A "Guangming Cinema" screening event is held in Zhoushang, East China's Zhejiang Province on June 28, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of CUC

A "Guangming Cinema" program has embarked on a tour in China with the first screening event in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province on June 28, to bring entertainment to people with visual impairment. 

A barrier-free version of the movie Island Keeper, which was released to the general public in 2021, was screened at the event. Program members from Communication University of China (CUC) also gifted barrier-free movies to the visually impaired, the Global Times learned.

The event was co-hosted by the CUC, the Zhoushan office of spiritual civilization development committee and Zhoushan Disabled Persons' Federation. 

The CUC gifted 30 barrier-free movies and one barrier-free TV drama to the local federation at the event. Volunteers also visited a medical massage center and gifted portable barrier-free radios to masseur Zheng Wenbo and his colleagues, all of whom are visually impaired. 

"The barrier-free movies have fulfilled our entertainment needs and I felt care and warmth from the whole society," Zheng said. 

Guangming literally means light, or brightness. The Guangming Cinema Audio-descriptive Movie Making and Promotion Project, a public welfare project established by the CUC in Beijing in 2017, aims to create reproducible and transmittable audio-descriptive products to meet the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the visually impaired.

The program has so far entered local communities, schools and associations for visually impaired groups, cinemas and film festivals across 31 provincial-level regions and Macao Special Administrative Region. It is aiming to release 104 movies annually to share entertainment products with  the visually impaired. 

Data showed that there are 17.32 million people living with visual impairment in China, and the number of people with dyslexia may be even higher. To meet the cultural and spiritual needs of such a large population posed a great challenge for Chinese society and related government departments in the past.

In the plan for protection and development of disabled people during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, the Chinese government pointed out the necessity of supporting people living with disabilities and enhancing the quality of public services, such as rehabilitation, education, culture, and sports. The creation of a barrier-free environment in China has become an important aspect of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. 

The Guangming Cinema Project is a vivid example of the country's efforts to build a barrier-free environment for the visually impaired. Since its establishment, the project has provided rich inclusive and culturally relevant products for a large number of visually impaired people.

Volunteers from CUC send portable radios to people visually impaired. Photo: Courtesy of CUC
 

Volunteers from CUC pose a group photo during the "Guangming Cinema" program's tour to Zhoushang, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: Courtesy of CUC