Cultural industry thrives in Wuxi

Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province has seen a booming cultural industry over the past decade, said authorities at a news conference held on Sept 6.

The city produced a number of dance dramas, operas, and films from 2012 to 2021, more than 100 of which won national and provincial awards.

Wuxi started hosting the China Shanghai International Arts Festival in 2012, and in 2019 the city launched the Taihu Art Festival to create a stronger cultural atmosphere.

Wuxi has been promoting the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt and a national park themed around Yangtze River culture over the past several years and has set up funds to encourage national inheritors of intangible cultural heritage items such as Xiju Opera, Huishan clay figurines, and Liuqing bamboo carving to take on apprentices.

Huishan district, for example, has built 15 small theaters, hosted five lectures, eight exhibitions and 52 art activities, organized 89 art training sessions, and staged over 2,000 performances this year, according to Zhao Lei, deputy head of Huishan district.

He added that Huishan has also provided support to 34 cultural industry projects and 28 culture enterprises and added another eight culture enterprises above designated size and 27 cultural industry projects this year.