Cultural volunteers: an important social force for mass culture

Mass culture is the backbone of public cultural services. In the progress of mass culture, all kinds of social forces are involved in various ways, which has reduced overreliance on the government. Among these social forces, cultural volunteers deserve special attention.

Public culture: Cultural volunteers and mass culture workers

Volunteers are those who voluntarily provide services and help for society and others. They do it not for material reward, but based on their conscience, beliefs and feeling of responsibility. Volunteers in Western countries have many duties. They include professional advisors, traditional office volunteer, ticket-selling and market development volunteers, venue volunteers and educational volunteers, especially when it regards the arts or cultural activities. In China, organizations such as the Young Volunteers Association have been operating in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Quingdao since the 1990s.

Professionally, cultural volunteers cover more fields than mass culture workers, although mass culture workers and artistic personnel can apply to become cultural volunteers. Cultural volunteers mainly refer to those who provide public cultural services such as promoting literature and art, supporting libraries and serving at museum exhibitions and art galleries. Mass culture workers are usually only responsible for promoting literature and art.

Cultural volunteers have played a huge role in mass cultural activities. Whether it is large-scale square cultural activities, or small community cultural activities or other events, China enjoys the services of dynamic cultural volunteers throughout the year. Although many people are not officially called cultural volunteers, they do the work of cultural volunteers. Both cultural volunteers and mass culture workers promote public culture.

Organizational system: Cultural volunteer service vs. mass culture work

In mass culture work, a four-level network is established to support a province (municipality) mass art gallery, district (county) cultural center, sub-district (town) cultural station and community (village) cultural office. A strong network better promotes development of mass culture undertakings.

As for cultural volunteers, they also need a sound organizational system. Since the 1990s, governments of all levels and relevant organizations have attached great importance to cultural volunteers. Volunteer organizations have been established in many cities. For example, the Beijing Dongcheng District in 2002 created “cultural volunteer teams”. Representatives of every street hired a professional cultural institution, and every community team hired a professional cultural worker. At the beginning of 2009, the Cultural Volunteer Service Center was set up. Soon, many cultural volunteer-related organizations were established. The work done by cultural volunteers has increased the cultural services provided to the public.

Serving society: All people benefit from volunteer cultural development

Practicing the spirit of volunteerism builds a harmonious society. Cultural volunteers, by their work, help create an atmosphere that “everyone is a volunteer” and that “happiness lies in helping others”, enhancing the quality of citizen participation and respect for mass culture.

Public cultural undertakings need the participation of more people to meet the growing cultural demands of the masses. Since cultural volunteers cover more fields, they can provide multi-layered and specialized cultural services for the masses.

Cultural volunteers in a community can be divided into three groups. Professional volunteers, ranging from celebrities to scholars, can provide leadership. Volunteers with special skills can be teachers. General volunteers can contribute their intelligence, money and energy to support culture and art undertakings.

Translated by Zhu Hui