State Ethnic Affairs Commission

September 21, 2006

Upon the approval of the State Council, the Third National Minority Art Festival of China is grandly held in Beijing from 5th to 25th September, 2006, co-hosted by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Beijing municipal government.

The Central Communist Party Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the Third National Minority Art Festival of China. President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and various other senior leaders such as Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Li Changchun, Luo Gan and so on granted an audience to the representatives of the performers and personnel of the festival, and watched the evening performance for the opening. Hui Liangyu, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, vice premier of the State Council, serves as the honorary president of the organizing committee of the festival. Ismail Amat, Re Di and Uyunqimg, vice chairmen of the Standing Committee of the NPC, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai, Bai Lichen, Abdul'ahat Abdulrixit and Li Zhaozhuo, vice chairmen of the CPPCC, serve as the honorary vice presidents of the organizing committee. Li Dezhu, minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Sun Jiazheng, minister of the Ministry of Culture, Wang Taihua, director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and Wang Qishan, governor of the Beijing municipal government, serve as directors of the organizing committee.

The theme of the Third National Minority Art Festival of China is to "protect and develop ethnic cultures, and promote the co-prosperity of all nationalities". The festival shows the plentiful fruit of the inheritance, development and creation of the flourish and fine ethnic cultures in China; the equal, united, co-assistant and harmonious socialist ethnic relationship among all nationalities; the enterprising, self-dependent and peace-louing spirit; publicizes the ethnic policies of the CPC, as well as the great achievements of the material, political and spiritual civilization construction in the ethnic regions.

The Third National Minority Art Festival of China is unprecedented in scale, with characterized fine programs. More than 4,000 performers and personnel come to Beijing to participate in the festival, who are from provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Kong Hong, Macao and Taiwan Province, as well as the People's Liberation Army. There are all together 33 programs, which are performed more than 70 times in theaters. Besides, some programs are performed in the suburbs of Beijing, factories and mines, armies and schools according to the arrangement.

On September 5th, the opening of the art festival "The Harmonious Chinese Nation" was held in the Great Hall of the People. It consisted of part of the programs of the art festival, the original ecological model programs from the ethnic regions, and the selected programs of the Central Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble and the Central University for Nationalities. The performers who attended the opening reached more than 1,200 persons. The closure, the award evening at the same time, will be held on September 25th in the China Theater.

This art festival adopts the system of program selection. A committee of experts carries out the selection of programs which are recommended by the concerned organizations and departments. The criteria for the selection are the rich ethnic style, vivid regional character and strong time spirit. The selection pays attention to the new award-winning programs created in the last few years, and the programs that are based on the original ecological art model, but have been processed and improved. The selecting criteria demonstrate the combination of inheritance of tradition, and development and creation. Depending on the appraisals of the screening committee composed of experts, 10 programs are selected by the organizing committee for marketing operation, which are also given prioritized promotion.

Now the art festival is coming to the closure. It successfully exhibits the achievement of the ethnic cultures and arts from 2001. The programs take various forms, and are rich in meanings, displaying different colors. The general responses from the public are that the performing level is much higher than the last two festivals; the audiences respond impassionedly; and the effect is very inspiring. The art festival draws great attention from the society and the media.

The Third National Minority Art Festival in China will confer festival award and fine play award for whole-plays; issue fine program award, fine performer award and fine new star award to the programs and performers. In addition, organizing awards and special awards will also be issued.

(China Development Gateway September 21, 2006)