Zhejiang to further boost cultural development

East China's Zhejiang province will fully leverage its rich cultural heritage to empower high-quality development and to accelerate the goal of building itself into a culturally strong province with high standards, said a top Zhejiang official in Hangzhou, its capital city, on Tuesday.

"Zhejiang boasts a profound historical and cultural heritage," said Wang Hao, Party chief of Zhejiang. "Its rich humanistic resources not only represent a unique advantage for the province but also serve as a powerful driver propelling its high-quality development."

He made the remarks at a province-wide conference aimed to boost the cultural prosperity and development of Zhejiang and the nation as a whole.

It is imperative that the soft power of Zhejiang's culture must be translated into the hard power of economic and social development, he said.

Statistics show that the value-added of Zhejiang's cultural industry accounted for some 7.1 percent of its total GDP. The proportion is expected to rise to over 8 percent by 2030.

To that end, more innovative ideas have been called for and a three-pronged "culture+" approach, ("culture + technology", "culture + tourism" and "culture + people's livelihood"), has been proposed at the conference.

More specifically, Zhejiang will further deepen the integration of culture and technology as well as culture and tourism. It will accelerate the establishment of a standardized public culture service system, providing high-quality services and products to all the residents. A series of policies, including fiscal, financial and tax incentives as well as talent recruitment will soon follow, according to the conference.

A case in point of such integration is the success story of Black Myth: Wukong, China's first AAA video game. The game, developed by a Hangzhou-based company, became an instant global hit upon its release, selling some 20 million units in the first month and making it one of the fastest-selling games ever. It also secured major international accolades such as the Ultimate Game of the Year award and the Best Visual Design at the 42nd Golden Joystick Awards.

Inspired by Chinese mythology and the classic 16th-century novel Journey to the West, the game incorporates many traditional Chinese cultural elements, including folk music, ancient buildings and temples. Indeed, the game has piqued the interest of many travelers who want to explore or rediscover these places of cultural heritage.

Ultimately, the key to building a culturally strong province lies in ensuring that people benefit from it, Wang emphasized.