The decision by China’s Central Committee in October to boost the country’s cultural power prompts two questions. What is Chinese culture, and what does the Government want to do with it?

China enjoys one of the world’s oldest and most venerated cultures with unbroken lines of excellence stretching over thousands of years from well before the beginnings of Greek and Roman cultures and continuing strongly up to today. Who else can celebrate such longevity in their architecture, painting, calligraphy, literature, music and furniture design, not to mention their food?

But the Committee’s discussion on culture, its first for over 15 years, was only partly concerned with heritage. It was more worried about economics. Minister of Culture Cai Wu said cultural industries should be "a pillar of the national economy."