Shenzhen September 19 2006 – Those who enjoy traditional Chinese culture things like shadowboxing Legend of the White Snake shadow play and Yixing teapot will soon be able to make friends and find mentors soon on the Internet. Today Tencent and the Chinese Young Volunteers Association ("CYVA") jointly convened a news conference on the theme of "Be Active Carry Forward and Develop – Protection of Chinese Cultural Treasures". The two parties made a joint statement declaring their intention to work together in protecting traditional Chinese culture and tabled innovative approaches and ideas to protect national cultural treasures. One key proposal involves volunteer recruitment. Through Tencent's Internet platform and the national volunteer network of the CYVA the two parties plan to enlist young volunteers who want to get involved in national cultural projects recommend these volunteer candidates to senior artists who wish to share their knowledge with younger generations and thus help cultural heritage to be actively fostered and passed on to future generations.

In recent years protecting and transmitting traditional Chinese culture has become a major government concern and has attracted a great deal of attention among Chinese citizens. The CPC Ministry of Education and the Propaganda Department recently declared that starting from this year September will be officially known and celebrated as "Traditional Culture Transmission Month." The aim is to promote education relating to intangible cultural heritage among Chinese youth and instill them with a sense of responsibility in transmitting Chinese culture.

As a leading Internet enterprise Tencent is one of the most popular brands among Chinese young people with over than 530 million registered users. This brand equity implies both great advantages and great responsibilities in respect to guiding children and teenagers to use the Internet in healthy and civilized ways. The CYVA is entirely devoted to social and environmental projects mobilizing young people over 150 million person times and providing more than 5.5 billion volunteer hours to projects of poverty reduction community service and development environmental protection large-scale events disaster recovery and relief as well as overseas service. Throughout this ongoing cultural transmission project volunteers around China will collect samples of endangered national cultural heritage present them via QQ.com to the public and save them in archives.

Tencent Senior Vice President Xu Chenhua stated: "Tencent has made significant contributions to social projects in the past. This time we will be cooperating with the CYVA in linking the idea of a healthy online life with traditional Chinese culture guiding children and teenagers in deepening their knowledge of and love for culture and thus protecting and developing traditional Chinese culture. Through Internet technologies we are mobilizing volunteers. This kind of practice puts innovation at the service of our traditional cultural heritage. Thanks to this project we believe that more people will join forces to protect Chinese culture."

CYVA Vice Chairman and Secretary-General Wang Xuefeng added: "The protection of traditional culture requires both active participation of all social circles and the support of advanced technologies. Through this cooperation Tencent and the CYVA can put their strengths into full play popularize the concept of intangible cultural heritage educate youth and mobilize more people to engage in protecting intangible cultural heritage. In addition with the help of the information technology and Internet technology we can promote our cultural heritage treasures and celebrate their splendor."

As a representative of innovative enterprises Tencent believes the company has a responsibility in educating Chinese youth and actively encourages children and teenagers live a healthy and "green" life on the Internet. This joint project between Tencent and the CYVA to protect cultural treasures is a further example of the company's enthusiasm for public social projects belief in youth and shouldering of its corporate social responsibility.