Han Qingxiang: Expanding the Depth and Breadth of the Study of Xi Jinping's Thinking on Culture
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is a vital component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It represents a major achievement in persisting with the "Two Combinations" [1] and advancing the innovation of Marxist cultural theory. It provides a powerful ideological weapon and a scientific guide for action in performing the work of propaganda, ideology, and culture on the new journey in the New Era, promoting cultural prosperity, and building a leading cultural power. Based on an accurate grasp of the scientific system of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we must profoundly understand the internal logic and core tenets of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, and effectively carry out the study, research, and propagation of this thought.
Accurately Grasping the Objectives of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture within the Theoretical Framework of the Party’s Innovative Theories
While chairing the sixth group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Advancing the systematization and crystallization of theory is an inherent requirement and an important avenue for theoretical innovation." Compared with the Central Committee's requirement for "advancing the systematization and crystallization of theory," a significant gap still exists in our theoretical research. In terms of advancing the systematization and crystallization of theory, Engels’s Anti-Dühring serves as an excellent paradigm. While Marx proposed many of Marxism's original ideas, Engels's greatest contribution was the systematization and crystallization of Marx's series of original ideas. This allowed the Marxist worldview and methodology to take root in people’s hearts and minds, contributing significantly to the widespread global dissemination of Marxist theory. In researching and interpreting Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, we must focus on ascending from the concrete to the abstract, emphasize the overarching framework and the internal connections between various categories, and expand the depth and breadth of our research and interpretation.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is the cultural chapter of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era; it is the theoretical summation of the practical experience of the Party’s leadership in cultural construction during the New Era. In terms of its objectives, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is cut from the same cloth as the Party's innovative theories in the New Era. Seeking happiness for the people, seeking rejuvenation for the nation, and seeking Great Harmony [2] for the world are the "golden keys" to profoundly understanding and comprehensively grasping Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Based on an accurate grasp of the core tenets and internal logic of the Party’s innovative theories in the New Era, we must correctly understand the objectives of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture.
First, the starting point of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is seeking happiness for the people, emphasizing the enrichment of the people’s spiritual world and the strengthening of the people’s spiritual power. Placing equal importance on the people’s material abundance and their spiritual wealth is a crucial aspect of Chinese practice in the New Era. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "We must plan and advance reforms starting from the overall, fundamental, and long-term interests of the people," and "ensure the people have a greater sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security."
Second, Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is dedicated to providing spiritual support and momentum for national rejuvenation. Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires both robust material power and robust spiritual power. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture proposes strengthening cultural confidence to build a solid spiritual foundation for the comprehensive building of a modern socialist country; it proposes the "Second Combination," allowing us to fully utilize the precious resources of fine traditional Chinese culture within a broader cultural space to explore theoretical and institutional innovations for the future; it proposes the continuous consolidation of the cultural subjectivity [3] of the Chinese nation to achieve independence and autonomy in a spiritual sense; and it proposes the new cultural mission for the New Era, charting the roadmap for cultural construction and development in the New Era.
Finally, the objectives of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture manifest the idealistic pursuit of seeking Great Harmony for the world. While the construction of the material world for all humanity has yielded fruitful results, the greatest problem humanity currently faces is that issues have emerged within the spiritual world of the human being itself. The pressing task for the construction of the entire world—including all aspects of China's construction in the New Era—is that we must first focus on the "internal construction" of every individual, which is aimed at the construction of the internal spiritual world. This is the correct path toward a bright future of global peace, security, prosperity, and progress. General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed creating the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization and creating a new form of human advancement; thus, the objectives of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture manifest the idealistic pursuit of seeking Great Harmony for the world.
The Core Tenets and Internal Logic of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture
Measuring a country’s comprehensive strength requires looking at two types of power: hard power and soft power. Achieving the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation is inseparable from hard power, and equally inseparable from cultural soft power. Culture concerns the foundations of the state; culture concerns prosperity and strength.
In pre-capitalist societies, human understanding of the relationship between the self and the external natural world was a blurred unity of subject and object without clear distinction. In modern capitalist society, the philosophical foundation of the West has been the subject-object dichotomy. The Western world views itself as the "subject" and the non-Western world as the "object," emphasizing that the "subject rules the object." We must fully acknowledge that this Western civilization, grounded in a philosophy of dualistic opposition, has made historical contributions to human civilization and played a role in driving the historical process of human civilization. However, this Western civilization based on the subject-object dichotomy has led to global opposition and conflict during the process of modernization, as well as the deterioration of the global ecological environment. Currently, as the changes unseen in a century accelerate and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation enters a critical period, the New Era demands that humanity transcend the subject-object dichotomy in its philosophical concepts.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture adheres to the Marxist philosophical idea of equal development between subjects. It deconstructs "Western-centrism" and proposes that all countries in the world are subjects, equal in terms of rules, rights, and opportunities. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out the need to jointly create a development pattern that is universally beneficial, balanced, coordinated, inclusive, and characterized by win-win cooperation and common prosperity. Xi Jinping Thought on Culture comprehensively elaborates on the status, role, goals, tasks, principles, strategic paths, and practical requirements of cultural construction in the New Era, providing an ideological weapon and action guide for advancing Chinese-path modernization and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Chinese characteristics and philosophical foundations of Chinese-path modernization both emphasize equality and universal benefit, advocating for equal exchange and mutual learning between different civilizations. The cultural form of Chinese-path modernization is closely linked to the aforementioned transformation of philosophical foundations.
Our Party’s new cultural mission in the New Era is to continue promoting cultural prosperity and building a leading cultural power from a new historical starting point. To build a leading cultural power, the Party must maintain cultural leadership. A deep study and understanding of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture reveals the "law of construction from the outside in." This law manifests as follows: generally speaking, various types of construction tend to follow a sequence of "outer before inner" or "from the outside in." Historically, China’s response to Western modernization followed a historical logic of "vessels and tools → institutions → culture" and "external imitation → internal subjectivity." Vessels and tools belong to the category of constructing the external world beyond the person and possess high imitability. Culture reflects the more internal and profound psychological needs of a nation, as well as its more distant and solid historical accumulations. Therefore, cultural change requires more time. The "goodness" within culture belongs to civilization, which enters the realm of the subjective construction of the human spiritual world. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that "the essence of modernization is the modernization of people." This essentially means that while Chinese-path modernization emphasizes material modernization, institutional modernization, and the modernization of national governance, it must place even greater emphasis on the modernization of the human spirit, psychology, and personality. From a contemporary perspective, as socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, our country places greater emphasis on building a leading cultural power; modernization has begun to move into the depths of the human spiritual world, focusing on consolidating and elevating the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation. Philosophically speaking, one of the objectives of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture is the commitment to the construction of every individual's spiritual world and their subjectivity—that is, enriching the people’s spiritual world, strengthening the people’s spiritual power, and achieving the common prosperity of the spiritual life of all people.
Xi Jinping Thought on Culture emphasizes the need to continuously consolidate the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation. The modernization movement and trend initiated by the West exerted a broad and lasting influence on the entire world, first producing "Eurocentrism" and later evolving into "Western-centrism." In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx and Engels summarized "four subordinations" caused by the rise of capitalism, the most primary being "making the East dependent on the West." In exploring the path to modernization, China has been committed to breaking out of the framework where "the East is dependent on the West." Since the birth of the Communist Party of China, it has always taken Marxism as its guiding ideology; through this, the Chinese nation achieved a spiritual transformation from passivity to initiative, and China's path to modernization transformed from Western imitation to endogenous development. Building on long-term exploration and practice since the founding of the People's Republic of China and especially since the start of reform and opening up, and following theoretical and practical innovations and breakthroughs since the 18th National Congress, Chinese-path modernization has broken out of the framework where "the East is dependent on the West." Xi Jinping Thought on Culture emphasizes the "Two Combinations," creating a new, organically unified "cultural lifeform." This makes Marxism Chinese and fine traditional Chinese culture modern, ensuring that the new culture formed through this "combination" becomes the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization.
We must use Xi Jinping Thought on Culture as our guide to construct China’s independent system of knowledge. Adhering to the guidance of Marxism is the fundamental hallmark distinguishing contemporary Chinese philosophy and social sciences from others. In upholding the guiding position of Marxism in the fields of philosophy and social sciences in our country, the core issue is to resolve "for whom" research is conducted, which ultimately must be implemented in "how it is used." The key to constructing philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics depends on whether they possess subjectivity and originality. To this end, we must persist with the "Two Combinations," applying the worldview and methodology of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to all disciplines of the philosophy and social sciences, while continuously advancing innovation in knowledge, theory, and methodology. Only in this way can we consolidate the cultural subjectivity of the Chinese nation and construct China’s independent system of knowledge.