It is the sixth year of Shandong province's implementation of its "culture benefiting the masses" campaign. This year the province will roll out 13 related activities and projects with a promotional budget of 405 million yuan ($58.82 million).

According to Liu Zhifu, vice director of the Shandong provincial publicity department, the 13 cultural projects will include construction of 76 children's palaces at rural schools, a rural children's reading program, establishment of provincial demonstration civilized towns and villages, preserving rural memories, and an online platform for patriotism education.

Li Guolin, deputy director of Shandong's provincial cultural department, said that this year Shandong will move forward with its support of construction and operation of cultural activity rooms at 2,000 provincially registered poor villages. Ten thousand impoverished incorporated villages will be authorized to operate community culture centers.

According to the Shandong provincial department of culture, yearly subsidies of 20,000 and 6,000 yuan respectively will be given to national and provincial-level intangible cultural inheritors to enroll new students and pass on their crafts.

The preserving rural memories project, which was included in the provincial government work report for 2017, is an innovative approach to protect and promote historic and individually unique villages in Shandong.