The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced on Thursday that Chinese music artist Dadawa (a. k. a. Zhu Zheqin) was appointed as UNDP China's new National Goodwill Ambassador (NGWA), contributing to UN's efforts in promoting culture-based development for ethnic minorities in China. A two-year goodwill action plan has been set up to explore innovative ways to preserve cultures originality and leverage cultural diversity as an engine for more balanced development in ethnic minority areas in China.

"Cultural diversity is crucial to UN's development assistance to the national efforts to enhance human development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, "since it is about expanding individual choices to lead a full life one values without losing the respect of others or being excluded from choices."

"Ethnic music has been the source of aspiration and creativity for Dadawa. We are very proud that Dadawa, the unique voice of China in the world music scene, has accepted this important role as the UNDP China's National Goodwill Ambassador," said Malik. "Dadawa has been passionately devoting her professional skills to promoting the value of cultural diversity and improving livelihoods of minorities through her years of art exploration."

"From my years of travelling, the beautiful nature and profound humanities in China's minority areas have been my source of inspiration. It is my great honor to become UNDP China National Goodwill Ambassador and to be able to devote myself to helping improve the livelihoods of ethnic minorities by protecting and reviving their precious cultural products," said Dadawa.

Minority peoples in China are rich with a distinctive life style and set of languages. Their unique social, cultural and historical backgrounds represent an important part of China's culture and history," said Malik, referring to the country's 55 ethnic minorities, representing 8.4 percent of the total population in China. He emphasized that although China's achievements in poverty reduction is significant in the past three decades, ethnic minority groups are still disadvantaged as they account for nearly 50 percent of the national poor.

The goodwill action plan, titled "Show the World: Culture-Based Development Goodwill Action for Ethnic Minorities in China" was launched today between UNDP China and Dadawa, supported by relevant governmental agencies dealing with ethnic minority issues, as well as other interested stakeholders, including artists, cultural enterprises and the media.

"This Goodwill initiative is an open platform that brings together everyone to take action to 'show the world' these valuable ethnic cultural assets," said Dadawa.

The action plan involves two components: the preservation and promotion of ethnic music, and the preservation and development of ethnic handicraft in six minority regions of China – Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Yunnan.

Dadawa will start her two-year goodwill initiative, stretching from 2009-2010, in January 2009. The first assignment will be the 'Preservation and Revival of Ethnic Music in China Goodwill Action', an action plan supported by UNDP and other UN agencies in collaboration with the Red Creation Media Ltd., in an effort to engage and cooperate with world-class musicians and artists to collect, protect, and showcase these precious music treasures, and use them as a means to enhance communication between China's ethnic minority regions and the world.

"As a cultural enterprise, Red Creation has been dedicating to the protection and development of Chinese ethnic culture. We believe that these valuable cultural assets not only belong to China, but also to the world. We hope that this initiative will protect and promote Chinese ethnic music, and 'show the world' China's unique voice," said Yu Binghan, President of the Red Creation Media Ltd.

Furthermore, Dadawa will work with UNDP to help strengthen the economic potential of minority areas by supporting branding and marketing efforts of ethnic cultural products, generate partnerships with marketing professionals and cultural enterprises, and support minority communities to develop brands for their own cultural products.

This action plan seeks to create a platform for cultural expression with the involvement of A-list artists and designers - internationally renowned multimedia designer Alan Chan, who helped design the project logo, is already a name on the list.

Dadawa is the second National Goodwill Ambassador appointed by UNDP China. In April, 2008, Chinese actress/celebrity Zhou Xun was designated as the first NGWA with promotion of environmental sustainability in focus.

(China Development Gateway January 9, 2009)