Using soft power for influence on the world stage is a hot topic during China's political season. CGTN correspondent Han Bin interviews two members of the advisory body. Feng Xiaogang is a well-known film director, and Ma Xiaolin is the Director of the Henan Museum in Central China. Their proposals deal with how China can tell its stories more effectively.

This is the Henan Museum. I am its gatekeeper, Ma Xiaolin.

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "It's a new program. It introduces treasures themselves, but also reveals humanistic spirits behind these treasures."

FENG XIAOGANG, CPPCC MEMBER FILM DIRECTOR "Telling China stories effectively is the mission of our time. Only Chinese film directors can tell China stories well."

HAN BIN HENAN MUSEUM "How can you make the balance between commercialism and protection?"

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "Normally, we focus on historical, artistic and scientific values. But we cannot blind our eyes to the economic values."

FENG XIAOGANG, CPPCC MEMBER FILM DIRECTOR "Chinese films are doing quite well. The key is how to transform market success into cultural influence."

HAN BIN HENAN MUSEUM "The Henan Museum has had great success in a recent TV series, called The National Treasures."

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "The number of public audience increased a lot, especially among the young generation." 

FENG XIAOGANG, CPPCC MEMBER FILM DIRECTOR "Back in 1997, the Chinese film box was 800 million. Last year, it was an estimated 60 billion yuan. There're too many poor quality movies. The reason behind is a lack of talents, especially the movie directors, who fall far short of the industry needs. China's movie market is expected to become the world's largest by 2020. The shortage of qualified movie directors will then become even more severe."

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "We pay attention to the protection, but it is a matter of market economy. The cultural relics have their economic value."

HAN BIN "How can you tell the China stories vividly with these pieces of ancient artifacts?"

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "We hold exhibitions, operate educational activities, and take advantage of new media. We also try our best to make cultural products."

FENG XIAOGANG, CPPCC MEMBER FILM DIRECTOR "To achieve the leap forward from a big movie country to movie power, we need to take talent cultivation seriously from now on and implement the strategy as soon as possible."

MA XIAOLIN, CPPCC MEMBER DIRECTOR, HENAN MUSEUM "It's important to invest in culture industry, but I think it's not enough, there's a lot of potential. We should understand the taste of foreigners. It's a long way I think. We should provide more products to overseas, we can send exhibitions, publish more archeological books, and take advantage of new media to enlarge the influence."

FENG XIAOGANG, CPPCC MEMBER FILM DIRECTOR "I now call for China's film administration, to increase the amount of special funding from the current 2-3 billion per year, for the young promising film directors."

HAN BIN BEIJING "What I get from the political advisers from the culture and entertainment sectors is China needs to invest more in building its global image. But it will take more than money alone to make Chinese culture and ideas appeal to the world. And this is a crucial issue for the country to win friends and have influence. Han Bin, CGTN, Beijing."