Culture volunteers work in border areas in Spring Rain Project

On the evening of Aug 16, 2010, the kickoff ceremony for the National Cultural Volunteers’ Trip to the Border Areas was held at the Cultural Plaza of the Olympic Center by the Ministry of Culture. It’s part of the Spring Rain Project, which is aimed at spreading education in China, strengthening communication among different regions and providing backward regions with technology aids. The Beijing volunteer group was one of the four volunteer groups taking part in this activity. Besides leaders of the Ministry of Culture and related Beijing officials, heads of culture bureaus or departments of Beijing City, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, Chongqing City, Tibet and Xinjiang Province, representatives from other provincial culture departments, culture workers of grass-roots units and 1,400 cultural volunteers of Beijing also attended the ceremony.

For this trip, four sites -- Beijing City, Chongqing City, Zhenjiang Province and Fujian Province -- were chosen. Volunteers from the four sites will go to Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Tibetan Autonomous Region to provide cultural services.

The Publicity Department of Beijing municipal donate 7 million yuan as the cultural activies operation funds to Xinjiang.

At the ceremony, the Culture Departments of Tibetan autonomous region exchanged documents about cultural volunteer service with the Culture Department of Fujian Province and the Culture Radio and Television Bureau of Chongqing City; the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exchanged documents about cultural volunteer service with the Culture Bureaus of Beijing City and Zhejiang Province. Leaders of the Ministry of Culture presented the four units with flags. The Beijing volunteer group also put on some spectacular performances, which they prepared to put on in Xinjiang Province later. The whole ceremony was filled with happiness and joy, fully displaying the spirit of volunteer service: commitment, friendship, cooperation and progress.

Volunteer groups from Beijing and Zhejiang will arrive in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Aug 30, and volunteer groups from Chongqing and Fujian will arrive in Tibet on Aug 17 to carry out cultural services.

The Beijing volunteer group will go to Urumqi City and the Hotan region, and launch an eight-day Grand Stage, a 30-day Grand Lecture and a 15-day Grand Exhibit with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Fifty volunteers from Beijing will put on six performances in different area of Xinjiang. The Grand Lecture will teach Xinjiang people about stage design, and the installation, use and maintenance of light and audio equipment. The Grand Exhibit has the theme “Here is Beijing,” aimed at showing Beijing’s long history and its modern development and changes through photographs. The Zhejiang volunteer group will carry out a series of lectures that will last for one week at the Xinjiang Autonomous Region library, and the municipal library of Urumqi City, in Aqsu region and the 1st agricultural division. Literature and art instruction will be combined in those lectures. The Zhejiang volunteer group will also launch a series of photo exhibits with Zhejiang regional characters, which will last for 15 days.

Beijing volunteer group’s acrobatic performance

Volunteer groups from Chongqing and Fujian will arrive in Lhasa, Tibet, on Aug 17. After putting on an art performance in Lhasa, the volunteer groups will go to Shan’nan Prefecture and Nyingchi County, and they will carry out a 10-day activity. On Oct 10, the Tibetan Autonomous Region will send 68 grass-roots level culture workers to attend a training session organized in Chongqing and Fujian.

This national cultural volunteer activity can promote cultural exchanges between border areas and the interior. According to border people’s cultural requests, interior provinces recruit cultural volunteers and organize them to go to border areas to carry out a series of activities.

The Ministry of Culture will pay more attention to the Spring Rain Projects during the 12th Five-year Plan. It will further promote the construction of public cultural infrastructure, strengthen the launch of cultural activities and cultivate more talent in the arts.