The China Art Festival is an important national cultural and art pageant for ordinary people throughout the country. Approved by the Chinese government, the festival was initiated in the autumn of 1987. The First China Art Festival was held in Beijing, and then once every two years. The festival is co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and provincial or municipal government, and usually lasts for 15 to 20 days.

The Chinese government and leaders pay great attention to the China Art Festival. Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name for the festival, then Chairman Jiang Zemin attended the second festival and wrote appreciation words for the third and fourth festival, and other leaders such as Li Peng, Li Ruihuan, Li Lanqing, and Ding Guangen either attended or inscribed for the festival. The Party and the State leaders hold the position of president and honorary president of the festival.

As a high-level comprehensive art activity, the China Art Festival plays an important role in enriching people's cultural life and promoting sustainable development of culture and art. It is a good form not only of carrying forward national glorious culture, promoting socialist culture and enriching people's cultural life but also of boosting economic development, furthering reform and opening-up and social advancement, keeping social stability and inspiring ethos.

Since 1987, the festival has been successfully held six times, and each time it adopted various art forms to fully reveal the great achievement of China's cultural and art industry, to show the spirit of numerous staff working in the industry, to exhibit art fruits harvested by Chinese artists through cultural exchanges, and to praise the prosperous socialist modernization construction in China.

The Seventh China Art Festival is to be held on October 12, 2003, lasting 13 days.

(Official website: www.7yj.org , www.chinaart-7.com.cn)