By Zou Le

Despite China's rapidly growing film industry, the country won't introduce a film rating system anytime soon, a senior official said Thursday.

Zhao Shi, deputy director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), said during a news conference that after studying the issue, the body concluded that launching an age-appropriate rating system for films is not yet "appropriate" on the Chinese mainland.

"Theoretically, a film rating system responds to the demands of movie fans from different groups with different tastes, but in practice, no successful film rating system has been found," she said.

Zhao said that in some countries where the film industry is well developed, the rating system doesn't always help prevent underage children from watching films for adults.

She pointed out that China has embraced some new ideas over the years that it has adopted a system that is "suitable to China's national conditions."

On the Chinese mainland, films must get the approval of SARFT before they hit the screens across the country. 

China's film industry has enjoyed great prosperity for several years.

Box office revenues in China have climbed 30 percent a year for five consecutive years starting in 2005. For seven consecutive years, revenues from domestic films have surpassed income from the limited number of foreign films allowed to show in China.

In the publishing industry, the number of books and other types of publications was more than 8 million pieces last year, a 10.4 percent increase from last year. 

Some observers attributed the prosperous trend to a wave of reforms that began in 2003.

Since then, hundreds and thousands of State-funded film production companies, art and performance troupes, publishing houses and many other culture sectors have been asked to become self-reliant and market-oriented enterprises in order to boost their productivity, innovation and competitiveness.

The major aspects of the reform is expected to be completed by 2012, said Sun Zhijun, deputy head of the publicity department of the CPC Central Committee.