two other top officials.
Sun did not assign a monetary value for the deficit but the nation imported
nearly seven times more movies than it produced last year. Similarly, it is
estimated that the number of books imported was 10 times more than exports.
"It is rather difficult to reverse the trend for the time being, since we
have adopted an opening-up policy, and foreign cultural products will continue
to flow to China," the minister said.
The movie industry is one of the areas where the effects are most telling.
"We imported 1,970 movies in 2005, a year when China produced 260," Zhao Shi,
vice-minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, told
the press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office.
"We are embracing the world whole-heartedly; we welcome overseas movies to
China."
The imports included Hollywood blockbusters and other movies bought by
Chinese cinemas, television stations and cultural institutions, according to
Zhao.
Despite a recently-imposed ban on foreign cartoons being shown on prime-time
TV which Zhao said was in response to demands by Chinese parents the country has
not restricted their influx.
"As you can all see, a huge number of imported cartoons are being shown on
the cartoon channels of a host of stations in China outside prime time," she
said.
In the publication sector, foreign books are knocking local works off the
bestseller lists, Liu Binjie, deputy chief of the General Administration of
Press and Publication, said at the same press conference.
The government has ratified the operation of 38 overseas-invested publication
distribution enterprises, with 14 of them entitled to wholesale distribution
rights.
It has also approved at least 2,000 overseas-funded printing firms, some of
which are large-scale, Liu said, adding that the country has given the green
light to Sino-foreign collaboration for 51 newspapers and periodicals.
During the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), the country will open up the
sector even more, Liu said.
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