Page 96 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

FU Caiwu & WANG Wende / “Weak participation” in rural cultural benefiting project 095
and its reform strategy: A survey from 282 administrative villages in 21 provinces across the country

Service System, proposing to “expand the content of major cultural benefit programs to serve
the ‘three rural areas’”. In December 2016, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of
Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the State General Administration of Sports, the
National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance issued the “Guidance
on Promoting the Construction of the General Branch Library System of County-level Culture
Halls and Libraries”, aiming to promote the common sharing of public cultural resources and the
enhancement of service effectiveness in counties by linking county-level libraries and culture halls
to township culture stations. In January 2018, the Opinions of the State Council of the CPC Central
Committee on Implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy proposed to promote CBP further
and provide more and better rural public cultural products and services. As an important cultural
construction project led by the state, the CBP is likely to remain a key focus of China’s cultural
policy for some time to come.

1.1 Survey on cultural participation in rural CBP

In order to examine the effectiveness of the construction of CBP, the Wuhan University’s
“Culture Frontonline” research group conducted a nationwide empirical survey on rural residents’
recognition of the main projects of CBP, intending to establish a basis or starting point for
reforming the CBP in the new era. The “recognition” discussed in this paper refers to rural
residents’ willingness to maintain a positive attitude and participate in the public cultural products
and services provided by the government, which includes both the satisfaction level (to what extent
the project satisfies their needs) of rural residents with the effectiveness of the CBP at the demand
level and their evaluation of the projects’ scientific quality and rationality. Thus, the study of the
recognition of the CBP aims to measure the status and the gap of the CBP in meeting the cultural
needs of rural residents (HE, YUE, R. M. YANG, DONG, T. LI, 2006) as well as the rationality of
the project in the current environment.
From January to February 2018, the “Cultural Frontline” research group of Wuhan University
organized 105 college students to go to 282 administrative villages in 21 provinces (municipalities
and autonomous regions) of the country (including 34 administrative villages in 4 provinces in the
east, 158 administrative villages in 8 provinces in the middle and 90 administrative villages in 9
provinces in the west) (see Table 1) to carry out the “survey on the construction of rural cultural
projects in China in 2018”.
The survey obtained a total of 6,708 samples. The research subjects include farmers, students,
cadres of public institutions, employees of enterprises and other different occupational groups,
55.71% of men and 44.28% of women, mainly in the age range of 18-65 years. Education level
primarily is junior and senior high school. More than 68% of the annual household income is less
than 30,000 yuan (see Table 2). Overall, the scope and level covered by the research sample can
reflect the basic structure of rural residents in China.