Research on Public Cultural Services in Minority Areas (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) ()
1. Introduction
Culture is the essence of a country and a nation precipitated in the long history of thousands of years, and has its unique historical position. The report to the 19th CPC National Congress proposes to improve the system of public cultural services, carry out cultural projects to benefit the people, and enrich mass cultural activities. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Ningxia has vigorously promoted the construction of community-level public cultural services, focusing on the construction of a modern public cultural service system in ethnic minority areas. In recent years, the construction of the public cultural service system in Ningxia has become more and more perfect, and all cities and prefectures have made remarkable achievements. However, there are still problems such as imperfect infrastructure construction, lagging development of public culture and shortage of cultural talents. Therefore, this paper focuses on the problems in the process of the construction of public cultural services in Ningxia, and puts forward corresponding solutions to make its own contribution to the construction of the public cultural service system in Ningxia.
2. Present Situation of Public Cultural Services in Ningxia
2.1. The Construction of Public Cultural Infrastructure Is Relatively Complete
By the end of 2019, Tibet had 27 public libraries with a collection of 4.6 million volumes, or 0.7 volumes per capita. There were 26 public cultural centers, with a coverage rate of 89 percent, 122 public electronic reading rooms, 11 museums, 27 national general archives, 248 township (subdistrict) cultural stations, covering 95 percent of the population [1] . There were 2146 cultural centers in administrative villages (communities), covering 81 percent of the population, including 10 standardized community libraries. There were 12 art performance troupes of various types and 836 grass-roots art teams. There were 733 cultural centers, 3187 local artists, and 5950 cultural volunteers. There was one cultural information resource sharing project center, 2565 grass-roots service points in townships (towns), and 2786 rural libraries, covering all administrative villages in the region. It has cultivated and developed 30 characteristic cultural squares of “Cool and Calm Summer”, and created 12 characteristic brand mass cultural activities, such as “Western China Folk Songs (Flowers) Singing Fair”, “Spring Festival Folk Culture Gathering”, “New Spring Music―Whole District Shehuo Competition”, rural mass cultural performances, “Stars Award”, “Spring Rain Project―National Cultural Volunteer Tour in Ningxia”. In 2013, there were 898,000 cable TV subscribers, and radio programs covered 96.06% of the total population. Television programs covered 99.09% of the total population.
2.2. A Network of Public Cultural Facilities Has Been Established
・ The level of municipal cultural facilities has been continuously improved
Yinchuan focuses on the implementation of the construction of the new museum of Cultural Art and the digital transformation and main branch library of the municipal library, and has completed the renovation and expansion projects of the intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, rehearsal hall, small theater, the public lecture hall of the municipal library, and the children’s digital experience area of the Municipal Cultural Center, which has improved the digital, mobile and large-scale service capabilities of the “two museums”. Shizuishan City has built a number of large-scale public cultural facilities, such as the city Museum, the county (district) Museum and the city Museum, the Jiangnan Museum of the Saixi River, the Coal Geology Museum and 10 large-scale open cultural, sports and fitness squares. Wuzhong Yellow River Cultural Exhibition Park, cultural and sports Exhibition center, digital library, etc., have started construction, 13 cultural squares with a radius of 500 meters have been built1.
・ More tandardized construction of county-level cultural facilities
Yinchuan has built new libraries and cultural centers in Xingqing District, Jinfeng District and Xixia District, and upgraded the scale of “two libraries” in Helan County and Yongning County, realizing the goal of having “two libraries” in each county. Wuzhong City rebuilt and expanded the cultural centers in Yanchi County and Hongsipu District, and built the Tongxin County Library; six digital cinemas were built and renovated in prefecture-level cities and county-level cities with a population of more than 300,000. Qingtongxia has built the Yellow River Altar, the Yellow River Tower, the Yellow River Cultural Park, the Dayu Cultural Park and the Hydraulic Museum [2] . Hongsipu District has built Ningxia Immigration Museum and digital Movie Theater. Zhongning County of Zhongwei City has built a cultural center, library and wolfberry museum with a total floor area of 12,300 square meters, while Haiyuan County has built a library and a propaganda and cultural center building with a total area of 7100 square meters. The Northwest Farming Museum in Yuanzhou District of Guyuan City has been completed and put into use. The main project of the new Coin Museum and the Huoshizhai Museum has been completed in Xiji County. The cultural infrastructure construction of Jingyuan County Mass Cultural Center, Pengyang County Museum and Pengyang County Library is progressing smoothly. Jingyuan County Wolong Mountain Dragon Culture Folk Museum, Wang Luobin Culture Park, Dragon Culture Museum and so on have been put into use.
・ The coverage rate of public cultural facilities in township streets has gradually expanded
In Yinchuan, 10 township cultural stations have been built and 23 street cultural stations have been reconstructed. 100% of township and street cultural stations have been set up separately, with a coverage rate of 98%. Shizuishan has built 36 towns and townships cultural stations, 25 of which meet standards. Zhongwei has 10 large-scale public cultural service sites and 26 comprehensive cultural service stations in towns and townships [3] . Wuzhong has 45 township cultural stations and 166 township (community) squares. In Guyuan, 62 township cultural stations were built, Sanying radio and television broadcasting stations were renovated, and 12 fitness projects were built for rural residents.
・ Steady progress has been made in the construction of community cultural facilities
In accordance with the “eight” goals, Yinchuan promotes the standardized construction of village (community) cultural activity rooms (centers) by increasing investment and integrating resources, and basically realizes the complete set of basic facilities and equipment in the city’s rural and community, the sound function of basic public cultural services, the normal development of mass cultural activities, and the standardized management level has been significantly improved. 50 new sharing project grassroots service demonstration points and 100 book circulation service points have been set up. The number of rural libraries that have been digitized by satellites has reached 277. The retention rate of the “village access” and the installation rate of “household access” reached 100 percent. Shizuishan City has “equipped 30 communities with cultural facilities and built 5 township cultural stations” as one of the top ten practical things concerning people’s livelihood in 2013. A total of 312 community cultural rooms have been built, 90 of which have reached the standard. 50 rural cultural courtyards and 199 rural libraries have been built. Zhongwei has built 465 community culture rooms and 97 demonstration households of propaganda, culture and sports centers, basically covering all the administrative villages of “rural libraries”. Each newly built library is equipped with 1309 books of 1365 kinds, 79 kinds of audio-visual products and 189 discs, and 30 kinds of newspapers and periodicals [4] . Wuzhong has built 256 village-level cultural activity rooms, 55 electronic reading rooms and 300 rural cultural courtyards, with radio coverage reaching 97.84 percent and television coverage reaching 99.01 percent. Guyuan has built more than 840 village-level cultural activity rooms and rural libraries.
2.3. Public Cultural Activities Are Rich and Diverse
In 2019, Ningxia held 6578 public performances, organized 3759 cultural trips to rural areas, and held 765 national fitness events at or above the county level, including 380 large-scale national fitness events involving more than 1000 people. In 2019, 71,230 films were shown in the region’s rural communities; a total of 430,000 films were shown in urban communities, attracting 43.66 million urban viewers. Houseconnect has reached 963,614 households. The 773 rural cultural compounds in the region have played an active role in enlivening literature and art in the countryside, enriching the cultural life of rural residents, rescuing and developing outstanding local traditional culture, and publicizing the Party’s policies for benefiting the people. Ma Zhixue Rural Cultural Compound in Jiaergou Village, Sanying Town, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, has developed into a team of more than 120 artists, forming four professional teams, namely the flower team, the band, the dance team and the gymnastics team, which radiates to more than a dozen surrounding villages.
3. Problems in Public Cultural Services in Ningxia
3.1. Infrastructure Construction Needs to Be Strengthened
Public libraries and cultural centers in some cities and counties (districts) are vacant or substandard, and there is a large and unequal gap between the north and the central and southern parts. There are no libraries in Guyuan City, Litong District, Yanchi County and Shapotou District, and no cultural centers in Litong District, Hongsi District and Shapotou District. The libraries and cultural centers in Qingtongxia City, Yuanzhou District, Longde County and Pengyang County are old and dilapidated, with small building area, unreasonable structure and incomplete functions, which cannot bear the necessary projects of modern public cultural services. For example: Yuanzhou District Library was built in the 1980s. Its collection of rare books and literature is second to none among the county libraries in Ningxia. However, due to its small building area (1600 square meters) and unreasonable structure, it has become a dangerous building and cannot be opened free of charge, so it can only be used as a library (see Figure 1).
With a construction area of 4346 square meters and complete service functions, Helan County Library has realized resource sharing with Ningxia Library and digital services such as electronic reading, self-service borrowing and multimedia presentation, which can be seen the imbalance of cultural facilities construction between the north and south regions. At present, there are still 50 villages and towns in Ningxia that have no activity places or existing facilities are not up to standard and cannot carry out activities normally. For example, among the 19 township cultural stations in Xiji County, 11 of them were built in the 1970s and 1980s, with an average area of only about 100 square meters (Figure 2). Their civil structures are shabby and unusable. The cultural activity centers of the 606 administrative villages in Ningxia have simple facilities and do not have basic cultural services. There are 320 farmers’ cultural compounds with little equipment, simple services and weak vitality.
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Figure 1. The old appearance of the former district library.
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Figure 2. Xiji township culture station site.
3.2. Unbalanced Regional Development
There is imbalance between Sichuan and mountain areas, between cities and villages, and between towns and towns (villages and villages) in the same region in terms of infrastructure, service means, service content and management and operation [5] . The free access of urban street cultural stations and community comprehensive cultural service centers is generally better than that of rural areas. In terms of township cultural stations in each county (district) alone, there is also an unbalanced situation in terms of opening time, service items, activities and utilization rate of facilities due to the differences in geographical location, degree of mass gathering and customs.
3.3. The Backward Development of Public Culture Integration
The integration of public culture and science and technology is insufficient, and there is a lack of projects and contents to promote the digitalization of public cultural services by using modern scientific and technological means. Digital communication platforms for county (district) libraries and cultural centers and rural reception platforms have not been built, and the networked environment for providing basic services has not yet been formed. Public cultural services are not closely connected with the cultural industry and rural tourism, and the degree of integration is not high. The socialization of public cultural service space, the individuation of product supply and the quality of service projects still need to be developed and improved [6] .
3.4. The Management and Service Mechanism Is Not Perfect
Although township comprehensive cultural stations and village comprehensive cultural service centers have formulated some administrative personnel post responsibilities, book borrowing system, equipment management and use system, etc. But generally speaking, the system is relatively scattered, lack of systematic and targeted, operability is not strong, in line with the actual county (district) public cultural service management operation, supervision and evaluation system and incentive mechanism has not been established. The system design of the management, assessment, rewards and punishments of the selfrun culture of the folk art team, the farmer culture compound and so on lags behind.
3.5. Shortage of Cultural Professionals
The staffing of public cultural institutions is small, the existing staff is aging seriously, and the comprehensive service ability is not strong, so it is difficult to meet the new requirements of modern public cultural services. According to statistics, there are 1661 staff members in public libraries, cultural centers and cultural stations in Ningxia, with an average age of 43. 38% of them have intermediate professional titles or above. Public cultural services lack technical support and vitality [7] . Township cultural station no establishment, no personnel, no funds “three no” phenomenon is more serious, cultural do not full-time, not professional, not concentrate on the “three not special” phenomenon is also very prominent, 90% of the existing staff belong to the township in the compilation of part-time workers, the rest can only rely on “three Support a ‘college student village cadres’” and other volunteers temporary post to carry out business work.
4. Suggestions on the Construction of Public Cultural Services in Ningxia
4.1. Further Improve Infrastructure Construction
In places with imperfect service facilities and functions, flexible and effective measures shall be adopted to actively promote the balanced development of public cultural services at the community level. In places where cultural activities are not abundant and cultural life is relatively monotonous, the government should increase its purchasing power, subsidize folk art teams, peasant cultural centers and other cultural organizations run by the masses, subsidize performing arts groups and cultural enterprises and other social forces to hold various kinds of performance activities, or establish mobile service points, carry out mobile stage performances and read mobile books. County (district) libraries, cultural centers, township (subdistrict) cultural centers and village (community) cultural service centers should be established as main branch libraries to promote the downward flow of public cultural resources and enrich the supply of public cultural services in rural areas [8] .
4.2. Establish and Improve Management and Service Mechanisms
Strengthen the main responsibility of the government, establish and improve the public finance guarantee mechanism, incorporate the funds for the construction of the public cultural service system into the financial budget at the corresponding level, implement the funds necessary for the provision of basic public cultural service projects in accordance with the standards for basic public cultural service, and guarantee the construction and operation of the public cultural service system.
4.3. Promote the Integrated Development of Public Culture
Learn from the operation and management mode of enterprises, explore new paths for the integrated development of public culture, take multiple measures at the same time, and promote the integrated development of public culture. For example, Ke Yunjun, the founder of Ningxia Risheng Industrial Co., Ltd., found that Shizuishan old industrial base industrial waste slag waste can be recycled, the quality of workers is generally high potential business opportunities, after the establishment of the company with mechanism innovation and standardized management, step by step, gradually realize the enterprise from the start to excellent and then to excellence. This inspires us to pay attention to the discovery of local cultural “business opportunities”, the collection of local cultural talents, cultural talents, self-run cultural organizations and cultural enterprises and other social resources, the collection of urbanization abandoned farming, home and other old objects, increase folk exhibition collection, retain nostalgia memory, expand service space, rich service content. We should actively explore new approaches for the integrated development of public cultural services with science and technology, cultural industry and tourism industry, organically combine the basic advantages of a wide range of public cultural services and a large number of people with the advantages of smooth and rapid network communication of science and technology and the advantages of rich product and service supply of cultural tourism industry, cultivate and expand consumer groups and promote the cultural tourism industry with public cultural services [9] . To enrich the supply of public cultural products and services with the cultural and tourism industries, expand the service field, and realize the mutual promotion, mutual benefit and mutual win of public cultural services, cultural industries and tourism industries.
4.4. Formulate and Improve the Management System of Public Cultural Services
Adhere to the problem-oriented, in view of the new situation and problems of public cultural services, unified guidance, local conditions, taking into account the commonness and individuality, formulate and improve the management system and service standards of public cultural services, and give full play to the supporting and guaranteeing role of cultural laws and policies. To study and formulate the evaluation mechanism and service standards for the self-run culture of cultural social organizations in Ningxia, folk art teams, farmers’ cultural courtyards, etc.
4.5. Strengthen the Mining and Training of Professional Talents
To study and formulate staffing standards for public cultural institutions, and strengthen the construction of cultural personnel. To implement the “Several Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Local County and Urban and Rural Grassroots Propaganda and Cultural Teams” (Zhong Xuanfa, 2010, No. 14) issued by six ministries and commissions of the Central Government, assign 2 to 3 staff members, one of whom is full-time, to township cultural stations according to the proportion of township population and the scale of service. Public cultural service positions will be purchased for the public, so that administrative villages (communities) will have at least one person specializing in public cultural services. We will strengthen training and guidance for cultural personnel, formulate personnel training plans, hold regular training courses for community-level cultural cadres and local artistic personnel, and constantly improve the overall quality of their employees [10] . We will develop a team of cultural volunteers, establish an evaluation and incentive mechanism, and recruit college students, young people, retired cultural workers, and local cultural talents into the team of cultural volunteers.
5. Conclusions
The government should play a leading role in the construction of public cultural services and encourage the active participation of social forces. Only in this way can the problem of insufficient investment in the construction of public cultural services be effectively solved. Adhere to the principle that cultural development is for the people, depends on the people, and the fruits of cultural development are shared by the people [11] . We will guide cultural practitioners, amateur literary and art workers and enthusiasts to go to the grassroots level, get close to the people, and create a number of literary and artistic works and quality programs that the people will enjoy. It actively builds a mass art team, helps cultivate fine cultural works, and regularly holds a variety of public cultural activities, such as cultural art festivals or art weeks, mass art shows, rural culture songs, lantern fairs and labor skills competitions, so as to constantly enrich people’s spiritual and cultural life. In short, the construction of public cultural services is an important part of the construction of a modern public cultural service system. Accelerating the construction of a modern public cultural service system is an important measure to safeguard and improve people’s livelihood, and an inevitable requirement for comprehensively deepening the reform of the cultural system and promoting the prosperity and development of cultural undertakings. It is a major task to carry forward socialist core values and build a strong socialist culture. To speed up the construction of a public cultural service system, we must firmly grasp the principles of public welfare, equality and convenience, closely combined them with local conditions, adapt to local conditions, scientifically determine the form and content of public cultural services, provide high-quality public cultural services, so that the broad masses of people can fully enjoy the achievements of cultural construction and feel the cultural care of the Party and the government.
In addition to the above conclusions, due to the weakness of my professional knowledge, this paper still has some shortcomings, such as: the theoretical research of the paper needs to be improved; the paper studies a wide range of areas, field research can cover fewer areas; the research content needs to be further perfected and subdivided. It is hoped that the above problems can be properly solved in the follow-up research.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family members for their full support of my study, my tutors for their help and guidance, my classmates for their understanding and tolerance, and my school for providing me with a comfortable learning environment.
NOTES
1Data source: Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region People’s Government, https://www.nx.gov.cn/zzqzf/.