Fifty-six Chinese writers, artists and performers were honored in Beijing on Monday for their outstanding work in the arts.

They received the national title of model worker of the "Double Star", representing artistic performance and professional ethics.

They included singers Peng Liyuan and Yan Weiwen, film directors Yin Li and Feng Xiaoning, actresses Pan Hong and Xi Meijuan, and popular comic performers Huang Hong and Gong Hanlin.

Their achievements and contributions spanned the fields of drama, film, TV, music, dance, fine arts, photography, calligraphy, acrobatics, as well as folk vocal art forms such as ballad singing, story-telling, comic dialogue and crosstalk.

This is the second time the title has been awarded.

The title, sponsored by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Ministry of Personnel, and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC),was first awarded to 30 excellent artists in 2004.

At the award ceremony, Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC's Central Committee, asked cultural workers to "promote the vigorous development and prosperity of culture more conscientiously and actively."

He encouraged artists to create more products closely related to Chinese people's lives that could positively affect their audiences.

(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)