The Central Government's support for culture and art has included an investment over the past five years of some 6.8 billion yuan (about US$821 million) in Chinese performance art. More than 19,000 new plays were staged by China's artistic troupes between 1998 and 2001, a period during which Chinese people had the opportunity to view nearly 418,000 plays a year. Total profits from all stage play performances in 2001 reached 574 million yuan (about US$70 million), according to the latest statistics available from the Ministry of Culture. A total of 400 million yuan (about US$48.3 million) has been spent on building libraries and cultural palaces in China's western regions, and a cultural information project for China's central and western areas was also launched in 2001. From 1998 to 2001, the Chinese government invested nearly 5.2 billion yuan (about US$628 million) in the construction of libraries throughout the country. It spent another 4.6 billion yuan (about US$561 million) on the development of the civilian cultural sector. In 2002, China succeeded in establishing cultural centers in France and Egypt. The Ministry of Culture plans to establish additional Chinese cultural centers in the Republic of Korea, Germany, Britain, Russia and Japan.
Apart from its material heritage, China is also a country rich in "intangible" cultural heritage, represented by arts that have been handed down for generations through oral traditions. In 2002, six papercut makers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province were bestowed the title of folk papercut artists by China's Ministry of Culture. One of them, Bai Fenglian, 70, has demonstrated papercutting in France and the United States, and her works are on display at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the China Art Gallery. The distinctive papercut art in northern Shaanxi has applied for acceptance to the UNESCO list of world intangible cultural heritage. In 2001, Chinese Tibetan epic King Gesar, the longest epic in the world, was listed in the world millennium memorials by UNESCO. UNESCO included Chinese Kunqu Opera in its first ever Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage in May 2001. Kunqu is performed in many areas of China, usually consisting of more than 24 scenes — accompanied by arias — with a complex plot and subplots involving human or supernatural elements. The performance usually features 12 actors who employ gestures, pantomime, mock combat and acrobatics, as well as stylized dancing and singing. A small ensemble of wind and string instruments, and percussion instruments accompany the singing and stage action. The next UNESCO list was to be announced May 2003. Other Chinese traditional arts hoping for UN recognition are the ancient Naxi musical traditions of Yunnan Province and Shaolin martial arts of Henan Province.
Contemporary modern artists in many fields in China, while experimenting with new forms and techniques, acknowledge their debt to traditional Chinese culture. They include Han Meilin, the painter, sculptor and designer whose works range in size from postage stamps to huge murals and sculptures like the Five-Dragon Clock Tower he designed for the 26th Olympic Games held in Atlanta in 1996. The 10-meter-high (10.9 yards) granite and cast copper sculpture is on permanent display in Atlanta's Century Park. On the other hand, traditional arts in China are taking advantage of new technologies to help advance and preserve their works. For example, a significant event for Peking Opera in 2002 was the completion of a 17-year project of videotaping 355 Peking Opera classics. The videotape was made by integrating the singing of 47 prominent Peking Opera stars, mostly recorded from the 1940s to the 1960s, with performances by their younger-generation successors.
