The Chinese government will send its artists to the countryside to learn from the masses and  find inspiration for their works of art.

The State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and TV said artists, film and TV directors and news presenters will be sent to rural areas to  live there for at least a month in order to "form a correct view of art."

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The Chinese film agency said the move replicated Chairman Mao's heydey when he sent millions of young people to the countryside to learn with the masses.

In a repeat of history, the artists will be following the same path that their predecessors took in honing their art.

Reports said China's sending of artists to the countryside was seen as  an attempt to rehabilitate and educate wayward artists.

China said the group of artists will be sent to several areas for them to hone their art.

Some recruits will be sent to a village for a month to experience and learn local life while the other recruits will be sent to historical sites and other areas with historical significance to China's revolutionary past.

Provincial TV teams have already been drafted in the art campaign. They will visit one of China's battle site to find their muse in creating a new animated film series.

In a statement, the country's media watchdog says the initiative will allow participants to "unearth new subjects" and "create more masterpieces".

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in one of his announcements, said that artists, authors and filmmakers should carry with them in their works the theme of promoting socialist values and not be influenced by the "stench of money."

Xi Jinping has a different view of art from the artists. Part of the government-approved art as reminded by Jinping in one of his speeches in October was art that consist of " fine art works like sunshine from blue sky and breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles,"

Most of the artists drafted in the campaign lamented that their problems were not living in the countryside and learning from the masses but the censorship on their works by the Chinese leader.

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