My seven-day Lunar New Year holiday was rather lackluster as I mostly stayed at home in Beijing. I didn't light a single firecracker nor visit a temple fair. I spent some money, on a film and several books.

The most exciting moment I had was when I got a new membership card at Wangfujing Bookstore.

I'd had membership cards for years from several major bookstores in town, including an earlier one from Wangfujing Bookstore. But except for the two at Zhongguancun, none offered much of a discount.

However, I had no hesitation over signing for the new card. I get a 15 percent discount on all Chinese books and audio/video products, and 10 percent discount on original foreign language books imported from overseas.

I appreciated the bookstore's new promotional scheme. But I only got to know the reasons behind the promotion from the newly released 2007 Culture Bluebook, which offers an overview of the development of the cultural enterprises in the country.

For one, although some analysts calculated that the sale of books rose by 10 percent in total number in 2006 over the previous year, the bluebook didn't shy away from the fact that the sale of books in 2005 decreased 5.5 percent from 2004, while the storage of unsold books increased 2 percent in total numbers and 7.5 percent in monetary terms.

In sum, the book industry has mainly depended on the increase in new titles and book prices for its growth, but the average reader is buying fewer books. This may not alarm the publishing industry or even the public, as the sales of books in developed countries, such as the US and Germany, are also declining.

But China should tell a different story with its dramatic economic development and rise in individual incomes.

The bluebook is frank enough to point out that the total cultural consumption in the country last year was only one-fourth that of other countries on the same level of development.

On the surface, affordability is a root cause. According to the bluebook, the average ticket price for films in China is higher than in the United States.

As for books, publishing insiders say that the rise in the average price of books has been lower than the increase in income for both urban and rural families. However, many people still believe that the price of books is too high.

Scratching the surface, we discover that the big divide in incomes and the availability in cultural services between the urban and rural regions also contribute immensely to China's low level of cultural spending .

Rural villagers in remote areas still struggle to keep their children in school. And the many rural people who are much better off than before have no cinemas or theaters or bookstores to go to.

They have become accustomed to only spend money on local private performing troupes during major traditional festivals or family events - weddings or funerals. Other than that, they simply wait for mobile troupes or bookstores from urban centers to come.

Above all, the government cultural managers or cultural enterprises still treat the rural populace as second-rate citizens whose cultural needs depend on the well wishes of performers or book salespeople or on government welfare.

We can ignore the complaints of the urbanites over high prices and offer discounts to entice their spending, but the cultural managers cannot overlook the countryside as a potential market for cultural consumption.

E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/01/2007 page10)