A systemized top-level design is currently needed to promote greater cultural development and prosperity, said Liao Changyong, a globally renowned baritone and also an NPC deputy, during an exclusive interview with China.org.cn before the gathering of the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress on March 14, 2013.

Liao Changyong, a globally renowned baritone and also an NPC deputy, takes an exclusive interview with China.org.cn before the gathering of the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress on March 14, 2013.

"The culture of a nation is the spiritual bond that connects its people," Liao pointed out in regards to the significance of vigorous cultural development. To improve China's use of culture as a soft power resource, we must foster an elite and sophisticated culture aside from merely satisfying the masses' cultural demands, he said. This kind of superior culture should take on a leading role and therefore a top-level design is now needed to help realize the slogan of a letting a hundred flowers bloom, he added.

Currently, we still fall short of first-rate art works which could truly represent our national image and spiritual outlook, Liao explained. He emphasized that those particular works are not produced just by large sums of money and cannot be kidnapped by the market. Some films could be considered commercial successes based on domestic box office revenue, but often lost their luster going global, Liao illustrated.

After studying western opera for decades, Liao did not even know which song to choose when foreign audiences asked him to sing a Chinese song, he said as he recalled the scenes abroad years ago. Since then, he has focused more on the compiling and performing of Chinese folk music. "The purpose of learning western opera is for cultural blending," he said. "Chinese culture, with its 5000 years of history, is the cultural hybrid of 56 ethnic groups and world civilization."