Prior to 1951, the development of Shannan's culture and art was very slow and mass cultural activities were very limited to traditional celebrations. After liberation in 1951, under the great support of the Party and the Central Government, the prefecture's national culture began to thrive. By the end of 1994, the prefecture had five art performance groups at the prefecture or county level. Cultural stations or libraries had been set up in seven counties and over 40 townships established cultural rooms. The number of rural film projecting team grew from one in 1956 to 94 today. Some 43 rural spare-time publicity teams began work at the grassroots levels. A great number of Tibetan cultural and artistic personnel have emerged.

The Shannan Cultural Team (now the Shannan Cultural Troupe) was founded in 1956. Over the past four decades, the troupe has been constantly strengthened and its facilities have been improved. As its performance level has been improved, it has won many prizes in various national and regional competitions. The troupe's directors, composers, musicians, dancers and art personnel are either Tibetan or members of other ethnic minority groups. In June of 1995, the Shannan Cultural Troupe visited Western Europe on behalf of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In 1980, the prefecture established a public art center, which organized rescue efforts involving Tibetan opera. The performers organized by the center are versatile and display the unique national character. They are well-known both at home and outside the prefecture and have been praised many times by the Ministry of Culture and the regional government. In recent years, the center has also trained 400 or so cultural personnel for the grassroots levels and has actively helped all counties and township spare-time publicity teams to conduct activities.

In 1986, Shannan began an organized program to rescue cultural relics. Teams were organized to collect and sort folk stories, songs and proverbs in 130 or so villages and compiled three volumes-Shannan folk Proverbs, Shannan Folk Songs and Shannan Folk Stories, preserving valuable elements of cultural heritage for later generations.

In 1982, Shannan cultural liaison preparatory team was set up. They began work on the Shannan Literature and Art magazine and nurturing a literature and art creation contingent drawing mainly from local ethnic Tibetans. In 1987, Shannan selected 43 excellent literary works and rewarded 30 writers. The Shannan Literature and Art magazine (in Tibetan) has so far published 24 issues containing more than 840 articles on various subjects. They were listed in the National Bibliography of Periodicals in 1990.

Shannan is the cradle of the Tibetan civilization. In order to rescue rich historical, religious and national relics, the Shannan Prefecture Cultural Relics Administration Committee was established in 1981. Through years of hard work, the committee has preserved and collected some 7,000 relics in accordance with the State Administration Law on Cultural Relics. At the same time, coordinated with the Cultural Administration Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, it completed the compilation of the cultural relics catalogues for Nedong, Qoingyai, Chanang, Cona, Lhongzi, Gyacha, and Qusum counties. The committee also provided guidance and assistance in the repair of historical sites and scenic spots and formulated measure to protect cultural relics. In 1995, Tibet's first museum of history was erected in Zetang, with a collection of 3,000 cultural relics.

Film issuance and projection work has been continuously expanded. After the founding of the county film projecting teams in 1960, the prefecture set up a film company and each county now has a film administration station. Some 240 rural film projectors show films in 1,193 places all year round and project 18,000 free films in the rural areas annually.

Shannan opened a Xinhua Bookstore in Nedong County. Other counties followed suit. The prefecture's bookstore sold a total of 5.2 million books in both Tibetan and Chinese languages over the 10 years from 1980 to 1990.

Shannan People's Broadcasting Station was the first prefecture level station in Tibet. It began broadcasting on May 1, 1984. The station has persisted in broadcasting in Tibetan and Chinese languages. At the same time, it relays programs from CCTV and other stations in the region. Since 1985, relay stations have been set up in five counties of Cona, Lhongzi, Lhozha, Comei and Nanggarze. Both the prefecture and the counties have their own TV relay stations and they have installed 17 satellite ground receiving stations. The prefecture's TV station has three channels relaying CCTV's first and second channels and the Tibetan TV Station's programs. Meanwhile, they have set up their own news and art programs.

In recent years, rapid development has been registered in rural and pastoral radio and television work. A total of 115 radio and television relay stations have been erected, thus tremendously raising the coverage rate. Tibet's first cable TV station was completed and put into operation in Zetang in July of 1995.