On the evening of October 25, 2024, Zijin Culture and Arts Festival concluded at Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts. Xu Ying, Member of the Standing Committee and Director-General of the Publicity Department of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, and Xia Xinmin, Vice Governor of Jiangsu, attended the closing ceremony.

The brightly-lit Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts in the evening saw a full house of applause and joy. Highlights of this year’s festival were shown on the big screen, and award-winners of “Excellent Repertoire”, “Excellent Performers” and “Outstanding Organization” were announced.

Modern drama Xiaoxihu Community of Nanjing was put on at the closing ceremony. The story unveils amid the renovation of the Xiaoxihu community, a historic and cultural block in the older part of Nanjing City, where Xu Xiangmei’s family and its neighbor Zhu Jiasheng’s family are pestered by everyday annoyances such as “two walls”, “one rope” and the marriage problems of the younger members. The light comedy guides the audience to reflect on the relationship between the city and its dwellers which is challenged by the urban changes brought by the Chinese modernization endeavor. The drama artistically demonstrates how the people-centered development philosophy is implemented at the community level and people’s aspiration for a better life remains to be the ultimate goal of our Party and our government.

Since its inception in 2018, Zijin Culture and Arts Festival has hosted a rich cultural program of performances and activities through which the annual achievements of Jiangsu’sadvanced cultural development are showcased. It has become a platform for showing Jiangsu’scultural strength and quality, for exchanges of cultural achievements and talented performers, and for fulfilling people’s cultural-ethical needs. Nanjing is the home venue of this year’s festival, complemented by four sub-venues in Huai'an, Taizhou, Changzhou, and Yangzhou. Since its opening in September, 39 stage arts have been performed consecutively in more than 20 theaters across the province, five high-level art exhibitions presented, and more than a thousand public cultural activities gone viral in 96 counties (cities, districts) of the 13 prefecture-level cities in the province. Thanks to the Centers (Workshops, Stations) of Promoting Advanced Culture in the New Era, and major art troupes and performers participating in the “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Public Cultural Program”, art performances, popularization lectures, and arts and literature-related voluntary services have been carried out in townships, towns (neighborhoods) and villages (communities), giving people a greater sense of participation, gain, and happiness.