Reporter: Nice to meet you, professor Wu. Thank you for coming to have an interview with us for the China social sciences net. I can still clearly remember my talk with you when the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference were held last year. Soon this year’s annual plenary sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC will again be held. As a deputy to the NPC, what’s your focus this time?

Wu: I have two proposals to submit for this year’s NPC and the CPPCC. One is about getting experts and scholars involved in large-scale culture “going global” projects in our country. The other is about extending the Spring Festival holidays.

Reporter: You have mentioned that your first proposal is concerned with the ‘going global’ cultural strategy. I think it fits in well with key strategic measures to promote the vigorous development and prosperity of Chinese culture. Then, how should we understand the term “large-scale”? Besides, could you please tell us the significance of making Chinese culture go global on a large scale?

Wu: The so-called large-scale cultural go-global projects refer to the cultural projects organized by counterpart ministries, which can well represent the standard and the image of our country. There are many examples, such as the China Book International project carried out by the State Council Information Office, the Cultural Year and Cultural Festival as well as brand activities like ‘Experiencing China’ organized at the government level, and overseas tours of various forms of Chinese Art like Chinese Opera, acrobatics, ethnic songs and dances, etcetera.
In recent years, making Chinese culture go global has become an importance strategic measure to promote the cultural soft power of our country. A variety of large-scale cultural go-global projects have been actively initiated. With the acceleration of this process, we need to pay additional attention to content construction and the standard of the cultural shows and exchanges in order to improve their effect and international influence.

Reporter: It is widely accepted that the unity of form and spirit is a prerequisite for perfection. As you have mentioned the content construction, what do you think we can do to improve the content of China’s large-scale cultural “going global” projects?

Wu: I have two suggestions for enriching and improving the content and standard of large-scale culture “going global” projects in order to make Chinese culture more proactive and self-conscious, self-confident and self-improving for going global.

Firstly, besides current projects, we should increase categories and types based on major historical events.

Secondly, we should involve experts and scholars from relevant domains in large-scale cultural “going global” projects.

Reporter: As for your suggestion of increasing categories and types based on major historical events, since you have long engaged in historical research, you must have encountered plenty of typical historical events on which cultural going-global projects can base themselves. Would you please give us some examples?

Wu: Sure. I will set just two examples. The first one is Zheng He’s Expedition, which was a big event in the sphere of Sino-Foreign cultural exchanges. Relying on it, we could design and implement many large-scale cultural “going global” projects along the ship route. Through a variety of forms, such as combining academic exchanges, traditional folk cultural exchange, investigations of historical remains and historical relics exhibitions, we could carry out cultural transmissions and exchanges based upon this historic event in the countries concerned, reviewing the contributions Zheng He’s voyage made in promoting the exchange of material cultures and spiritual cultures. Taking culture as the link and combing exchanges in the political, economic, scientific, technological and military areas, we can display the distinct humanistic spirit and value orientation of “peace, respect, tolerance and exchange” in the traditional Chinese culture. The second is the cultural tour of the Silk Road. The Silk Road was an important channel for economic and cultural exchanges between China and other foreign countries during the Chinese Han and Tang Dynasties. It was the passageway for ancient China to realize land-borne trade and exchanges through central Asia to South Asia, west Asia, Europe and north Africa. Through the Silk Road, China’s silk, iron and drilling technology spread to the Western Regions and the local products, musical instruments, songs and dances, and the Indian Buddhism of the Western Regions have also been introduced to China. Projects with these themes can be carried out in this way.

Reporter: In your opinion, what practical impact and influence will there be in involving experts and scholars from the relevant domains in large-scale cultural “going global” projects?

Wu: There are mainly three kinds of impact: first, a joint force can be formed by effectively combining the various powers including the experts and scholars from different domains. Thus, the ways of displaying can be multiplied and the standard of exchange can be enhanced, which can help to increase the charm and transmission efficiency of Chinese culture or even to yield twice the result with half the effort. Second, the content and manifestation mode of large-scale cultural “going global” projects can be enriched, which can help better to turn the excellent resources of Chinese culture and its values into actual cultural power in the worldwide stage, and thus to further raise China’s cultural soft power and international discourse power. Third, we can get to know both ourselves and our rivals better in the process of impelling Chinese culture to go global, which can make the cultural “going global” strategy perfect and innovative and give full play the ‘think-tank’ role of experts and scholars concerned in facilitating dialogues between Chinese culture and other cultures all over the world.

Reporter: I am surprised to know your proposal about extending the Spring Festival holiday. I returned to my hometown in the last Spring Festival too. But due to the limited time and the bad transport situation, I stayed for only three days before hurrying back to work. It is possible that other people returning home for the New Year share a similar experience with me. As an expert in the field of social sciences, what do you think of our tradition of going home for the New Year? What spurs your proposal of extending the Spring Festival holidays?

Wu: As the most important and sacred traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival is loaded with the history and culture of the Chinese nation as well as sustaining the inheritance and promotion of Chinese culture. There is a saying: “Just go home for the Spring Festival no matter whether you’ve got money or not”. It well reflects Chinese people’s feelings towards home and the importance attached to the New Year. Because of this, the Spring Festival has lived and prospered for thousands of years before it became a nationwide festival loaded with a rich culture. With the economic and social development of our country, more and more people work in places other than their hometown. For those migrant workers, returning home for the New Year has become a difficult problem rather than a joyful experience.

Statistics suggest that during the forty days of the ‘Spring Rush’ in 2012, the volume of passenger traffic will reach 3.158 billion, including 235 million people travelling by train, 2.845 billion by road transport, 43.5 million by water transport and 34.88 million by civil aviation. Data published by the national development and reform commission show that the overall figure of passengers transported by railway, highway, water transportation and civil aviation was about 387 million during the seven days following the Eve of the Chinese New Year. Besides, startling headlines like “Passenger trips will exceed 3 billion during the ‘Spring Rush’ in 2012” have once and again appeared in newspapers and on the Internet. All this reminds one of the difficulties experienced by people returning home for the New Year and the overloaded situation of the public transportation. Both the difficulty of getting a ticket and the inconvenient transportation added to a long journey prevents people from going back home, or even creates the “Home-fear Group”.

Most people who return home for the New Year Festival increasingly feel that there is not enough time to stay at home with the family or visit relatives and friends, since they have to spend at least one day of the seven-day holiday on round trips. They rush back to their work, exhausted, without having had a good rest during the holiday. This fact will virtually increase the cost of the ‘Spring Rush’ and weaken the social benefits of harmony and public services.

Reporter: As is known to all, it would concern every aspect of the society to extend the official national holiday. The last adjustment happened in 2007. Accordingly, there has been a one-day extension of all the official national holidays. In addition, some holidays have experienced a change in the time arrangement and many traditional festivals like the Mid-autumn Festival have been appointed as official holidays. The main concerns of the relevant departments at the time were that the adjustment on the one hand embodies the attention we pay to the traditional festivals; and on the other hand, it makes for a more uniform and reasonable distribution of the statutory holidays all the year around. Then, as for extending the Spring Festival vacation, why is it so necessary?

Wu: It is necessary to appropriately extend the Spring Festival holiday for the following three reasons: First, it can help to reduce the traffic pressure of the ‘Spring Rush’, alleviate the difficulty of returning home for the New Year, and to a certain degree improve the safety of traffic and transportation during the Spring Festival. Second, it can better meet the emotional needs of the people so that those who are unable to go home because of the long journey can go home, thus promoting the harmony of family and society. Third, it is helpful for boosting domestic consumption and has a positive effect on economic restructuring.

By reducing the pressure on the ‘Spring Rush’, it can make sure that people will have enough time to choose the best round line and traveling time. It can to some extent cut short the time spent on the way, reduce the energy consumption and endow people with a relatively easy and leisurely Spring Festival holiday.

Reporter: Thanks for your explanation, we will definitely have a higher expectation on the spending of the Spring Festival holiday. It fully complies with the need to construct a harmonious society, which is good for people’s welfare and the economy. In the long run, it is also beneficial for the inheritance of our culture and the development of the Chinese nation. However, as for the extent of the concrete measures, we should also comprehensively consider all the existing social conditions and factors. In your view, how many days should the Spring Festival holiday last according to the existing conditions? How to achieve it?

Wu: I think the Spring Festival holiday should be extended from the current seven days to ten days by adjusting the relevant weekends and vacation to form a continues statutory holiday. There are two plans which can be chosen:

Plan A is to still keep the three-day ration of the statutory holiday of the Spring Festival, that is, from the Eve of Chinese New Year to the second day of the Chinese new year. Seven days (that is the one weekend before the Chinese New Year, the two weekends after the Chinese New Year and the one day of the New Year’s vacation) will be diverted to the Spring Festival holiday, which means that there will be two days extending before the New Year’s Eve and five days extending after the second day of the Chinese new year.

Compared to the current scheme, an additional three days (one day of the New Year’s vacation and a weekend after the Chinese New Year) will be added to the Spring Festival holiday (two days were distributed before the New Year’s Eve and one day was the seventh day of the Chinese new year). The reason why I intend to divert one day from the New Year holiday to the Spring Festival holiday is that the interval between these two holidays is short, and thus it is possible to carry out the adjustment.

Plan B is that the length of the statutory holiday of the Spring Festival will be adjusted from three days to four (that is three days from the Eve of the Chinese New Year to the third day of the Chinese New Year). Six days (that is one weekend before the Chinese New Year, the second weekend after the Chinese New Year, one day from the third weekend after the Chinese New Year, and one day of the New Year’s vacation) will be diverted to the Spring Festival holiday, which means there will be two days extending before the New Year’s Eve and four days extending after the third day of the Chinese new year.

Compared to the current scheme, there will be a one day addition to the statutory holiday of the Spring Festival. Besides, one day from the second weekend after the statutory holiday and one day from the New Year’s vacation will be combined to be a two-day vacation before the Chinese New Year’s Eve. As a result, the national statutory holiday will be increased from eleven to twelve days.
In general, compared to the current scheme, these two plans mentioned above both set two-day before the New Year’s Eve and one day to the seventh day of the Chinese new year. The difference is that there is no addition to the statutory holiday in plan A; while in plan B, there is a one-day addition to the statutory holiday. However, both of the two plans work.

Reporter: I hope your proposal can be accepted in the near future, thus endow people who work in places other than their hometown with the pleasure of family reunion. Again, thank you!

Introduction to the guests

Wu Yin: Vice-President of Chinese Academy of Social Science（CASS）

Madame Wu Yin began her career in September 1968 and became a member of the CPC in January 1973. She majored in Japanese, graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages, Liaoning University in 1976, and is a researcher (professor) of CASS.

August 1976 - September 1980 Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages, Liaoning University.

September 1980 - September 1983 Majored in World History at the Graduate School of CASS and awarded an MA.

September 1983 - October 1993 Worked at the Institute of World History, CASS. From March 1986 to April 1989, she ran for a doctoral degree in the Department of History, Capital Normal University. In August 1991, she was elected as an associate researcher (associate professor).

October 1993 - November, 1995 Vice-Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Institute of World History, CASS.

November, 1995 - September, 1998 Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Institute of World History, CASS. In August 1997, she was elected researcher (professor).
September 1998 - September 1999 Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Institute of World History, CASS.

September 1999 - June 2000 Director of the Institute of World History, CASS.
June 2000 - July 2002 Member of the Party Group of CASS; Director of the Institute of World History of CASS.

July 2002 - October 2002 Member of the Party Group of CASS; Director of the Institute of World History, CASS; Director of the Graduate School of CASS.

October 2002 - September 2006 Member of the Party Group of CASS; Director of the Graduate School of CASS.

She is now a member of the Party Group of CASS and Vice-President of CASS.
She is a native of Shuangyang, Jilin Province 

（2012-07-09 CSSN）