Chinese online game players will begin to meet new images other than the invariably blond figures. By the end of this year, 30 large-scale online games based on traditional Chinese legends will be issued to break the foreign monopoly in the online gaming market.

Shi Zongyuan, director of the State Administration of Press and Publication, said Tuesday that the administration encouraged the making of large-scale online games and flash works based on China's traditional culture, noting it would help the youngsters to gain deeper understanding of Chinese heritage.

Among the upcoming works, three are based on the popular literary works Canonization of the Gods, Pilgrimage to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The past two months have witnessed much talk in China about improving the ethical standards of youngsters. It's generally believed pervasive violence and pornography in the media have contributed to rising crime rates among adolescents, especially those in imported online games.

"The administration has done a lot of work to expel unhealthy game software and obscene publications. Meanwhile, we also want to provide healthy game software with Chinese characteristics as substitutes," said Shi.

Under the project named National Online Game Publishing Project, the administration would join hands with domestic game software developers to produce 100 fine online games in five years. The first 30 of them will come out by the end of this year.

Besides that, the administration is working to help establish four publishing bases catering for youngsters in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Sichuan, and the construction of research, development and production bases of flash works oriented toward both the domestic and the overseas markets.

He said the administration would also ensure the traditional publishing market would provide adequate healthy reading materials for the youngsters.

Shi said the administration would grant preferential treatment to the publication of reading materials for youngsters, including the allocation of book number and coded number of edition.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2004)