Jiangsu has a profound cultural heritage and rich cultural resources with its cultural construction ranking in the forefront of the country. In today’s special column, let’s take a close look at Jiangsu’s efforts and achievements in painting a new picture of social civilization.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Jiangsu has made great efforts to build a highland for ideological and cultural guidance, a highland for moral construction, and a highland for literary and artistic creation.
The province has made continuous efforts to promote the construction of a strong cultural province to achieve a new leap-frog development so that cultural innovation and creation have become a new advantage, social civilization has reached a new height, and people’s sense of happiness has been improved, providing strong cultural support and spiritual impetus for writing a new chapter.
The latest data shows that the province’s social civilization evaluation index has increased from 86.25 in 2015 to 90.43 in 2021.
It has become commonplace for young people in cities to go to the cinema to see a movie with popcorn and cola in their hands.
With the opening of township cinemas, more and more small-town residents can enjoy the thrilling movies at home.
The Omnijoi International Cinema in Yudong Ancient Town of Nantong City has attracted an endless stream of audience.
Opening high-end cinemas at the grass-roots villages and towns was a vivid practice of the development of public cultural undertakings in Jiangsu in the past decade.
An audience said that it used to take 30 or 40 minutes to drive to the downtown to see a movie, but now they can get there in two minutes by riding a scooter. She was deeply impressed by the high-end environment, equipment and facilities of the cinema.
According to Shen Wei, Manager of Yudong town outlet, Omnijoi International Cinema, in the seven-day National Day holiday, the cinema played 140 to 150 shows, and the attendance rate was about 70% to 80%.
In the past decade, Jiangsu has continuously provided diversified cultural performances in order to meet the people's growing demand for spiritual and cultural life.
The province has launched a series of cultural activities, such as musicals, dramas, children’s dramas, calligraphy and painting art exhibitions. Large theaters and small plays, urban study rooms, rural study rooms and comprehensive cultural service centers are built all over the province.
“The government often organizes plays in the countryside. We have the opportunity to read books and newspapers, carry out sports activities, and our spare time life is very substantial”, Li Jingtao, a resident of Huangwei Community, Huangwei Town, Xiangshui County said.
In the past decade, Jiangsu has witnessed the vigorous development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries. The province reported an increase in the added value of cultural industries from 233 billion yuan in 2012 to about 580 billion yuan in 2021, ranking second in China for several years in a row.
With the canal culture and Jiangnan culture becoming famous brands, the Jiangsu section of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt has become a national pilot section, demonstration section and model section.
In the past decade, culture and tourism have also changed from intersection to integration, forming a new picture of poetry in the distance.
Jiangsu has given full play to its regional cultural characteristics by integrating cultural content, cultural symbols and cultural stories into scenic spots and integrating revolutionary culture and excellent Chinese traditional culture into tourism route design so that people can feel cultural charm and enhance cultural self-confidence in tourism.
Since the 18th Party Congress, Jiangsu has kept in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping’s instructions, achieved remarkable results by placing the construction of spiritual civilization in a more prominent position, moistening civilization with culture, nurturing civilization with morality, and safeguarding civilization with governance.
In the past decade, Jiangsu recorded an increase in the comprehensive reading rate of residents from 76.5% in 2012 to 90.23% in 2021, 8.63 percentage points higher than the national average.
In the past ten years, Jiangsu has vigorously promoted moral construction, and successively launched five national “models of the times”, including Zhao Yafu and Wang Jicai. The core socialist values have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people from the endless emergence of ordinary people’s good deeds and moral models.
In the past decade, Jiangsu has deeply promoted the construction of socialist democracy and the rule of law by taking good law and good governance as an important guarantee for the progress of social civilization and taking the lead nationwide in promoting grid based social governance.
On a business street in Suqian, a small label of integrity was pasted in front of each store. Customers can know the credit status of the store by scanning the QR code with their mobile phones.
According to Wu Liangjie, Deputy Squadron Leader of Gucheng Squadron of Sucheng District Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau, the evaluation is based on 100 points, and the higher the score, the more civilized the stores will be. They will provide preferential policies on property management for the four stars and three stars which will be recognized as civilized operators. If the score is lower than this, the store will be included in the black list, so as to encourage more stores to actively operate in a civilized manner.
In the past ten years, Suqian has successively promulgated and implemented 10 local civilization laws and regulations, and more than 100 urban management guidelines so as to have standardized civilized behavior of citizens, and eliminated bad habits.
Nowadays, these civilized norms, such as comity to zebra crossing, no littering and care for public facilities, have become the behavioral consciousness of Suqian citizens.
“Over the years, Suqian has not only become a better place with more beautiful environment, but also improved the quality of the people. We are the beneficiaries of civilization, as well as participants and promoters”, a citizen of Suqian said.
Chen Fusheng, Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of Suqian Municipal Party Committee, Director of the Municipal Office for Ethical and Cultural Progress, said that over the past few years, in the process of building a civilized city, the city’s officials and people worked together to achieve the transformation of civilization and let civilization infiltrate the whole city.
In the past ten years, the flowers of civilization have been blooming in Jiangsu. Up to now, 29 cities in Jiangsu have won the honorary title of National Civilized City, ranking first in terms of total number and proportion.
Hao Lixin, Chief Expert of Central Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Project, Dean and Professor of Mingde College of Renmin University of China, said that Jiangsu has made remarkable achievements in the construction of spiritual civilization, reflecting the consciousness of value, theory and practice, and the organic combination of top-level design, action deployment and practice promotion. What is particularly gratifying is that 29 cities in Jiangsu have been awarded the title of National Civilized City, which is rare in the country. It reflects Jiangsu’s pride and shows that Jiangsu is in the forefront of the country in the construction of spiritual civilization.
