Chinese singer Zhu Zheqin poses with performers of ethnic minorities when she was named as the United Nations Development Programme China National Goodwill Ambassador in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 9, 2009. Zhu Zheqin, also known as Dadawa, was named the ambassador to enhance the protection of China's ethnic minority cultures. (Xinhua/Wang Yongji) Photo Gallery>>>

     BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese singer Zhu Zheqin was named goodwill ambassador here on Thursday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to enhance the protection of China's ethnic minority cultures.

    A two-year-long protection plan called "Show the World: Culture-based Development Goodwill Action for Ethnic Minorities in China" was also initiated by UNDP. Zhu Zheqin, also Dadawa, a Han nationality born in south China's Guangdong province, was named ambassador.

    The plan consists of two components, including "preservation and revival of the ethnic music" and "preservation and development of he ethnic handicrafts."

    Zhu, who was famous for her music with minor ethnic elements, said she had traveled to many places and lived with minorities in the past ten years. "The arts of them touched me and influenced mea lot," said Dadawa, who earned her reputation in 1990s by a song named Sister Drum.

    The UNDP initiative, covering Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai provinces, Tibet and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions, aims to preserve culture as well as to develop them, Dadawa said.

    "We hope it will provide more business and job opportunities to the local people," she said.

    UN resident representative in China, Khalid Malik, said that the protection work had "special meaning" amid the global financial crisis.

    "It will increase people's incomes in the ethnic minorities' residential areas and help solve the problems of the crisis," Malik said.

    "The crisis will not last long but the cultures will," he said.

    "Chinese ethnic cultures had influenced the country and the world. It's time to protect their culture."

    Dadawa is the second goodwill ambassador for China after the actor Zhou Xun, who focused on environmental protection work, said Malik.

    Globally, UNDP has six goodwill ambassadors, including soccer player Ronaldo Zinadine Zidane and Didier Drogba, tennis star Maria Sharapova, Japanese actress Misako Kono and prince Haakon Magnus of Norway.

United Nations resident representative in China Khalid Malik (R) presents the certificate to Chinese singer Zhu Zheqin when she was named as the United Nations Development Programme China National Goodwill Ambassador in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 9, 2009. Zhu Zheqin, also known as Dadawa, was named the ambassador to enhance the protection of China's ethnic minority cultures. (Xinhua/Wang Yongji) Photo Gallery>>>