Culture and Art
In 2009, cultural development has been enhanced. The District Library and Shanghai Urban Theatre have been put to use, and the District Art Gallery was under construction.
Thirty-four standard cultural rooms for villages have been built, and 112 “village book houses” have been set up. There were also more than 2,800 cultural activities, including the 4th Minhang Art Festival and the opening ceremony of the 11th China Shanghai International Art Festival & “Minhang Autumn” 2nd Chorus Festival.
These cultural activities involved hundreds of thousands of people, and here emerged a lot of high-quality artistic works such as the dance drama “Brilliant Flowers in Bloom”, mini drama “Guests Arriving in the Mid-night” and quartet “Shanghai, also My Home”.
The project of cultural resources distribution was also promoted; theatres put on plays in the community for 105 times, and there were 520 cultural lectures. In all 4,833 kinds of books (29,088 copies) were involved in the book-circulation of “Book Fragrance in Minhang”. What’s more, digital movies were played for 22,074 times.
The survey of cultural relics turned out to be very effective. Twelve new cultural relic sites have been identified, including the industrial heritage of the Shanghai Steam Boat Factory. Eighteen survey stations for immobile cultural relic sites have been established. Twelve cultural relics, including the Former Residence of Qin Bowei, have been recognized as relic protection units.
There were also effective protection measures for intangible heritages. Protection and inheritance bases have been established for Maqiao Hand Lion Dance, Xinzhuang Weaving, Qibao Shadow puppet play and Pujiang East Culture. “An Illustrated Encyclopedia for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Minhang District of Shanghai” has been published, and 100 data bases have been established for intangible cultural heritage.
Sports and Leisure
The 4th Minhang sports meet was held in 2009, demonstrating the social & economical development and the mental state of local people. The body-building program, “popularization of bodybuilding for Expo 2010”, was carried out. There were 17 matches in the district, attracting tens of thousands of people. The website (gzjsw.shmh.gov.cn) was open to the public to promote the concept of bodybuilding among the public. The District Government also made great efforts to carry out the activities for “National Fitness Day” in Shanghai, so as to enhance the health quality of the people.
An increasing number of public sport facilities have been installed and made open to the public. In 2009, the project for three community sports centers was initiated; seven community public playgrounds and fifteen farmers’ fitness houses were completed. Also, 280 pieces of sports equipment were restored. Another eighteen playgrounds of schools were made available to the residents in the neighborhood.
The athletes of the Minhang District performed very well in the 11th national sports meet. The numbers of participating athletes, the prizes and of top eight athletes in the district reached a record high. The district was awarded prizes for public bodybuilding organization and excellent sports area.
Ideological Civilization
In 2009, the district has made great efforts to promote the ideological civilization in the district. On the basis of the theme of “promoting ideological civilization in preparations for Expo 2010”, there were many important programs, attracting about 900,000 people. These programs included the ceremony in celebrating of the release of Expo Ambassador MV & “World Expo Into Communities” Minhang theme activity, quiz show of Expo 2010 in celebration of 300-day countdown (involving people working in the service sectors), “At Your Service at Expo” theme convention by a hundred groups of volunteers in celebration of 200-day countdown of Expo 2010 and lunching ceremony of Expo etiquette training. Various Expo training programs have been offered for 1,100,000 people.
Also, special activities were carried out during the 5th, 15th and 25th of every month to promote the local environment, services and order. Fourteen individuals and thirty-five units in the Minhang District have been awarded Shanghai Expo Contribution Prize. What’s more, in the district 524 communities, 115 villages are 456 units have been recognized as civilized communities, civilized villages and civilized units both at the municipal level and the district level. The Minhang Volunteer Society has been established. The program to “protecting our mother river” launched by volunteers in the Wujing Town has been recognized by the Shanghai Municipal government as one of the “top ten model cases of Shanghai”.