Top 10 cultural events in 2014

Symposium on the arts

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with some of the country's most renowned authors, actors, screenwriters and dancers at a symposium on Oct. 15, 2014, in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with some of the country's most renowned authors, actors, screenwriters and dancers at a symposium on Oct. 15 in Beijing. Xi said artists should not "lose themselves" in the country's market economy and become its "slaves," but should create more works that are both artistically outstanding and morally inspiring.

He stressed that the cultural and artistic sectors in China should serve the people and socialism. He also called on artists to produce more works that "disseminate contemporary Chinese values, embody Chinese traditional culture, reflect Chinese people's aesthetic pursuits, and be of intellectual, artistic, and exhibitory importance."

Xi's speech about the importance of the arts is not the first time a leader has drawn attention to the significance of the topic. In 1942, in Yan'an, in the country's remote northwestern corner and a key CPC revolutionary base for years, Mao Zedong spoke at a meeting of artists on how socialist literature and arts could contribute to the cause of communism and the liberation of the Chinese people.