The Backward State of China's Cultural Industry Before Reform and Opening Up

is considered the spearhead to solve pressing social problems. When faced with high unemployment, the French government decided to invest in the cultural industry. They believe that, with the advantage of a country possessing many historical relics and scenic spots, investing in tourism development is the right path to create more jobs for people, promoting economic growth. At the same time, like other Western countries, France also actively established financial funds to support the cultural industry, considering this a guarantee for the development of this industry.

Thus, France, among many other Western countries, has soon recognized the important role of cultural industry in the development of economy as well as society. The investment of the Governments in this industry has brought not only economic value but also spiritual and cultural values. This is also the condition to ensure that culture always develops with the motto of both preserving and promoting traditional values.

c. The development situation of cultural industry in Korea

Like China, Korea was originally an agricultural country and only began to industrialize in the early 1980s. Therefore, Korea's cultural industry was among the latecomers. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Korea truly recognized the role of the cultural industry and considered it a strategic industry to promote the country's economic development in the 21st century. In 1998, Korea officially announced the motto "Cultural Nation Building" and introduced the concept of "Cultural Industry". Then, from 1999 to 2001, the government successively issued a series of plans to specify the path of the national cultural industry such as: "5-year plan for developing cultural industry", "Plan to promote the development of cultural industry" or "21st century context for cultural industry". As a result, the size of the Korean “cultural content industry” in 1999 reached 17.1 billion USD, increasing to 31 billion USD in 2003 [22,187]. The cultural industry has gradually helped the Korean economy “take off”.

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Among the many successes in various fields of the Korean cultural industry, the author of the thesis would like to emphasize cinema - a special cultural channel of the Government of this country. The first milestone marking the revival of Korean cinema was the success of the film " Shiri " - a film directed by Kang Jae Gyu about a North Korean female spy who was tasked with organizing a terrorist attack in Seoul. The box office revenue of this film reached 60 million USD, 12 times higher than the budget (5 million USD) [14]. After the success of the film " Shiri " in 1999, the Korean film industry began to make continuous progress. Korean cinema not only marked its return to domestic audiences but also gradually advanced to the world. In 2004, the film "Old Boy" won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was sold to many countries. The success of Korean films has caught the attention of Hollywood filmmakers. Some films such as “My Wife is a Gangster”, “My Sassy Girl”, “Old Boy” are in their sights.

Korean cinema not only dominates the domestic market but also boldly advances to foreign markets. Korean films have created a "Korean trend" around the world. This can be seen most clearly in Southeast Asian countries, China, Japan, even Russia and Egypt. It is explained that besides the careful investment in films, there are two factors that make up this success: First , the traditional Asian Confucian element also contributes to the appeal of Korean cinema. Stories of love, family, and humanity tell about the loyalty and loyalty until the last breath in accordance with the steadfast moral tradition of Confucianism. It is this emotional concept that has linked Korean cinema with Asian agricultural countries influenced by Confucianism. Second , in modern life with its many worries, love stories interwoven with fairy tale elements and happy endings contribute to “comforting” people’s spiritual life. That is why, in developed countries, people want to find this place of “relief” for their souls and love.

Cinema not only brings in huge profits, contributing to "changing the face" of the kimchi land, but it also actively promotes the image of this country . Cinema works are an effective bridge connecting Korean culture, fashion, music, and cuisine to the world. This contributes to creating a "Korean style" fever, a "Korean cultural wave" in all areas of society in Asian countries, typically Vietnam. Young people are the most "enthusiastic" fans of products from Korea. Backpacks, school bags, hair clips, toys, idol pictures, music, etc. are cultural products that are strongly favored. Thus, along with blockbuster movies, Korea has earned a significant profit from other "follow-up" products.

When it comes to the Korean cultural industry, we cannot help but mention the world's largest online game production country . Right from the late 20th century when the cultural industry first began to develop, Korea considered this an industry of national strategic significance. In order to provide maximum support for this new entertainment sector, in 1998 the Korean Government began to establish a game development center. In order to take a new step forward in the online game industry, in 1999, a series of other specialized support centers were established such as: "Game Industry Comprehensive Support Center" (a focal point for policy and planning management), "Game Industry Technical Development Support Center" (an agency for building and managing game production areas), "Game Technical Development Center" (specializing in developing new techniques in the game industry). It is due to the large and in-depth investment from the beginning that the Korean online game industry developed rapidly and soon established its position in Asia and the world.

The profits from the online game industry have turned many producers into big economic tycoons. In 1998, the popularity of the online game called Paradise made its creator one of the seven richest people in the land of ginseng [22,187]. Koreans consider this a strategic industry, so they welcome it very openly. According to statistics, about 70% of the Korean population plays online games [15]. The government

Korea has a legal system to manage game producers and player communities. The games that are developing the names of the Korean game production industry are: Aion, Tera, Blade & Soul, Vindictus.vv With a deep investment, this industry of Korea is still the leading country in Asia.

In short , although compared to other Western countries, the Korean cultural industry was born and flourished later, with large-scale investment from the beginning, this industry quickly became a key industry in the Korean economy and society. The greatest experience in the process of building the cultural industry in the land of kimchi is the maximum support from the Government with very specific policies, strategies, financial funds as well as plans to expand the domestic and foreign markets. Therefore, currently, the Korean cultural industry not only brings in huge economic benefits but also contributes to promoting the image of the country and its people to the world.

In short , countries around the world are currently focusing on their available potential to invest in developing cultural industries. This industry is playing an increasingly important role in the overall socio-economic development of countries. It is considered a "smokeless" industry or a "golden goose" in today's knowledge-based economy. Developing cultural industries not only contributes to preserving and promoting existing cultural values but also creates great economic values for society. In fact, in some countries with developed cultural industries, strategic investment in this industry has brought significant benefits to the country. Another reason why cultural industries have become an investment trend in countries is the mission of spreading the national image to the world through cultural products and cultural services. It is a bridge to enhance mutual understanding between communities around the world, contributing to increasing investment cooperation activities in other fields. Therefore, developing cultural industries is becoming an inevitable trend in the socio-economic strategies of many countries, including China. But first, let's look back at the policy of developing cultural industries.

cultural industry before the reform and opening up of this country. Through that, we have accurate assessments of the foundation of the cultural industry before the reform as well as its progress after the reform.

1.3. The backward state of China's cultural industry before reform and opening up

1.3.1.Cultural development situation before reform and opening up

To clarify the problem that the thesis researches and create a suitable comparison axis, the author focuses on analyzing the development of Chinese culture in the period 1949 - 1978. This is considered a period in which the country's culture had many complex fluctuations, one of the premises requiring the Chinese Government to carry out reform and opening up, especially in the cultural field. After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Mao Zedong began the process of restructuring the country with the ambition of quickly and strongly building socialism. To achieve that goal, during his time in power, Mao conducted many campaigns to destroy and purify the old elements of the old society in all fields. However, researchers assess that the period 1949 - 1978 was the period in which the Chinese Communist Party had to pay a high price for its mistakes in finding a way forward in the cultural field.

Mao Zedong was a person who valued the role of culture in the development of socialist society. In his work “ On New Democracy ”, he spoke about the relationship between culture and politics and economics: “ Culture is the political and economic reflection of a certain society ”. For Mao, cultural goals always go hand in hand with efforts in economic and political construction. He believed that: “We must not only transform a politically oppressed and economically exploited China into a politically free and economically prosperous China, but also transform an ignorant and backward China dominated by the old culture into a civilized and advanced China dominated by the new culture ”.

However, Mao's ideology, which was heavily influenced by class struggle, quickly spread to the cultural field. He raised the slogan "literature and art serve politics".

", which has given rise to many harsh criticisms of cultural workers and works of art. Political standards and class character are considered important criteria to evaluate the development of new culture. "Ideological mobilization" (1951), "Suppression of counter-revolutionaries" (1953) were Mao's "attacks" to quickly purge the old culture, "counter-revolutionary" culture. But the most powerful was the "Great Cultural Revolution" campaign (1966 - 1976).

The essence of the “Great Cultural Revolution” movement was the political suppression of counterculture, the elimination of traditional elements in Chinese culture, and the construction of a new culture under Mao Zedong. Under the direction of the 16-point communiqué and the Red Book, the Chinese Communist Party carried out many activities to destroy traditional cultural values and disrupt the order of life at that time. Wherever the Red Guards went, they raised the slogan of “burning down, destroying all” the remaining vestiges of the feudal regime, religious structures such as temples, pagodas, churches, etc., condemning and boycotting the ideas of Confucius and Mencius. At the same time, the Red Guards went everywhere to propagate Mao’s ideas. In 1968, Mao launched the movement to the countryside with the aim of reforming intellectuals, bringing them back to the countryside to live with the peasants or to factories to live with the workers, to work hard to restore their revolutionary spirit.

Mao's goal was to make intellectuals have the spirit of enduring poverty, loving poverty, loving manual labor, and not wanting to use capitalist machines. According to Mao, only then could a proletarian, labor, and poverty-free culture be completely built. With such a way of thinking about "revolutionizing" culture, within 10 years from 1966 to 1976, the Chinese Communist Party considered this movement as a tool to destroy the traditional value system, destroy heritages, reform and push thousands of intellectuals to a tragic end. It can be said that it was a tragic ten years for the Chinese people under Mao's regime.

In short , in nearly 30 years of "searching" for a suitable path for the new regime, Mao Zedong pushed Chinese society from one instability to another.

Although Mao had an early insight into the nature of culture in the new era, due to its heavy class struggle and failure to adapt to the new historical context, Mao's reforms brought about a disastrous picture for culture. From a culture with a rich appearance and a long history of development, Chinese culture gradually fell into crisis due to its limited scope of development, ideological constraints, and shackles on creativity. It was the turmoil in society, especially in the cultural field, that had a significant impact on the formation and development of cultural industries .

1.3.2. The status of cultural industry before reform and opening up

During the period from 1949 to 1978, China's cultural industry had almost no significant development. According to the documents collected by the author of the thesis, the works said very little about the situation of the cultural industry before the reform and opening up. The records of the cultural industry during this period only included a few industries such as: book and newspaper publishing, theater, and cinema. Especially during the 10-year period of the cultural revolution, China's cultural industry not only did not achieve any development but many achievements were also destroyed and stagnated.

During the period 1957 - 1965 when Mao Zedong raised the flag of "great leap forward" in the economic and social fields, the cultural industries also achieved certain results. The publishing industry developed quite vigorously with many works from the field of philosophy such as: Interpretation of praxis , Interpretation of contradictions , Outline of dialectical materialism by Li Da; Historical materialism

- history of social development , Outline of lectures on dialectical materialism by Ai Ziqi; Outline of historical materialism by Sun Shuping. Or the birth of a number of literary works also contributed to the "buzzing" atmosphere of the publishing industry such as: History of the Founding , Hong Qipu , Song of Youth , Red Stone , Life-changing Mountain Hamlet. etc. In addition, during this period, the film industry also left behind a number of notable films such as: Lin Zexu, The Wind and Clouds of Jiawu, The Thousand Waters of Heavenly Mountains, The Battle of the South and the North, The Reconnaissance Record of Dujiang, Dong Cunrui, Shang Cam Linh, The Guerrilla Team of the Plains. etc. [2, 332]. The main content of these films

is about the ideology, sentiment, patriotic and revolutionary traditions of the Chinese people.

Following the “Great Leap Forward” period, the cultural industry was immersed in the same dark and gloomy color of Chinese culture. It was a 10-year period of regression for Chinese society in all fields, including cultural industries. The first typical example was the publishing industry . Most newspapers and publishing houses were suspended. In 1965, the whole country had 413 newspapers, but during the Cultural Revolution, there were only 100 newspapers left. Magazines went from 790 in 1965 to only 21 in 1970 [2,59]. During the Cultural Revolution, publishers hardly printed any books, except for Mao’s Red Book and a few technical books. Those were the years when the Chinese people were really “hungry” for information. Publishing houses were closed, and bookstores were closed. In libraries, people only kept a few works praising the proletariat by foreign authors such as: Gorki, Maia Koshi, Balzac, etc. Six years later (in 1972), the Chinese government allowed the reprinting of some stories such as Dream of the Red Chamber, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Three Hundred Tang Poems.

The film and theater industry also suffered the same fate as other cultural industries during these 10 years of "turmoil". On the stages of modern musical and dance, one only sees the repetition of typical "Model Plays" such as: In the genre of Peking Opera, there are "Hong Dang Ky", "Sa Gia Binh", "Hai Cang"; in the genre of ballet, there are "Bach Mao Nu", "Hong Sac Nuong Tu Quan"; in the genre of symphonic music, there is "Sa Gia Binh". etc. Model Plays is a phrase used to refer to works and plays that were created after the founding of the People's Republic of China, mainly reflecting the political stance of the Communist Party, so it contains more political meaning than artistic meaning. It can be said that the influence of the Model Play genre reached its peak during the Cultural Revolution and was also the only genre licensed by the state to be performed at that time. The film industry at that time also only revolved around the theme of praising the Party with a few works such as: "Tunnel War" and "Landmine War". These are two films made in the early 1960s.

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