Li Qunqun: Historical Explorations and Contemporary Insights into the Communist Party of China's Cultural Mission during the New Democratic Revolution [1]
For over a century, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has consistently taken the "logic of responsibility" as its primary logic of action. By continuously clarifying its own historical mission and functional role on the basis of focusing on the fundamental interests of all people, the Party has demonstrated the unique spiritual characteristics of a Marxist party and constructed the distinct hallmark of a mission-oriented party. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution [1], the CPC established the development of a "culture of the masses of the people, led by the proletariat, which is anti-imperialist and anti-feudal" as its cultural program, thereby forming the cultural mission of the CPC for that era. The CPC’s clear cognition of its cultural mission and its conscious actions in bravely shouldering it greatly promoted the prosperity and development of New Democratic culture. Xi Jinping has pointed out: "We must take the Party’s historical experience as an important ideological weapon for correctly judging the situation, scientifically foreseeing the future, and grasping historical initiative." In order to shoulder the new cultural mission and better respond to various risks and challenges on the road ahead, we should derive enlightenment from history and extract the "magic weapons" [2] for defeating the enemy from our experience.
I. The Establishment of the Cultural Subjectivity of the Chinese Nation and the Awakening of Cultural Mission Consciousness
In modern times, traditional Chinese culture encountered a powerful impact from alien cultures, and the confusion over cultural identity caused a crisis in traditional Chinese culture. The question of how to handle the relationship between Chinese and Western cultures was placed realistically before the Chinese people. However, whether it was the "Total Westernization" school [3], which completely ignored the cultural subjectivity of China, or the advocates of "Huaxia-centrism" [4] who clung to outmoded conventions, both exhibited a narrow cultural mentality to a large extent. Since the founding of the CPC, the Party gradually formed a correct understanding and scientific judgment regarding the "debate between substance and utility" [5] and reconstructed the cultural subject, marking the gradual awakening of the Party's consciousness of its cultural mission.
(1) Confusion of Cultural Identity: The Modern Crisis of Traditional Chinese Culture
After the Opium War, as the invasion of China by Western powers gradually deepened, the economic base of traditional Chinese society disintegrated, and the moral norms and spiritual culture of feudal society were fundamentally shaken. Many people of high ideals [6] attempted to seek strategies from Western culture to make the country strong and resist foreign aggression in order to save the nation from subjugation, but they fell into an endless struggle over the "substance and utility model." "The crisis in China over the past century is fundamentally a cultural crisis." Society at that time faced a question: "Under the strong impact of Western culture, can modern Chinese people continue to maintain their original cultural identity?" According to the different attitudes toward this question, they were roughly divided into three schools.
One school consisted of Western-centrists who advocated for "total rejection [of tradition] and complete Westernization." In their eyes, Western culture rooted in science was superior; they advocated for the abolition of traditional Chinese culture and the value system centered on Confucianism, replacing it with a Western value system. Another school consisted of conservatives who advocated for "honoring Confucius and studying the classics, and restoring ancient rites." Compared with other periods, the trend of honoring Confucius in the early Republic of China [7] carried a strong color of political restoration [8], as "a group of people who believed in the Confucian religion vainly hoped to use the power of government decrees to restore the dignity of Confucianism." The third school was the New Confederates who advocated "taking Chinese learning as the substance and moderately drawing from the foreign" (literally "taking China as the ti and moderately examining the outside"). That is, they advocated taking traditional Chinese culture as the subject while moderately absorbing foreign cultural ideas, "taking the essence of both Chinese and Western civilizations, melting and casting them, and achieving a thorough synthesis." On one hand, their acceptance and cognition of Western culture moved toward rational selection and transformation; on the other hand, they moved from the critique and neglect of traditional Confucian culture toward a rational return and conversion, which exposed the residual "Huaxia-centrism" in their deep-seated cultural mentality. However, the prevalence of Western-centrism made the propositions of this school powerless to save the situation. Modern Chinese thought and cultural trends exhibited a very special antinomy: "on one side was the quest for national self-preservation, which should be affirmed; on the other side, however, was an all-out self-negation in terms of culture."
After the "May Fourth Movement" [9], a large number of intellectuals with communist tendencies began to study and apply Marxism, using it as an ideological weapon to analyze social reality and guide the future destiny of the country, eventually establishing the CPC. The CPC chose Marxism through a rational judgment among numerous social trends. As Qu Qiubai [10] said: "The 'Cultural Revolution' of the Soviets is to criticize the consciousness and cultural life of the landlord and bourgeois classes from a proletarian standpoint, to enable the broad masses to accept all truly valuable cultural tools and knowledge in human history, while at the same time clearing away the influence of feudal and bourgeois consciousness." Li Dazhao [11] also pointed out: "Since Eastern civilization is declining in stagnation and Western civilization is exhausted under materialism, to save the world's crisis, nothing less than the rise of a third new civilization will suffice to cross this precipice." He advocated for absorbing the rational elements of both Eastern and Western cultures while overcoming their inherent defects to form a "Third New Civilization" to save the fate of Chinese culture. These rational discourses laid the ideological foundation for traditional Chinese culture to subsequently find the correct direction.
(2) The Awakening of Cultural Subjective Consciousness: The Proposal of a "New Culture of the Chinese Nation" Manifested the Cultural Mission of the CPC
As the understanding of Marxism gradually deepened, the CPC began to thoroughly correct the erroneous tendency of dogmatizing Marxism after the Great Revolution [12], as well as the attitude of blindly rejecting and criticizing traditional culture. This manifested the awakening of the CPC's consciousness as a cultural subject—a "completely new cultural force." In Oppose Book Worship, Mao Zedong proposed for the first time: "The 'books' of Marxism must be studied, but they must be integrated with the actual conditions of our country." The CPC rationally criticized and absorbed the essence of traditional culture, opening the prelude to the integration of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture. During the Yan'an Period [13], Zhang Wentan [14] believed that an answer should be given to the "Sino-Western cultural debate" that had troubled the cultural and intellectual circles for many years. He proposed the proposition of "building a new culture for the Chinese nation," pointing out: "The new culture is not a total negation of the old culture, but the true 'carrying forward and shedding light' [15] of the old culture. The new culture is not a strange thing dropped from the sky, but a higher development of past human culture." As the relevant reflection deepened day by day, Mao Zedong proposed to build a "national, scientific, and mass-based" "new culture of the Chinese nation," declaring that this was our goal in the cultural field: "To turn a China ruled by the old culture and hence ignorant and backward into a China ruled by the new culture and hence civilized and progressive." In Mao's view, the new culture was no longer the so-called new culture of the bourgeoisie, but something that reflected the new politics and new economy in ideological form, belonging to the socialist culture of the world proletariat. "Since the new political force of China—the Chinese proletariat and the Communist Party of China—has mounted the Chinese political stage, this cultural force, in new attire and with new weapons, joining with all possible allies, has deployed its ranks." Marxists consciously combined the construction of new culture with the goals of the Chinese revolution, the cultural renaissance with the transformation of Chinese society, and the fate of fine traditional Chinese culture with the trends of world development, launching a heroic offensive against imperialist and feudal culture. This was a further manifestation of the CPC's mission consciousness as a cultural subject, causing China's cultural revolution to become a part of the world proletarian socialist cultural revolution, expanding the path for the development of fine traditional Chinese culture, and pointing out the correct track for the development of Chinese culture.
II. The CPC's Understanding and Practice of the Cultural Mission During the New Democratic Revolution Period
During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the CPC advocated for building a new, national, scientific, and mass-based culture led by the proletariat and guided by Marxism, based on the critical inheritance of and learning from the excellent cultures of ancient and modern China and the world. The Party took the initiative to shoulder the cultural mission endowed by history, enabling fine traditional Chinese culture to gradually emerge from its modern crisis and opening a correct path for cultural development.
(1) Recognition of the Cultural Leadership Power Constructed the Prerequisite Basis for the Rationality of the Cultural Mission
The recognition of the leading force in culture is the prerequisite for the smooth development of New Democratic cultural construction. After the proletariat transformed from a "class in itself" into a "class for itself," it had to be led by its own independent political party. As Engels said: "For the proletariat to be strong enough to win on the day of decision it must—and this Marx and I have held since 1847—form a separate party distinct from all others and opposed to them, a conscious class party." In the era when the proletariat stepped onto the political stage, the leadership responsibility for the Chinese revolutionary war naturally fell on the shoulders of the CPC. Mao Zedong pointed out: "History has determined that the task of China's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal bourgeois-democratic revolution cannot be completed under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, but must be completed under the leadership of the proletariat." The CPC realized and formed the theory of revolutionary leadership [16]. The class that controls material production necessarily "rules also as producers of ideas, and regulates the production and distribution of the ideas of their age; thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch." This emphasized that the proletariat must grasp cultural leadership, and all cultural work must adhere to the Party's political leadership. This also meant that in addition to grasping revolutionary leadership, achieving cultural leadership was a vital link.
The cultural construction of the proletariat is a long-term, arduous, and complex systemic project. "The completion of cultural tasks cannot be as rapid as political and military tasks... In a period of acute crisis, a political victory can be achieved in a few weeks. In a war, victory can be achieved in a few months, but in the cultural field, it is impossible to achieve victory in such a short time." This determined that the CPC's realization and strengthening of cultural leadership was a continuous historical process. If the Party wished to achieve the goal of "completely replacing the old artistic ranks with the new artistic ranks among the masses, and completely replacing the ranks of those detached from the masses with those linked to the masses among artistic workers," it "still required a long-term and multifaceted huge effort." The recognition of cultural leadership by the proletariat clarified that the CPC is the leading force in cultural construction, pushing the theory of the proletariat's leadership in the democratic revolution a large step forward and laying the theoretical foundation for the rationality of the CPC's cultural mission.
(2) Recognition of the Tasks of Cultural Construction Revealed the Epochal Characteristics of the Cultural Mission
The CPC's understanding of the tasks of cultural construction accurately grasped and answered the themes of the times, while also accurately predicting the era's trends in cultural development, comprehensively reflecting the spirit of the times and revealing the epochal characteristics of the CPC’s cultural mission.
"The real content of all epoch-making systems is formed by the needs of the period in which these systems were produced." The cultural mission of the CPC reflects the objective existence of the Party's mission at different historical stages, and what determines this objective existence is the principal contradiction [17] of different historical periods. The CPC's cultural mission cannot exist in isolation from the soil of the times; it is deeply constrained by the objective development of the era and therefore possesses distinct characteristics of specific historical periods. During the New Democratic Revolution, national contradictions rose to become the principal contradiction of the Chinese nation. To win a total victory in the War of Resistance [18], the CPC formulated cultural and educational policies centered on the needs of resisting Japan. Lenin once pointed out that literary and artistic undertakings, such as writing, "must become part of the common cause of the proletariat, 'a gear and a screw' of one single great Social-Democratic mechanism set in motion by the entire politically conscious vanguard of the entire working class." Mao Zedong inherited this view, affirming Lenin's metaphor of the writing business as "gears and screws" of Social Democracy, and pointed out: "The position of the Party's literary and artistic work in the Party's entire revolutionary work is fixed and well-placed; it is subordinate to the revolutionary tasks prescribed by the Party within a certain revolutionary period." Therefore, "under the principle of everything for the war, all cultural and educational undertakings should be made to suit the needs of the war," and it was required that our cultural and educational policies "should center on improving and popularizing the anti-Japanese knowledge, skills, and national self-respect of the masses of the people." This was to make the people consciously, voluntarily, and actively fight for the cause of the War of Resistance, and to implement the general policy of cultural and educational work using methods of revolutionary struggle and class struggle, thereby making culture and education serve the revolutionary war and class struggle. This clarified the nature and purpose of cultural and educational work. Under the guidance of the Party’s line and policies, cultural workers in various base areas [19] publicized and reflected the heroic deeds of the masses in resisting the enemy through various means, strengthening the people's awareness of resistance, inspiring the fighting spirit of the masses, and laying the class and mass foundation for the total victory of the War of Resistance.
(3) The understanding of the path of cultural development established the practical principles of the cultural mission. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, Chinese Communists blazed a trail for cultural development characterized by the New Democratic Revolution—a development path that integrated the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture and realized a two-way interaction between the two. Marxism spread deeply within China and became increasingly integrated with the Chinese workers' movement.
As Marxism spread in China, early Chinese Communists did not stop at the propagation of revolutionary theory, but attempted to seek a path for the development of Chinese culture starting from the basic tenets of Marxism. "The Yan’an Rectification Movement [20] against subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing [21] carried out by the Communist Party of China in recent years is intended to further integrate the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism with Chinese revolutionary practice, Chinese history, and Chinese culture." The integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture was reflected, on one hand, in the enlightenment provided by the Marxist historical materialist conception of the essence of culture. Inspired by historical materialism, Chinese Communists defined "culture" starting from the relationship between culture and the economy; they not only interpreted the importance of culture and its reciprocal relationship with the economy but also profoundly revealed the essence of culture. Qu Qiubai [22] was the founder of the early historical materialist view of culture. He was the first to define culture from the perspective of historical materialism, pointing out that "so-called 'culture' is the sum of all human 'doings'," and these "doings" include productive forces, economic relations, socio-political organizations, social psychology, and various systems of thought. On the basis of upholding the decisive role of the economy over culture, Mao Zedong abandoned the historical apriorism and mysticism surrounding ideology and culture, recognizing the reaction of culture upon the economy. He pointed out: "A given culture (as an ideological form) is a reflection of the politics and economics of a given society, and the former in turn has a tremendous influence and effect upon the latter." He further emphasized that "the 'cultural revolution' is the reflection of the political and economic revolutions in the realm of ideology, and serves them."
On the other hand, this integration was expressed in the enlightenment offered by Marxist historical materialism regarding the attitude toward cultural inheritance. On the question of how to correctly treat ancient Chinese culture and foreign culture, Mao Zedong advocated neither wholesale rejection nor blind imitation, but rather the use of Marxist stands, viewpoints, and methods to conduct specific analysis so as to advance China’s new culture and serve the ongoing struggle for national independence and liberation. He stated: "We must never refuse to inherit and learn from the ancients and foreigners, even things from the feudal class and the bourgeoisie." Regarding traditional Chinese culture, Mao Zedong advocated critical analysis, noting: "China has created a brilliant ancient culture during its long feudal period. To clear up the process of development of this ancient culture, to discard its feudal dross and absorb its democratic essence [23], is a necessary condition for developing our new national culture and increasing our national self-confidence; but we must never swallow anything and everything uncritically. We must separate all the rotten things of the ancient feudal ruling class from the fine ancient popular culture—that is, from things which had a more or less democratic and revolutionary character." The cultural development path of integrating Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture clarified the essence of culture, activated the vitality of Chinese civilization, and promoted the modern transformation of Chinese civilization.
(4) The understanding of the principles and positions of cultural construction indicated the value orientation of the cultural mission. The question of "for whom" culture is produced "is a fundamental question." During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the Party's cultural work moved people with emotion and persuaded them with reason. Through patient explanation and persuasion, it achieved a fusion of thoughts and feelings with the broadest masses of the people and unified the people's ideological understanding, thereby constructing the strongest and most reliable ideological defense system for the masses.
In his Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao Zedong systematically answered many controversial topics in the literary and art movement. He pointed out that the problem of literature and art is "basically a matter of 'for the masses' and 'how to serve the masses'." Regarding the question of "for the masses," Mao repeatedly emphasized: "Our stand is that of the proletariat and of the masses." This principled stand drew a fundamental line of demarcation between proletarian literature and art and that of all exploiting classes, pointing out the fundamental direction for the development of proletarian literature and art. Regarding the question of "how to serve the masses," at the end of 1944, Mao Zedong pointed out in his speech to the Conference of Cultural and Educational Workers of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region that "all work done for the masses must start from their needs." The subsequent Cultural and Educational Congress summarized various experiences of mass cultural and educational work since the Production Movement and the Rectification Movement, proposing the development of a new art that "reflects the life of the people and guides the life of the people." The main method for developing this new art was to launch large-scale mass cultural and educational movements. Through various forms of social mobilization, the CPC's work in "cultural land reclamation" achieved significant results: "The masses of the people now not only understand how to broadly obtain cultural rights but have also begun to understand how to skillfully use the weapon of culture." The intellect of the masses was enlightened and their cultural identity was strengthened, winning a popular base for the CPC to undertake its cultural mission while demonstrating the value orientation of that mission.
III. Inspirations for Shouldering the New Cultural Mission in the New Era
Historical experience comes from the past and points toward the road ahead. In the process of the New Democratic Revolution, Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, conducted valuable explorations into the path of Chinese cultural construction while leading the New Democratic Revolution and solving the epochal tasks of national liberation and democratic revolution, demonstrating the spiritual character of the CPC in bravely shouldering its cultural mission. Summarizing the historical experience of the CPC's cultural mission during the New Democratic Revolution provides inspiration for the goals, principles, and measures the Party should follow in undertaking its new cultural mission under new circumstances.
(1) Uphold the fundamentals and break new ground: Persist in the Party’s cultural leadership and grasp the direction of cultural development. During the New Democratic Revolution, Mao Zedong pointed out: "To grasp ideological leadership is the first priority in grasping all leadership." The Party obtained local cultural leadership in the anti-Japanese revolutionary base areas and established a united front in thought and culture, thereby laying a firm ideological and cultural foundation for the victory of the New Democratic Revolution. After the founding of New China, the Party continuously adjusted the basic strategies and policies of publicity, ideological, and cultural work according to changes in the ideological and cultural situation, thereby continuously strengthening the Party's command and guidance in these fields. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has proceeded from the overall situation to comprehensively deepen its understanding and grasp of cultural leadership. Persisting in the Party's cultural leadership has become a consistent core element of the Party's work in the fields of publicity, ideology, and culture. The core proposition involved in cultural leadership is ideological leadership. Facing the complex international situation, Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must firmly grasp the leadership, management, and discourse power of ideological work; it must never be allowed to fall into other hands at any time, otherwise we will commit an irreparable historical error."
On one hand, persisting in the Party's cultural leadership is an act of "upholding the fundamentals" for the CPC. Xi Jinping pointed out: "To uphold the fundamentals means upholding the fundamental system of the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field, the fundamental requirements of the 'Two Combinations' [24], the cultural leadership of the CPC, and the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation." Persisting in the Party's cultural leadership is the fundamental political guarantee for adhering to and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, and firmly grasping ideological leadership is the cornerstone of persisting in cultural leadership. To firmly grasp ideological leadership and build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion and leading power means attaching extreme importance to ideological work from an intellectual height, enhancing the sense of historical responsibility and subjective consciousness in doing ideological work well, and fortifying the ideological foundations of socialist ideology. It means firming up Marxist faith, translating the vision for a better life and lofty goals into conscious action, and transforming the scientific theory of Marxism into a powerful spiritual force for understanding and transforming the world. It means being highly vigilant against major risks in the ideological field, consolidating and strengthening mainstream public opinion for striving in the New Era, and demonstrating the positive, healthy, and upward mainstream values and core essence of Chinese society.
On the other hand, further persisting in the Party's cultural leadership is inseparable from "breaking new ground" (innovation). Innovation means creating new institutional mechanisms, ideas, and discourse narratives for publicity, ideological, and cultural work. The Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensive Deepening of Reform and Advancing Chinese-path Modernization, adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, proposed the major task of deepening the reform of cultural institutional mechanisms. This provides the fundamental guidance and indicates the way forward for the reform and development of the Party's publicity, ideological, and cultural work on the new journey in the New Era. To strengthen innovation in these areas, first, we must quickly adapt to the situation of rapid technological development, accelerate cultural digital transformation, and develop new types of cultural business formats to expand new boundaries and add new momentum to the "Two Creativities" [25] of fine traditional Chinese culture. Second, we must deepen the governance of internet culture, focusing on the creation of internet cultural content and fostering a positive, healthy, and upward-tending internet culture. Finally, we must form a discourse narrative of international consensus and common values based on the iconic concepts and spiritual characteristics of the Chinese nation, enhancing the initiative and influence of Chinese culture's discourse in a globalized context.
(2) Fusing the ancient and the modern: Carry forward fine traditional culture and strengthen confidence in Chinese culture. "Those who seek the growth of a tree must fix its roots firmly" [26]. In the long process of historical civilizational evolution, the Chinese nation created the thought systems of the "Hundred Schools of Thought," a vast sea of literature and classics, and peerless skills passed down through generations. These collectively constitute the profound and colorful fine traditional Chinese culture, making an indelible contribution to human civilization. During the New Democratic Revolution, regarding the attitude toward traditional culture, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Our nation has a history of several thousand years, it has its own characteristics and many precious items." As Marxists, we should inherit and carry forward these historical treasures. On the new journey in the New Era, at the Cultural Inheritance and Development Symposium, Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Chinese civilization has continued uninterrupted for thousands of years and survived many tribulations without withering; this is a miracle of human civilization and the source of our confidence."
First, promoting excellent traditional culture and strengthening cultural confidence means pushing for the creative transformation and innovative development [27] of excellent traditional Chinese culture on the basis of resolutely guarding our cultural roots, thereby rooting and souling the continuous creation of new glories for Chinese culture. Looking deep into history, from the moral principle of "seeing gain but thinking of righteousness, and being ready to give one's life at the moment of danger" [28] to the ecological concept of "the unity of heaven and humanity, and the co-nourishing of all things" [29]; from the political wisdom of "diligence leads to success, and bearing toil and complaint" [30] to the benevolent realm of "extending bounty to the masses and regarding people as one's kin and things as one's kind" [31]; from the conduct of a junzi [32] in "cultivating the self through stillness and nurturing virtue through frugality" [33] to the cognitive method of "the investigation of things to extend knowledge, and the unity of knowledge and action" [34]—certain elements of excellent traditional Chinese culture have spanned time and space, transcending national borders to display a lasting and vigorous vitality. By fully absorbing the noble values and moral sentiments contained within excellent traditional Chinese culture, and by carrying out its creative transformation and innovative development while advancing with the times, we provide incomparably solid support and rich nourishment for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to shoulder its new cultural mission in the New Era.
Second, promoting excellent traditional culture and strengthening confidence in Chinese culture means reinforcing cultural identity. Cultural confidence is based on cultural identity; it enhances national cohesion and provides a stable psychological framework, a positive behavioral orientation, a standardized value system, and noble moral norms for undertaking the new cultural mission. Cultural identity is the value affirmation and identification by a cultural subject toward the cultural symbols they follow, the cultural space in which they live, and the cultural concepts to which they belong; it is "the deepest level of identity." This identity includes both a high degree of self-affirmation and an affirmation of other members living in the same cultural space. Through internal cohesive forces, it forms a basically consistent set of cultural values among social members; these values become the bond maintaining society while strengthening national cohesion.
Third, promoting excellent traditional culture and strengthening confidence in Chinese culture means persisting in independence and self-reliance, and firmly grasping the initiative in cultural development. "To strengthen cultural confidence is to persist in following one's own path." Cultural confidence represents a cultural psychology while also demonstrating a cultural breadth and realm. As Xi Jinping emphasized: "This spirit of independent exploration and this firm determination to follow our own path is the true essence of how our Party has continually awakened from setbacks and marched from victory to victory." The Report to the 20th CPC National Congress elevated "self-confidence and self-reliance" to the level of the worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This inspires the CPC to use a spiritual outlook of self-confidence and self-reliance—along with the active consciousness of basing cultural construction on its own strength and the mission-driven consciousness of shouldering the heavy burden of cultural development—to continuously create new glories for Chinese culture.
(III) People First: Respecting the People’s Subject Position and Activating the People’s Subjective Power
Marxism holds that "historical activity is the activity of the masses, and with the thoroughness of the historical activity, the magnitude of the mass whose activity it is will also increase." Throughout the long process of social-historical development, the Chinese nation created a brilliant Chinese culture. However, in pre-modern Chinese society, culture belonged only to the ruling class and was monopolized by a small number of elites. As Mao Zedong pointed out: "In China, it has always been the case that only the landlords had culture and the peasants had none." Yet, one must also see that "the culture of the landlords was created by the peasants, for what created the landlord's culture was nothing other than the sweat and blood wrung from the peasants." The labor of the peasants created the prerequisite conditions for the landlord class to separate themselves from material production and participate in spiritual-cultural production; therefore, fundamentally speaking, the people are the subjective force that creates culture. At the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art [35], Mao Zedong specified that revolutionary literature and art must consciously orient their direction of service, their target audience, and their stage toward the broadest masses of the people. This awakened the cultural consciousness of the masses and restored their cultural subject position. The masses contain infinite creativity and are the most active and positive factor in promoting cultural development. Respecting the people's subject position and activating their subjective power are successful experiences of the CPC in undertaking its cultural mission to continuously create new glories for Chinese civilization. Xi Jinping has inherited the thought of CPC members from the New Democratic Revolution period regarding the people's subject position, emphasizing that cultural construction must persist in being people-centered and truly give play to the role of the masses in driving social history.
In the vastness of heaven and earth, the common people come first [36]. The masses are the practical and value subjects of cultural construction. Not only do they influence and determine cultural trends by driving the development of cultural productive forces, but they also directly participate in driving the transformation of cultural content as the main force. For the CPC to undertake its new cultural mission, it must respect the people's subject position and activate their subjective power. This emphasizes that cultural construction must focus on and culminate in the people—"focusing on satisfying the diverse, multi-level, and multi-faceted spiritual and cultural needs of the masses." It requires actively responding to the people's cultural demands, striving to improve the quality and value of cultural achievements, and achieving a high-quality supply of excellent cultural works. This emphasizes that cultural creation must rely on the masses, drawing the source of power for creation from their simple lives and great practices to create works that go deep into the lives of the people and are "loved by the people" (xǐwén-lèjiàn). This emphasizes that cultural evaluation must be guided by people's satisfaction, "treating the people as the connoisseurs and judges of literary and artistic aesthetics," and taking the affirmation of the broad masses as the important criterion for judging the quality of works and the level of creative achievement.
(IV) Integrating China and the Foreign: Maintaining a Firm Stand on Chinese Culture and Gathering the Essence of Human Civilization
Undertaking the new cultural mission requires a broad global vision and a heart for the world (tianxia). Exchange and mutual learning are the essential requirements for the development of civilizations. We must gather the essence of human civilization with the magnanimity of a great power—one that is inclusive and "all-encompassing"—so that the world's excellent and vital cultural elements can inject continuous vitality and nourishment into the creation of new glories for Chinese culture. In July 1944, during a talk with the British journalist Gunther Stein, Mao Zedong emphasized: "Our belief in Marxism as a correct method of thought does not mean we ignore the value of the Chinese cultural heritage or of non-Marxist foreign thought." He further pointed out: "Our attitude is to critically accept our own historical heritage and foreign thought. We oppose both the blind acceptance of any idea and the blind rejection of any idea. We Chinese must use our own heads to think and decide what things can grow in our own soil." This demonstrated Mao Zedong's open cultural spirit based on maintaining cultural subjectivity, providing a historical reference for the CPC in the New Era. Xi Jinping has inherited and developed Mao’s view on cultural subjectivity in the New Era, stating that we must "maintain a firm stand on Chinese culture, inherit Chinese cultural genes, and demonstrate Chinese aesthetic style."
To maintain a firm stand on Chinese culture and gather the essence of human civilization, we should, on one hand, base ourselves on China's concrete national conditions, always start from the actual development needs of our country, and adhere to our own nationality. As Mao Zedong pointed out: "In studying China, we must take China as the center; we must sit on the body of China to study the things of the world." We must promote excellent traditional Chinese culture going global and "tell the China story well." We must "make clear that Chinese culture accumulates the deepest spiritual pursuits of the Chinese nation and provides rich nourishment for its continuous growth and development; make clear that excellent traditional Chinese culture is a prominent advantage of the Chinese nation and our deepest cultural soft power." We must truly integrate Chinese characteristics, the Chinese spirit, and Chinese wisdom into the China story, finding the common points of discourse and emotional resonance between China's story and the outside world to truly realize the "going out" of excellent traditional Chinese culture.
On the other hand, as China increasingly moves toward the center of the world stage, we must promote the development of cultural diversity with an open global vision, "calling for respect for the diversity of world civilizations and strengthening exchange and mutual learning between different civilizations." Cultural diversity is both a factual judgment and a value judgment. As Xi Jinping said: "Humans differ only in skin color and language; civilizations differ only in their colorful variety, but there is never any distinction of superior or inferior." Cultural differences should not be a source of conflict but should be the coexistence of diverse cultures. Only through mutual learning and exchange between different cultures can human civilization be continuously promoted from lower to higher stages and from simplicity to richness, thereby providing the world with a theoretical framework and historical vision that transcends the "Clash of Civilizations" [37] theory.
(Project: This article is a stage result of the Jilin Provincial Department of Education's Special Project for Ideological and Political Work in Universities "Research on the Mechanism of Integrating Red Culture Resources into Ideological and Political Education in Universities" (JJKH20241368SZ) and the National Funded Postdoctoral Researcher Program "Research on the Practical Mechanism of Developing the Spirit of Struggle in the Process of Chinese-path Modernization" (GZC20230412).)
(Author: Li Qunqun, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Marxist Studies, Northeast Normal University)
Network Editor: Ma Jingren Source: World Socialism, No. 2, 2025