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The 13th China Art Festival is just around the corner. Many works of art on stages or in exhibition halls have recently overwhelmed WeChat Moments. What are the new trends, changes, achievements, and developments in stage art and fine art in recent years? Thank you.

Lu Yingchuan:

Thank you for your question and your concern about the issue. As you have mentioned, the 13th China Art Festival will kick off at the same time in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei with the theme of Embracing the 20th CPC National Congress for a New Journey. The festival will showcase several excellent works and development achievements from stage art and fine art over the years. The preparatory work for the festival is underway, and I hope you can stay tuned for it.

Over the past decade, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, China has seen its literary and artistic creations flourish, reflecting the ethos of the times. We can find the following features:

First, a series of major cultural and artistic performance events have been held to celebrate the themes of our times. Since the 18th CPC national congress, we have held a series of major cultural and art performances celebrating the anniversary of several major historical events. Last year, under the deployment and guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping, an art performance entitled "The Great Journey" was created in celebration of the CPC's 100th anniversary. The epic show reviewed the glorious journey the Party has traveled over 100 years of struggle and vividly demonstrated the historical achievements and evolution made in China since the 18th CPC National Congress. The classic performance marked the culmination of the artistic creations for the CPC's centennial celebration. We also staged a gala entitled "Victory and Peace," commemorating the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and a grand gala called "Our 40 Years" in celebration of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. We also staged an art performance entitled "Stride Forward, the Nation" to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC). They reflect the new era's themes and are the best artistic shows of the time.

Second, a great number of artistic works have been created depicting the features of the new era. We have launched a national stage art creation program, a stage art creation program celebrating the CPC centenary, and an exhibition and performance series themed on the new era. These programs revolve around the themes of poverty alleviation, rural revitalization and high-quality development, ecological development, and ethnic unity. By depicting the development and breakthroughs of the time, we have seen many artistic works depicting the new development of our times and introducing China by telling Chinese people's stories. For example, the dance drama "The Eternal Wave," the theater play "Liu Qing," and the opera "Ma Xiangyang Goes to the Countryside" are all classical plays favored by the masses. Moreover, some art pieces like the Chinese painting "The Chinese Dream," the oil painting "The Ladder to the Sky," and the statue "Banner" are all popular among the people.

Third, the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture have achieved fruitful results, demonstrating China's cultural confidence. Literary and artistic workers continue to make innovations while actively passing on traditional Chinese and revolutionary cultures. In the fields of music, dance, and opera, we have seen many new classic works. For example, the Pingju Opera "Mother" vividly depicts a heroic character, while the dance drama "A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains" demonstrates the essence of Chinese art and culture. These excellent works not only provide cultural products to the people but also vividly display the cultural and artistic image of a major country.

Fourth, new technologies are widely used to promote the high-quality development of the art sector. Guided by the new development philosophy, we have actively promoted both online and offline performances and broadcasts, broken the time and spatial barriers of stage performances, and adopted digitalized methods like live streaming that are popular among young people. Stage performances enabled by new technologies have enriched the way of expression and distribution, injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the creative sector.

At the same time, many prominent problems in the art field have also been effectively addressed, which helped promote the formation of a healthy and clean literary and artistic ecosystem.

The above is just a brief introduction. I believe you have also noticed many of these new developments in the sector. In the future, we will continue to uphold the principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important statements related to the literary and artistic sectors, summarize and scale up the best practices and experience in the past decade to advance further the high-quality development of the literary and creative industries, and create more popular work to meet people's cultural needs. Thank you.