Spoken and Written Languages 

The Han people have their own spoken and written languages, namely Chinese. It is the most commonly used language in China, and one of the most commonly used languages in the world. All China’s 55 minority peoples have their own languages except the Hui and Manchu, who use Chinese; 21 minorities have their own scripts, in which 27 languages are written. Classes in schools in predominantly national minority areas are taught in the local language, using local-language textbooks, as well as in Putonghua or Mandarin — the official national standard spoken language of China, based on the principal dialect spoken in and around Beijing.

Social Customs

China’s different peoples have developed individual customs regarding food, clothing and etiquette, in response to their own particular environments, social conditions and levels of economic development. Generally, the Han people take rice and noodles as their staple diet, love to eat vegetables, beans, meat, fish and eggs prepared in ways that have made Chinese food an international favorite. The Uygurs, Kazaks, and Ozbeks enjoy roast mutton kebabs, unleavened bread and rice. Mongolians often eat beef, mutton and dairy products, and drink tea with milk. Koreans like sticky rice cakes, cold noodles and kimchi (hot pickled vegetables). Tibetans take tsampa (roasted highland barley flour) as their staple food, and drink buttered tea. The Li, Jing, Dai, Blang and Hani all chew betel nuts. The typical costume of Manchu women used to be the qipao (a close-fitting dress with high neck and slit skirt). Mongolians wear traditional robes and riding boots. Tibetans also wear robes with waistbands and boots. Yi, Miao and Yao women wear pleated skirts, and are often bedecked with gold or silver ornaments. Uygurs wear diamond-shaped embroidered skullcaps. Koreans are known to favor white clothing.

Festivals

Legal holidays in China are New Year (January 1st), a national one-day holiday; Spring Festival (New Year by the lunar calendar), a national three-day holiday; International Working Women’s Day (March 8th); Tree Planting Day (March 12th); International Labor Day (May 1st), a national three-day holiday; Chinese Youth Festival (May 4th); International Children’s Day (June 1st); Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army ("PLA") (August 1st); Teacher’s Day (September 10th); and National Day (October 1st), a national three-day holiday.
     China's major traditional festivals include the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, Pure Brightness Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Ethnic minorities have also retained their own traditional festivals, including the Water Sprinkling Festival of the Dai people, the Nadam Fair of the Mongolian people, the Torch Festival of the Yi people, the Danu (Never Forget the Past) Festival of the Yao people, the Third Month Fair of the Bai people, the Antiphonal Singing Day of the Zhuang people, the Tibetan New Year and Onghor (Expecting a Good Harvest) Festival of the Tibetan people, and the Jumping Flower Festival of the Miao people.

Calligraphy and Painting

Chinese characters evolved from pictures and signs, and the Chinese art of calligraphy developed naturally from its unique writing system. Through the ages, great calligraphers developed representative calligraphic styles of their times. The love of calligraphy is deeply ingrained in Chinese scholars, and has been handed down to the present day.
    The roots of Chinese painting can be traced back to paintings on Neolithic pottery six or seven thousand years ago. Since similar tools and lines were used for the earliest painting and writing, painting is said to have the same origin as calligraphy. Thus, Chinese paintings usually integrate poetry or calligraphy with themes that include figures, landscapes, flowers, birds and other animals. Traditional Chinese painting remains a highly valued genre, often on exhibit in China as well as other countries. The contemporary art world in China is also very active. Some Chinese artists have become adept at Western-style painting, both oil and watercolor. Many Chinese painters have created works that combine traditional Chinese painting techniques with those of the West, enhancing both forms. The China Art Gallery and other art galleries hold individual or joint art exhibitions year in year out. Art expositions are held each year in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Folk Art

Papercuts, kites, jade and other stone carvings, cloisonné, wooden toys — these arts with ancient roots in China are still widely practiced, especially among ethnic groups. Noted for their exquisite workmanship, some Chinese crafts use simple materials like scissors and paper in the case of papercuts while others use materials that are elegant and expensive, as in jade carvings. China's cloisonné — inlaid enamel — is popular both at home and abroad in products that include bottles, bowls, and cups. The blue glaze produced during the Jingtai reign period (1450-1456) of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Daizong is considered the best.

Peking Opera and Local Operas

China has more than 300 forms of traditional opera, of which Peking Opera is the most popular. Peking Opera evolved from Kunqu Opera, an even more ancient art of drama listed by UNESCO in 2001 among the first group of works representing humankind through oral history. Other popular local operas include Yueju (Shaoxing Opera from Zhejiang), Huangmeixi (from Anhui), Chuanju (Sichuan Opera), Yuju (Henan Opera), and Yueju (Guangdong Opera). Peking Opera developed in early 19th-century Beijing and presents singing, music, chanting, dancing and martial arts all in one stage performance. The dramatic masks and costumes of Peking Opera are world-renowned. Famous Peking Opera actors and actresses over the years included Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Ma Lianliang, Zhou Xinfang and Du Jinfang. Since the 1990s, the emergence of highly talented young performers has helped demonstrate the continued importance of Peking Opera in Chinese culture. In recent years, the Peking Opera Theatre of China has experimented with incorporating western symphonic music in its productions.

Literature 

The Book of Songs, China's first anthology of poetry and earliest literary achievement, was compiled in the sixth century B.C. Literature that followed in the long succession of dynasties includes pre-Qin prose in a simple style, magnificent Han Dynasty fu (rhymed prose), and the yuefu (folk songs) of the end of the Han Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty alone can be credited with thousands of poets, including Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi. The Song Dynasty was known for its ci (lyrics). The most notable achievement of the Yuan Dynasty literature was the zaju (a type of poetic drama set to music). The Ming and Qing dynasties saw the production of four masterpieces of the novel: Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions. They have been celebrated for centuries for their rich historical and cultural connotations and unique styles. Modern Chinese literature has seen two golden ages: The first was in the 1920s to the 1930s when vernacular Chinese replaced the archaic written Chinese language in the New Culture Movement, as represented by Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Ba Jin, Lao She, and Zhang Ailing. (Ba Jin, who celebrated his 100th birthday in 2004, also founded in 1957 what continues to be China's leading literary magazine, Harvest, published in Shanghai, which has a circulation of some 130,000.) The second was some 10 years ago, from the 1980s to the 1990s, when a new literature movement flourished in China following the country's reform and opening-up in 1979. Young writers introduced a variety of modern and avant-garde literary ideas and styles to China. Among China's literary awards, the most prestigious are the Mao Dun Literary Award, Lu Xun Literary Award and Annual Chinese Literary Person. The Museum of Modern Chinese Literature in Beijing, built in 2000, displays the desks, chairs and writing tools used by 18 of the most famous modern Chinese writers. It also has a large collection of literary works, handwriting, translation, letters and other information.

Libraries 

By the end of 2003, China had 2,709 public libraries with a collection of 430 million copies.
    The National Library of China, with a collection of about 25 million volumes, is a world-class library and the largest library in Asia. The library not only has the largest collection of Chinese books in the world, but also the biggest collection of materials in foreign languages in the country, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the library's collection. Adjacent to the Purple Bamboo Park in the western part of Beijing, the library has three stories below ground and 19 stories above ground. In the library's collection are over 3,500 ancient inscribed bones and tortoise shells, 1.6 million volumes of traditional thread-bound books, over 1,000 volumes of documents from Dunhuang Grottoes, 12 million volumes of foreign-language books and magazines, and dozens of electronic databases. The library started to accept the submissions of official national publications in 1916, and became the main national database. It began to accept submissions of domestic electronic publications in 1987. It is also the country's ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) and Network Information Center. At present, the National Library of China has formed a digital library alliance with some 90 other libraries around the country, making joint efforts in promoting the development and application of China's digital public information service.
    The Shanghai Library is China's largest provincial-level library. Of its collection, the over 1.7 million volumes of ancient documents are the most valuable, including 178,000 volumes of rare ancient books of 25,000 titles, many being the only copies extant in the world. The oldest document dates back 1,487 years.
    Of the university or college libraries, the collections of the Peking University and Wuhan University libraries lead the nation. The national network of libraries also includes scientific research institution libraries, trade union libraries, and the libraries and reading rooms attached to government institutions, army units, primary and secondary schools, townships, enterprises and local communities. 

Museums

There are 1,514 public museums in China.
    The National Museum of Chinese History stands on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The museum's permanent exhibition, the Exhibition of Chinese General History, was established in 1959, and the museum also has many specialized collections. Other major museums in China include:
    The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing, the biggest and most complete ancient building complex in China, was established on the foundation of the imperial palace of two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, and their collection of treasures. First built in 1420, it covers an area of 720,000 sq meters. Designated by the State Council as being among China's foremost-protected monuments in 1961, the Palace Museum is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
    Henan Museum in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, opened in 1998, features significant collections of prehistoric cultural relics, bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and pottery and porcelain wares of the various dynasties in Chinese history.
    The Museum of Qin Shi Huang Terracotta Warriors and Horses, authorized by the State Council in 1975 as a museum, features the famous life-size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations. Archaeological work is still ongoing at the site near Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, Lintong County, Shaanxi Province.
    China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, a national theme museum opened in 1992, includes exhibits of Han Dynasty brocades and silks unearthed in Qianshanyang Village of Huzhou in Zhejiang Province dating back 4,700 years.
    China National Tea Museum, Hangzhou, exhibits the most comprehensive collection of modern and ancient tea utensils in China. Visitors also can watch tea performances or take part in a Chinese tea ceremony.
    Local non-governmental museums included, the number of museums nationwide has reached some 2,000. Beijing alone has 118 museums including museums of ancient coins, astronautics, animation art, natural history, Peking Opera, contemporary literature, Buddhist literature and heritage, sports, stamps, classical art, fine arts, military, ethnology as well as museums honoring famous writers, artists, scientists and political figures in Chinese history. Some Chinese museums of cultural relics — the Qin Dynasty terracotta warriors and horses in Xi'an, for example — have become internationally known tourist attractions. The government encourages exchanges of cultural relics between museums and promotes the display and exchanges of legal non-governmental collections.

Historic Preservation

For decades, the Chinese government has attempted the protection of famous historical and cultural cities (see Tourism section in the Economy chapter for a listing of these cities under national key protection). The protection of these cities includes both the preservation of the ancient buildings and historical sectors, and the preservation of the layout, features and traditional cultures of the ancient cities. In November 2003, the Ministry of Construction and the State Cultural Relics Bureau under the Ministry of Culture together released a new list that for the first time puts under protection historically and culturally famous towns and villages. The list includes 10 towns including Jingsheng Town in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, Zhouzhuang Town of Kunshan City in Jiangsu Province, Wu Town of Tongxiang City in Zhejiang Province and 12 villages including Cuandixia Village of Mentougou District of Beijing, Xiwan Village of Qikou Town in Lin County of Jiangxi Province.
    In the 1990s China made significant investment toward protecting cultural relics. Special subsidies by the Central Government for the protection of cultural relics reached some 700 million yuan for about 1,000 projects. The Palace Museum in Beijing, Potala Palace in Lhasa and the Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, for example, underwent major renovations. Concerned governmental departments invested in a special fund to protect cultural relics in the project areas of the national basic construction of the Yellow River Xiaolangdi Project and the Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project. The Law on Cultural Relics Protection of the PRC was revised in October 2002 for the first time to institute regulations on transfer and exchange of cultural relics. In 2004, the government of Tibet Autonomous Region plans to appropriate RMB 70 million yuan on preservation of the Potala Palace, the Norbuglinkha Park and the Sakya Temple. Major renovations planned for the Shaolin Monastery in Henan Province were expected to be completed by October 2004.
    In recent years, cultural relics have come under increasing legal protection. China has already participated in all the four international treaties of cultural relics preservation. The Law on Cultural Relics Protection of the PRC revised in October 2002 institutes regulations on the transfer and exchange of cultural relics for the first time. In 2003 the government publicized the Regulations on Enforcing the Law on Cultural Relics Protection, Provisional Rules on Administering the Auction of Cultural Relics, and the first special law on the protection of the Great Wall — Beijing Administrative Methods of Protection of the Great Wall.

World Cultural Heritage in China

In July 2003, the Three Parallel Rivers in Yunnan Province, the Ming Tombs of Beijing Municipality and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum of Nanjing were added to the World Heritage List of Cultural Sites as part of Ming and Qing Imperial Mausoleums. (See Land and Natural Resources chapter for China's World Heritage List of Natural Sites.) By the end of 2003, there were 29 World Heritage Sites in China, of which 21 were cultural heritage sites, 4 were natural sites and 4 cultural and natural sites. In 2004, China will make the first large-scale renovations on six world cultural heritage sites in Beijing — the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and "Peking Man" Ruins at Zhoukoudian, which will be completed before 2008 as planned. Apart from that, China has a rich non-material cultural heritage, one of the richest in the world. Kunqu Opera and the art of playing the guqin, a seven-stringed zither, are among UNESCO's list of masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO also designated 2002-2003 as the year to celebrate the millennial anniversary of the Chinese Tibetan epic King Gesar, the longest epic in the world.