As one of a serial of reports

this paper is a survey on multimedia researches and applications in China

2003. Since multimedia is a cross research area

papers about multimedia technology are distributed on various journals. We checked about 3 143 papers published on 9 Chinese journals in 2003

from which we have selected 436 on multimedia technology and application. Then we made analysis on these selected papers and the statistics were compared with those from 1999 to 2002. From the results we can find that researchers in China pay more and more attention to digital watermarking

virtual reality

multimodal interface

multimedia data retrieval technology

quality of service

computer supported cooperative work

GIS and Digital Earth

which are also the international evolution trends in a quite long period. We present here an overview on the progress in multimedia technology in China

2003. This article will provide the researchers looking up references with great convenience

and also will be helpful to editors compiling journals and for authors contributing papers.