Third, as a long term strategy, culture plays an important role in enhancing citizens’ qualities and national soft power. In today’s world, culture is increasingly working as the key source of national cohesion and national creativity as well as the major factor for comprehensive competition of countries. Many countries in emerging markets jointly have the problem of coordinating national qualities with rapid economy development, and they are in need of more long term views to transform risks into opportunities. They need to consolidate national soft power and sharpen their edges through cultural development. More intensive participation by citizens in culture can stimulate imagination and innovation so as to enhance people’s qualities, offering infinite dynamic energy for social development. III. The strategic opportunities for Asian cultural development

An ancient Chinese philosopher, Laotze, once said “Misfortune, that is where happiness depends; happiness, that is where misfortune underlies.” Observing the crisis from this scientific development view, we are convinced that development of Asian cultures is faced with not only challenges but also major opportunities.

First, the reallocation of social resources. As the financial crisis spreads further, the costs of production materials, human resources, capital flows decrease and are all in the need of reintegration and reallocation. It makes reallocation of materials and public resources possible to access cultural development. Simultaneously, the culture, especially the “counter-cyclical development” of cultural industries in the crisis, wins more attention so that it may increase cultural attraction and spur governmental and private investors to reassess the condition, which will be beneficial for talents flowing to cultural industries. There have been some countries investing in culture by governmental funds or sovereign funds because they believe it can effectively promote economic recovery.

Second, the demand for public culture is strong. We have all heard of an interesting economic phenomena called the “lipstick effect” which means the lipsticks enjoy apparently good sales, though in downturn economy, for the reason that they make people feel happy. In an economic crisis, common cultural products are the same as the “lipsticks” comforting our minds, so they are popular in the public. The total demand for culture is on the rise when the macro economy suffers crisis. For example, mass cultural activities are more active than ever, or the consumption of films and games obviously increase. In China, the actual sales income of the online games market totaled 18.33 billion yuan, an increase of 22.9 percent compared with 2007. The film box office amounted 4.215 billion yuan in 2008, unprecedentedly ranking Top Ten in global box office revenues. Third, culture can accelerate the industrial adjustments. In recent years, there are overheated transactions in Asian artwork auctions and export trade. International investors are into short-term speculation when the industrial chain within the region of artwork is incomplete. The terminal consumption mainly relies on outside demands and purchasing ability. In a crisis, the shrinking of external demand in the artwork industry, as in manufacturing, directly affects industrial development. Under the circumstance of global economic crisis, various questions during the development of cultural industries are exposed, stimulating self-examination in the whole industry and benefiting the optimization of cultural consumption, industrial adjustments and the healthy development of culture. Forth, the comprehensive influence of Asian culture is strengthened. When the financial crisis exploded, the major economies across the world took coordinated action and positively carried out diverse measures in order to slow the speed of decline and defend against bank and credit industry failures. Many Asian countries, including China, have won extensive appreciation because of their pragmatic attitude and high sense of responsibility when responding to the risks. As a responsible country, China has adapted many packages of plans and measures which benefit the country or region or even the whole world economy. China also takes positive participation in actions to deal with crisis together with international communities and makes the best possible contribution to rejuvenate the world economy. The characteristics and models of Asian development have become hot issues enjoying heated discussion so the international community is more responsive to Asian voices than ever. For Asian cultures, all these efforts have laid a good foundation for their exchanges and influences across the world in the coming years, have paved the way for them to enter the global market, and have created new opportunities for promoting Asia’s overall image and enhancing its international competitiveness.

So the challenges and chances coexist in the global economic crisis. The development of Asian cultures is embracing historic opportunities. Therefore, China is willing to take the responsibility to carry forward outstanding traditional cultures and concern with the general welfare of people in Asia together with other Asian countries, taking positive action and sincerely proposing the following suggestions:

First of all, we should increase self-confidence in cultures and construct the spiritual home. We share the fortune of Asia’s glorious cultures, which are the spiritual foundation to guarantee healthy development of economy, politics and society as well as the enduring motivation for prosperity of Asian countries in the present era. Once again, the tenacious vitality and distinct charm of Asian cultures have been powerfully demonstrated in the current crisis. As Ministers of Culture, we should further affirm our faith to protect and promote the excellent cultures, thus safeguarding our spiritual home. For it’s necessary to boost people’s confidence and cultural identity through rejuvenating cultures, especially among the youth in Asia. By deepening the exchanges and cooperation within the region and the world, cultures can be constructed as the core competitiveness so as to facilitate the overall recovery of Asia’s economy and help Asian countries integrate into the world more confidently. What’s more, cultures, as the core competitiveness, can also help advance the status of Asia and expand its influence worldwide. Second, we should intensify multilateral cooperation and reinforce the foundation of dialogue. To strengthen mutual cultural cooperation between different countries within the region is in correspondence with the basic benefits of Asian people and the demand of the era. On the basis of existing exchanges and cooperation in and before the crisis, we should further reinforce multilateral collaborations and dialogue foundation, taking advantage of the cultural development chances. In terms of cultural exchanges, we should better optimize the existing communication mechanism, properly extend the scope of participation and reasonably improve the quality of exchanges. In terms of protecting culture heritage and its diversity, we should better intensify communication and dialogue to eliminate doubts and mutual trust. Only in this way can we increase mutual comprehension and support, eventually achieving the best result for regional culture development as a collective strength. In terms of human resource exchanges, we need to help construct an online platform, to promote talents exchanges and collaboration training and to facilitate sharing of human resources, all of which aim at improving the general level of cultural administration. We should make better efforts to build an effective mechanism for high-level dialogue and cooperation in cultural areas. Because it can mobilize the communications of culture administration and coordinate policies among governments so that Asians can speak with one voice and have a greater say in international affairs. Third, we should initiate cultural trades to achieve mutual benefits. When the interdependence of the Asian economy is continuously deepened, we should stimulate the cultural consumption as the major method to expand domestic demand. It’s a good way to initiate cultural trades by reasonably utilizing the existing dialogue or cooperation mechanism and absorb successful experience in Asian financial cooperation. We should seize the development chance for cultural industry to improve policies and to form a more integrated industry chain. Besides, we also ought to enhance the communications and collaborations between cultural enterprises in various countries for raising the import and export proportion of cultural products within the region and for boosting the international competitiveness of Asia’s cultural industry.

As an ancient Chinese saying goes “without small steps, one can’t cover a thousand mile journey; without small streams, there can be no oceans and rivers”. We convene the Asian Round Table of Ministers of Culture here for contributing our collective wisdom for Asian cultures. Looking around the conference room, I see many confident and firm faces. I feel the deep emotion of every Minister present for the profound and glorious Asian cultures and the eagerness for its future development. At this vital moment of the global economic crisis, there are both opportunities and challenges. It’s our historic obligations to carry out the prosperity and blossom of Asian culture in the new century. The future direction of Asian culture is in our own hands. Mao Zedong once said “Ten thousand years is so long that we have to seize every minute”. Let’s affirm our faith, coordinate our actions and grasp the strategic opportunities for creating a beautiful future.

（translated by Wang Shan)