"The more national it is,the more global it is."Festive atmosphere can be felt all across the country during the Spring Festival for the Year of the Dragon.The 78th United Nations(UN)General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution at the end of 2023,officially designating the Spring Festival(Lunar New Year)as a UN floating holiday.People are celebrating the Spring Festival in dif-ferent ways in the late winter days.The Spring Festival's inclusion into UN holidays opens up more opportu-nities for Chinese culture's venturing out.Intellectual property(IP)ele-ments beautify and decorate the Spring Festival.
Copyright protection guards Spring Festival film market
The film market of the Spring Fes-tival has been on a fast track.The box office of 2024 Spring Festival Slot rolled over 8.016 billion yuan with YOLO,Pegasus 2 and Boonie Bears:Time Twist making the top 3.
The Spring Festival vacation this year lasted eight days,making the film slot the longest in history.Where-as the annual China Media Group(CMG)Spring Festival Gala and mul-tiple films were played in such a short span of time,the National Copyright Administration of China(NCAC),China Film Administration,Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Culture and Tourism worked together on copyright protection of theatrical films to secure a healthy and orderly viewing environment and quality de-velopment of the film industry.
Based on the submission by the right holders,the NCAC announced an early warning list for 2024's first group of key works for copyright pro-tection on February 7.Eight films in-cluding Rob&Roll,Article 20,YO-LO,and programmes of CMG's 2024 Spring Festival and Lantern Festival galas made the list.
Thanks to their stellar performance in the home market,some of these films are venturing out to the world.Sony Pictures and New Classics Me-dia recently announced their coopera-tion of global release of YOLO direct-ed by Jia Ling,making it the first mainland film not produced but pur-chased for global release rights by So-ny Pictures–which not only repre-sents a nod to the film but to the wid-er Chinese film industry in the interna-tional market.
ICHs adorn Chinese New Year
On People's Square in Weixian County,Xingtai City,Hebei Province,Fengzhuang Luantan Art Group was performing their own certified intangi-ble cultural heritage(ICH)-luantan for festival goers who frequently gave rounds of applause for the perfor-mance of classic pieces.On another stage in Xi'an City,Shaanxi Province,Boundless-Chang'an presents view-ers an art banquet featuring dazzling visual effect that integrates ICHs in-cluding Shaanxi opera and state-of-the-art technology.
"The Spring Festival is a concen-tration of ICHs and an important me-dia for inheriting traditional customs and culture.Waging ICH activities and presenting its charm not only spice up a sense of ritual for the Festi-val,but also boost the inheritance and innovative development of ICHs,"Yuan Li,a professor and PhD supervi-sor with the Chinese National Acade-my of Arts outlined.
Days prior to the Spring Festival,Sichuan Opera Theatre of Chengdu or-ganized a performance in Houston-the biggest city of the State of Texas in the U.S.,bringing the charm of Chi-nese ICHs to the locals.In recent years,the Theatre has been no strang-er to rejuvenation of Sichuan opera and coverage of its innovation with IP protection.At the fifth joint confer-ence for development of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle,the standing committees of Sichuan and Chongqing People's Congress,De-cember 2023,reached a preliminary consensus to simultaneously legislate on the protection and inheritance of Sichuan opera in 2024 with an aim to offer a solid legal shield for the pro-tection and inheritance of Sichuan op-era as an ICH and its export to the world.
Cultural and creative brands celebrate the Spring Festival
The CMG's Spring Festival Gala is not just a Chinese cultural symbol known to the worldwide audience,but an important force driving the de-velopment of Chinese cultural and creative industry.China Media Group announced on January 26 an authori-zation and cooperation plan for 2024 gala merchandises including cultural and creative products,gala brand ele-ments to build a leading brand-Grand Spring Festival Gala Season-for the Spring Festival culture of the Year of the Dragon.Prior to that,products featuring 2024 gala mascot-Long Chenchen,dragon bowls,drag-on dishes,Gala microphones shaped like red lanterns,Gala zodiac wrist bands had already been launched and sold popular.
As of now,China Media Group has jointly developed nearly 100 cul-tural and creative products revolving around the Grand Spring Festival Ga-la Season brand,covering life scenari-os like gift giving,children's life and home furniture and plans to reach cus-tomers via CMG's app,Tmall shop and over 3,000 SINOPEC's Easy Joy shops.
"The Spring Festival's inclusion in-to UN holidays is a recognition of the Chinese culture,opening up new op-portunities for the distribution of the Chinese culture,"Song Hefa,a profes-sor with the Institute of Science and Development under the Chinese Acad-emy of Sciences and deputy dean of the IP academy of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences summa-rized,adding that IP is playing an in-creasingly crucial role in traditional culture as time moves on.IP facili-tates the protection of genetic resourc-es and traditional knowledge as well as cultural inheritance.In the future,China shall strengthen the protection and inheritance of its own festive cul-ture,build up its national cultural soft power and boost the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.(by Li Qian/Su Yue/Dou Xinying)
（Editor Liu Shan）
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