Page 141 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

140 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.10, 2018

sectors, activate public resources deposited at grassroots cultural units to some extent, and improve
efficiency of public resources. Therefore, this institutional innovation needs to be intensified at
the state level so as to usher in a new stage of normal management for purchase of public cultural
service from non-government sectors.

4.2.3 Innovating the evaluation system for residents’ cultural participation and establishing the
evaluation incentive mechanism on public libraries by implementing residents’ right to choose
cultural consumption
Mobile Internet and digital information technology have made information cost reduction
possible. In May 2015, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance,
the National Institute of Cultural Development of Wuhan University undertook the task to carry
out pilot projects of “expanding cultural consumption of urban and rural residents” in the central
area (Wuhan and Hefei cities). The institute designed the policy of “evaluation of residents’
participation in culture: cultural consumption incentive”. The research team developed a WeChat
official account entitled “wen hua hui”. Resident consumers can install and register the official
account to evaluate service quality of public cultural venues in their communities. The government
purchases residents’ evaluations on quality service of public cultural products and evaluators can
obtain credit bonuses, exchange them with contracted cultural enterprises and pay the remaining
sum (credit bonus exchanged shall not exceed 50% of the sum consumed) to complete cultural
consumption. The institute’s database checks information and sum of credits exchanged, and on
that basis, Wuchang District Bureau of Culture and Sports and Hefei Municipal Bureau of Culture
allocate due subsidy to corresponding cultural enterprises.
The pilot projects carried out in the central area from October 2015 to February 2016 show that
the WeChat official account of “wen hua hui” has connected the government, cultural institutions,
public venues and consumers into a whole. An information gathering and evaluation incentive
mechanism on public cultural institutions has been established to grant consumers with the right
to choose cultural products. It has scored good policy test results. Government purchase fund
for resident evaluation of public cultural venues’ service has been transformed into consumption
coupons, which has stimulated residents’ enthusiasm about cultural consumption and encouraged
them to transform potential demand for cultural consumption into actual behaviors of cultural
consumption.

5 Conclusion

In the second decade of the 21st century, China’s cultural sector is embracing an unprecedented
new change. The whole cultural sector must address the complex situation of “soft contraction”
overlapped by structural transformation. New features emerging in the current society of New
Normal are different from those of the growing (expansionary) society and request the cultural