One of the characteristics of the ongoing auto fair held in China's northeastern city of Changchun is its distinctive cultural focus. In addition to the auto exhibition, a series of cultural events aim to stimulate a driving appetite among ordinary people.
With the fall of the gavel, a Lincoln sedan once used in a popular TV series has a new owner. That's just one small vignette promoting auto culture at the week-long auto fair.
Years ago, auto culture may have sounded foreign to most Chinese people. Cars were regarded as unaffordable luxuries. But with the ever-expanding car market, auto culture is being accepted, and even appreciated by more and more people in China. A stamp exhibition tells the history of the auto industry. It presents a step-by-step overview of the progress in auto design and manufacture over the past century. Other auto-related stamps, such as ones dealing with pollution control, highways, and bridges are also on display. The role that automobiles play in national defense, farming and industrial production illustrates just how essential these machines have become.
China's auto market is vast and largely untapped. But there is a good reason. Until people all across China accept the idea that they too can have their own cars, they will not be uninterested or think of themselves as spectators. The auto industry understands that for this growing car culture to flourish, they will have to put the common people in the drivers' seat of their own dreams.
(CCTV.com July 18, 2003)
