Ministry of Culture (China)

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Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国文化部
Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Wénhuàbù
National Emblem of the People's Republic of China (2).svg
Agency overview
FormedSeptember 1954;70 years ago (1954-09)
Dissolved19 March 2018;7 years ago (2018-03-19)
Superseding agency
JurisdictionFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
Headquarters Beijing
Minister responsible
Parent agency State Council
Website www.mct.gov.cn

The Ministry of Culture (MOC) was a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which was dissolved on 19 March 2018. The responsibilities of the MOC, which were assumed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, encompassed cultural policy and activities in the country, including managing national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts (including censorship of visual, folk, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual and cinematographic works); and managing the national archives and regional culture centers. Its headquarters were in Chaoyang District, Beijing. [1]

Contents

History

The ministry was dissolved on 19 March 2018 and replaced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as part of the deepening the reform of the Party and state institutions. [2]

Duties

In 1955, the Ministry of Culture sought to develop rural cultural networks to distribute media like other performances, lantern slides, books, cinema, radio, books, and to establish newspaper reading groups. [3] :48

On March 9, 1958, the Ministry of Culture held a meeting to introduce a Great Leap Forward in cinema. [4] :149–150 During the Great Leap Forward, the film industry rapidly expanded, with documentary films being the genre that experienced the greatest growth. [4] :150 The number of film-screening venues, including both urban cinemas and mobile projectionist units that traveled through rural China, also radically increased during the this period. [4] :150

During the Cultural Revolution, in 1970 the communist party deemed the cultural politics of the ministry so disruptive that it was dissolved and a Culture Group was established within the State Council. [5] :160

In 1998, the Ministry of Culture revived the practice of mobile rural cinema as part of its 2131 Project which aimed to screen one movie month per village in rural China and upgrade analog equipment to digital projectors. [3] :246

Cai Wu, former Minister of Culture Voa chinese Cai Wu China Culture Minister 6sept10 300.jpg
Cai Wu, former Minister of Culture

The duty of the ministry was to digitize and preserve public domain works, and make them available and accessible to every citizen. China had millions of public domain works, including but not limited to books, pictures, music and films. [6] [7]

See also

References

  1. Home Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine . Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. Retrieved on December 22, 2010. "Contact us Address: No.10, Chaoyangmen Beidajie, Chaoyang District, Beijing,100020 Tel:86-10-59881114"
  2. 雒树刚被任命为首位文化和旅游部部长(附简历). ce.cn (in Chinese). 2018-03-19.
  3. 1 2 Li, Jie (2023). Cinematic Guerillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN   9780231206273.
  4. 1 2 3 Qian, Ying (2024). Revolutionary Becomings: Documentary Media in Twentieth-Century China. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN   9780231204477.
  5. Minami, Kazushi (2024). People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN   9781501774157.
  6. Mielnicki, Marcin. "European libraries and Google cooperate in digitization - Digital Libraries and Knowledge Platforms Department".
  7. Dobusch, Leonhard (5 December 2015). "Public Domain on Trial in Reiss-Engelhorn Museum vs. Wikimedia et al".