On May 28, the 12th Shandong Provincial Congress of the Communist Party of China convened in Jinan, Shandong's capital, and the province's top official urged for efforts to cultivate a flourishing socialist culture and transform Shandong into a powerful cultural province in the next five years.

The provincial government will assist all county-level cities in becoming National Civilized Cities, and role models will be chosen and awarded honors such as Role Model of the Times and Shandong Good Person.

Governments at all levels will carry forward the "Yimeng spirit", which refers to the hard-work, self-improvement and selfless dedication of the villagers living in the Yimeng Mountain area. The "Yimeng spirit" has influenced generations of Chinese people and continues to do so today in a variety of ways, notably in the local people's fight against poverty.

Efforts are also expected to be made to promote the construction of the demonstration areas for the inheritance and development of Red culture in Yimeng and Jiaodong areas in Shandong. The province will also cultivate new benchmarks for the innovative development of its culture industry, and the government will promote the development of the Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies.

Governments at all levels have started the development of "Shandong Historical Features", and the compilation of "Library of Qilu Classics". Efforts are also being made to construct a number of development areas across the province for the inheritance and protection of fine traditional Chinese culture.

Shandong is also expecting to build a batch of new cultural landmarks across the province, such as the Yellow River National Cultural Park, and the Grand Canal-themed national cultural park.

The province plans to implement a protection plan for ancient cities, towns and villages, as well as ancient streets and buildings. The preservation and inheritance of cultural relics is also expected to be strengthened in the next five years.

The provincial government also urged the development of Party history, records, and local chronicles to be innovative. Promoting the growth of Shandong cultural brands such as Lu Opera and Shandong traditional artistry will receive more attention.

Shandong will start an initiative to encourage philosophical and social science innovation, as well as a national reading campaign, in order to transform Shandong into a province of voracious readers.

To enable more Shandong quality products tap to into the global market, efforts will be made to accelerate the development of converged media platforms and strengthen the province's international communication capacities.

A number of cultural and creative industrial parks are expected be built in the coming five years, including Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, and Mount Tai Press and Publishing Town. A batch of advantageous cultural industry clusters valued at 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) will also be cultivated.

Shandong continues to promote the development of its refined and sophisticated artworks and handicrafts, and efforts are also being made to develop its "Friendly Shandong" brand to help develop the province into an internationally famous cultural and tourism destination.

Shandong draws up a blueprint to create a flourishing socialist culture, and build Shandong into a strong cultural province in the next five years. [Photo/VCG]