Abstract:
Performing activities in public places have become popular in China. Historic
reasons and the performers’ needs cause the popularity of these activities.
However, these activities also encounter some problems, the noise and lack of
space. This situation is similar in the city of Jining. Although the government
does have related laws and policies to manage and support the activities, they
are not effective in practice. In addition, local residential committee provides
people spaces to hold activities but the spaces are only abundant for indoor
activities. In view of the popularity of theseactivities, the government should formulate a detailed policytomanage them and practice it effectively.
Keywords:leisure activity, culturaldevelopment, public culture, preforming activities, local residential committee,cultural policy
Introduction
Leisure activities in the People’s Republic of China have
changed since post-Mao’s China. Most people have adequate food, clothing andsparetime to enjoy themselves, especially in morning and night.
This is because old people still have responsibility to their families, such as
taking care of their grandchildren. The construction of Public Square is to
cater topublic interests. It is the infrastructuralpolicy of government.
The objective of cultural policy isto strengthen cultural development in Australia. Minister Garrett said that oneof three key values of cultural policy is “Keep culture strong”(CulturalPolicies in Australia, 2011,pp14). On this occasion, Chinese government canlearn experience from other countries to manage and support leisure activities,which relate to a concept of “public culture”.
According to Cultural industry revitalization plan, 2009, indicates that culture
is regarded as an effective tool to develop economy and “cultural industry” is
a key word in this document. “Creative economy”, which is put forward by
Chinese central government (Communist Party), means the industrial structureof theeconomy needs to be adjusted. Inthis case, the government supports the development of unpolluted industries,such as film industry, carton industry. However, Hawkes (2001) indicates thatit is insufficient to develop a society with economic benchmarks alone. In thiscase, although the plan is effective in practice, it is not a cultural policyor it does not relate to general public. Conversely, the government doesn’t payattention to the public culture among general citizens. They don’t fullyconsider the public views toward arts when they formulate a new policy. Furthermore,rhetoric is widely used in making a public cultural policy, which causes thepublic cultural policy is not effective enough in practice.
Leisure
activities in China have regional variations because of the cultural differences.
However, the problems and the challenges of leisure activities are reported by
many newspapers, especially the noisy problem, which will becovered inlater in this article. For
example, the city of Jining focuses more on canal and Confuciusculture. Meanwhile, the city of Taian focuses more
on Mountain culture.However, all thedistrict governments issued their policies based on central policy.
Therefore, this essay discusses the cultural policy of performing activities in
Jining (a city in northern part of China, Shandong province) as a case study to
demonstrate that leisure activities in Chinaholda vital position in cultural developmentand should be supported and managed.
The value of performing activities
There is a variety of leisure activities held in
Public Square, such as Ink brush word (use water as ink and write Chinese words
in the public ground), Diabolo, square dancing, singing，Tai Chi (The
Chinese shadowboxing)，Erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument
with a lower register than jinghu), Chinese chess.These activities could becalled “performing activities in public places” and divide into two categories,the traditional activities, such as Ink brush word and Tai Chi, and the newactivities, which appeared in recent decades.The participants of these activities are mainly retired people. Forexample, square dancers are middle-aged women, which could be called “dancinggrannies ”. According tothe research
(2013) in the age distributionof square dance, the women aged 41-50 occupy 56.4% of theinterviewers; the women aged 51-60 aged 17% of the interviewers; the percentageof the women aged over 60 is 6.4%. The participants regard these activities asexercises to keep healthy (physical or mental health) and they take activelypart in these activities.
Dr. Campbell (2011),adjunct Associate professorat University of Canberra said that the main aims of the
participants were emotional needs, keeping physical health and relieving mental
pressures, personal identities and learning new skills. Campbell also indicates
that the participants’ choice of activities is based on three factors: time,
money and opportunities. In China, the majority of participants don’t have enough
time to focus on their interests before their retirement. Participation in
performing activities can show their skills and confidence to audiences, which
make them feel better. In other words, people started to show their beauty andinterests to other people,
whichareinfluenced by westernculture.The participants are reluctantto spend their money to the activities they like.
The
economy is running out of money to pay public pensions. The central government
has not made the pension data available online. The retired people may worry
aboutthe cost of health in the future (Finance
IFeng, 2012). The activities can be regarded as exercises, which could maintain
health. In research, Zhong (2015) said that approximately 97% of the
interviewees thought participating in square dancing had a positive effect on
their health conditions. Also, Zhong indicates that 98% of the interviewees
thought the dancingwas able torelieve their psychologicalpressures.
Health benefit is also their maingoalbecause participation in performing
activities can reducemedical cost.The studies of McCormack (2008), McPherson (2004),
and Son (2007) confirm that participation in leisure activities regularly can
improve the health conditions of participants during the ageing period. To some extent,
they cannot afford the cost for their entertainment. Thus, they are willing to
choose these activities, which could be participated in without money. For
example, square dancing only needs a free space and a radio to play the music;
Ink brush word only needs an Ink brush and a basket. In other words, people
prefer to choose these activitieswith low costs.
In a word, preforming activities are very easyto participate in regularly. The participants only need a free space to holdtheir activities because these activities cannot be held indoors and make noise.
The leisure activities in China, which are driven by the love andpassion of general public, are not diverse in comparison with the activities inAustralia. This is because the degree of education among Chinese people islower on average. According toHuman
Development Index and its components(2011), indicates the length ofeducation is 7.5 years in China on average. The number in Australia is 12. Somepopular activities in Australia may not be widely accepted in China because ofthe restriction of learning capability among Chinese people. In addition,people cannot afford expensive instrument or equipment, which is used inactivities. Performing activity as a choice, which is selected by generalpublic, is based on their social and financial reality.
Most of preforming activities are easy to learnand don’t require a high level of skills. To be specific, people are audiencesbefore they become performers. Performers are willing to teach audienceswithout fee. Also, they can learn these activities from the Internet.Furthermore, the participants join online forums and discuss theirinterests.
Performing activities are not only physical exercises, but also socialactivities. Retired women prefer to talk together about the activity and sharetheir recent experience. In this case, the performing group is like a communitybecause the performers have uniform interests and identities.
The popularity of performing activities is a phenomenon, which meansChinese people explore their culture (or entertainment) in modern context.Chinese culture has been affected by western culture to some extent. In thiscase, the culture should be rebuilt to cater public interests. The performingactivity is a good choice.
The problems in performing activities
There are not enough spaces to hold arts activities, which
organize by common people, not governments. Some performing activities may be
held in sports space. According the data from the State Council, Chinese has
1.46 square metres on average in 2013(China
news, 2014). Sports resources are also not enough. On this occasion, ifthe performers occupy sports spaces, such as a basketballcourt, the dispute may occur among the performers and the players.
Local residential committee is a non-governmental and
non-profits organization. It is managed by residents themselves. It has responsibility
to build aviablecommunity in residential areaand address the dispute among residents.
In public view and cultural policy, local residential
committee has responsibility to provide spaces to hold activities for free.For example, according Strengthen the community development in Jining(2006), indicates that
local residential committee has responsibility to satisfy people’s cultural
needs and the government would support cultural activity. However, it does not
have clear definitions of “cultural needs” and “cultural activity”.In fact, the committee only
has the ability to offer rooms for people to play mahjong (the popular leisure
activity in China). In a word, the performers don’t have enough activity space.
Lin (2014) said that the city of Beijing hadstipulated that every local residential committee should provide 350
square meters for public activities (Beijing news, 2014). However, it is not
effective in practice.
Most of the performing activitiesmay make noise. For example, square dancing always plays very loud music. ShouhuNews reported in October 30th, 2013, thatthe residents, who could bear the noise that made by square dancing,
poured excrement to the dancers. The residents had tried to communicate with
the dancers and the dancers ignored their complaints. In addition, local
residential committee cannot address the dispute.The ancient saying educates people “The minority is subordinate to themajority”. This is the principle, which is applied by the committee to addressthe dispute in practice. Indeed, the individual rights cannot be protected. Inother words, the committee consider more about collective interests. Therefore,the residents adopted this unwise decision.
It seems that the apartment
should not be built nearpublicsquare. Conversely, nowadays, large numbers of apartments are built aroundPublic Square. The building industry prefers to build apartment near the squarebecause citizens have urban park visiting habit (or called walking habit). Thebusiness considers more about benefits. People prefer to walk outside aftersupper. The inhabitants who live in these apartments usually hear the noise,which is made by the performing activities.Unreasonable urban design mainly causes this problem. Furthermore, thematerial of soundproof is not effective enough.
Most of the performers are retired people and suffer from
social isolation because their colleagues play a very important in their daily
lives. The company they work is not only a organization, which will pay for
their money, but also like a communitybecause job-hopping is not a common phenomenon among old generations, who retired
or had worked for decades beforetheReform of state-owned
enterprise (1985-1997).Aftertheir retirement, they start to participate in leisure activities regularly,but most of the performers perform individually or join in small groups. Furthermore,although performing group is like a community, it does not have geographicallocation. Performers cannot have an informal conversation in a meeting room. Onthis occasion, they need more communication with others.
Performing activities are different from other forms of art
because performing activities could be regarded as physical exercise. Exercise
should be scientific. Conversely, unreasonable actions of performing arts may have
a negative impact on performers’ health. On this occasion, performers need to
be guided bywell skilledartists.
The arts course and PE (physical education) class in highschool are not compulsory but PE class is regarded more important than artscourse. In this case, there is inadequate educational arts resource in highschool. In other words, arts teachers don’t have practical skills to teach andthey just teach the knowledge from textbook.
The people, who participate in leisure arts activities, areskillful in some areas of arts.In viewof shortage of the arts resources in high schools, the educational departmentcan introduce and select some unprofessional artists (the performers) into artscourse in high school. However, the department does not regard these kinds ofactivities as arts. They call them “public culture”. If the department changestheir attitude toward “arts”, the shortage of arts resource and socialisolation of the performers can be alleviated.
The issues of cultural policy in this area
The
performers need a specific space to hold their activities.In
the infrastructure policy of government, each residential area (a place which
has a number of apartments in same style) needs a Public square.According toThe
technical requirements of urban and rural planning management in Jining City(2008, is based on Chinese standards, GB50180-93), article 11, said that ineach residential area, the green area should occupy 7.5-18% and public spaceshould be 15-25% of gross area.
AccordingtoThe technical requirements of urban
and rural planning management in Jining City(2008), article11, said thatwhen the gross area of residential area surpass 6 million square metres, itshould have a cultural activity centre. However, the cultural activity centre doesnot have the ability to provide outdoor activities for residents.
The performing activities are very popular in Jining and
theycreatea city image of Jining. Nevertheless, the cultural
department in Jining is more focus on traditional culture because the city of
Jining is a city with a long history from 2500 years ago. Sao (2015) said that Confucius(a
ancient Chinesephilosopher, 551BC-479BC)cultural andcanalcultural industries are mainly the government’s supported projects. Accordingtothe specialized planning of cultural
development in Shandong province, 2007-2015, said that Jining has set up aspecific funding for cultural development from 2010, which has 10 million RMB (about2 million AUD) annual budget. The specific founding supports cultural heritageprotection, municipal library and public service system. The public servicesystem is mainly about the construction of sports facilities. In a word, thegovernment of Jining doesn’t fund public preforming activities in practice.
Although Jining does not have a specificfounding policy for preforming activities, it does have the regulations about theseactivities. According tothe management
and registration of leisure activity groups in Jining(2014), No.21, it hasfour parts, the principles, the registration, the regulations, and thesponsorship. In chapter 2, No.6, it said that all leisure activity groupsneeded to register in local art department, cultural department or villagecultural centre.The register policy isnot effective in practice. This is because most of retired people are not welleducated. They may don’t have the ability to register their activity groups. Inchapter 3, No.11, it said that the activity groups represent the city image andshould not pollute environment and make the noise, which will disturb others. However,it doesn’t illustrate which department has responsibility to management theactivity groups. In fact, the authority, which plays an important role inpublic issue, is local residential committee. The principle, which thecommittee used to address public issue, is “the minority is subordinate to themajority”. In this case, collective interests are regarded more important incomparison with individual rights. In other words, no authority protectsindividual right in public area if the issue is not very serious. Therefore,the complaint of the noise is always happened but it has never been addresseddrastically. The people who endure the noise and whose complaint cannot be solved,may choose their own way to settle down this situation.
Jining government does have relevant
laws and policies toregulatethis public issue. For instance, according to Shandong Province Environmental Noise Pollution Control Ordinance,chapter6, article 32, in residentialareas, the groups and organization, which made pubic noise, the relateddepartment has responsibility to manage and punish them.Article 33, part 1, individuals and groupscannot sing and shout in evening.Article 35, using the loudspeakers in residential
areas is strictly prohibited. Article 42, the suffers, who have been severely
influenced by the public noise, have the rights to ask for the compensation.However,
it is not useful in practice. It defines that industrial department has the
responsibility to manage and control the industrial pollution of noise but it is
unclear that which department has the responsibility to control the noise,
which made by general public. The governmentworkersarguethatthey donot have
responsibility to address the dispute between the participants and the complainers. In other words, government regards this publicissue as a tiny thing. Liang (2013) said that government did not have aspecific department to manage the leisure activities, which disturb others inpublic spaces. For example, according to Jining zixun (a local forum, November27th, 2014) reports that in Kaitai residential area, the residentsreported that square dancing disturbed them and madenoise, thus, they called police. When the police came, they said that theydon’t have responsibility to address this dispute and they cannot solve thisproblem.
The cultural policy in this area should be more effective inpractice
Mostof public activities develop in an adverse situation, such as lack of spacesand having the dispute with the public. In fact, these activities are stilldeveloping because the participants really love these activities. Theseactivities can reflect people’s cultural needs and their necessities.
The cultural policy in this area should try to solve the
public complaint, the noise and other negative effects on the public. This area
needs to be regulated. In this case,thegovernment couldselect some performers as managers to regulate the
activities, because the performers have more experience to cope with the
situation of the dispute. Furthermore, government should play an active role in
registration process, which means the government officers should investigate
the number of the performing groups and individuals, then ask them to register
their names and personal information. As previous mentioned, the government has
acknowledged that it has this responsibility. Government could also have a
policy to encourage the performers to obey the public regulations, such as
performing without making noise. For instance, if a person or a performing
group has not been reported for one year, they can obtain a small amount of money
(120 RMB per person, about 24 AUD,a predefined number) as areward from the government. In this way, the performers may prefer to registertheir names and information. If government cannot complete the registration,which means it lacks related department to manage the registration, governmentcould empower to local residential committee.
In the registration, the local government canappoint some government officials to work in thecommittee, which can help the people in the committee address some executiveproblems because the committee cannot register the performing groups formally.
If the government of Jining only focuses on the culturalheritage and cultural development at the municipal level, many people may nothave a chance to participate in the arts activities, which hold by government.The activity, which is held by the committee, is free for residents. Furthermore,the committee has enough experience to hold activities in community with lowcosts. Government should focus on arts activities at the committee level.
The committee is a new form of traditional community in
urban area. Before the apartments have been built in Jining, most of the
citizens live far from city centre and have their own houses. There were a
large number of villages at that time. Avillage is like a small community. The alley and avenue (Chinese called “Hutong”)in a community are not designed for cars. It is designed for residents. Someresidents prefer to play mahjong in Hutong. Only a few bikes might go throughthe Hutong. In this case, after supper, residents always sit outside and talktogether. Furthermore, residents could also hold activities on Hutong and theydon’t need to care about cars. Every Hutong likes a small community andresidents are familiar with each others, because many residents have lived inone place for decades. Although people live in this village are poor, but theyshare same values and can have conversation and activities together, which couldpromote social cohesion. The neighbourship plays a very important role incommunity. However, with the impact of economic revolution, many houses weredestroyed by building industry. The people, who live in apartments, are lack ofcommunication with their neighbours. Furthermore, many avenues in residentialareas are not built for residents. The avenues are designed for cars. Theregulations in residential areas are also made for cars. Indeed, residentscannot hold activities in the avenues. In this context, traditional “Hutong”culture has disappeared, which means people’s community has been destroyed. Thecultural policy should focus on how to rebuild community in modernsociety.Indeed, local residentialcommittee associates with the rebuilding of community.
Although the local residential committee is a basic level of
organization, which has responsibility to promote communication and hold
activities among residents, the committee does not get government financial
support directly. The government could allocate their budget to the committee.In this way, the traditional community could berebuilt. The local residential committee is like a community arts centre, whichalways hold activities in community. In addition, the committee is morefamiliar with the problems in preforming activities and has more specificexperience to address the problems. However, the committee cannot solve theproblems formally. For example, if there is a dispute between performers andthe people who are affected by performers, the only strategy is to persuade twosides to stop quarrelling because the committee does not have enough resourcesto address the problems. In comparison with local residential committee, thegovernment can address the dispute formally but it may not understand thedispute deeply.
The government could help performers build relationship with
university and professional artists. The local residential committee is a place
where government can investigate public ideas about arts directly. If the
government designs a survey and does a research among the public, this
investigation is too complex and the local government may not have the budget
to complete this research.As pervious mentioned,the local government could arrange some officials working in the committee.Thus, the officials inform the data they collected to the government in thereport monthly and also report the problems in community. In this case, thegovernment can address the dispute more effectively. It is obviously that ifthe government plans to develop a vivid public culture, they should know thepublic ideas toward arts. The officials who work in the committee can informthe public ideas to the government. Indeed, the government can develop a moreeffective policy to manage and support performing activities. Performingactivities are the public understanding in arts. The government shouldinvestigate their needs and the problems they faced. The investigation is basedon the local committee level, which is more practical in Jining because Jiningis a relatively low level of economic development. The city of Jining cannot doa demographic research in performing activities.
Conclusion
Performingactivity has become an essential part of people’s leisure time in the City ofJining. The social and healthy benefits cause the popularity of the activities.However, it also encounters the noisy issue, lack of spaces and professionalguide. Although the local government does have related laws and policies tosupport and manage the arts activities, they are not effective enough inpractice. Furthermore, local residential committee plays a vital role inmanaging and supporting performing activities but they don’t have enoughresources. This is because they are non-governmental organization.The local government does not need to allocateits budget to individuals and performing groups. They could support localresidential committee financially because they are more familiar with theperforming groups and talk with them directly.
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