Chu Haoyu: Mao Zedong's Thoughts on Independence and Autonomy in Cultural Construction and Their Contemporary Value
As a great proletarian theorist and the pioneer of the Sinicization of Marxism, Mao Zedong attached great importance to the exploration and practice of the cause of cultural construction. By integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with the fine traditional Chinese culture, he charted a path for conducting cultural construction independently. Researching Mao Zedong’s thought on independence in cultural construction helps us deepen our understanding of the CPC’s path of cultural construction. It holds significant importance for us in maintaining spiritual independence in the New Era and further promoting the construction of a socialist cultural powerhouse.
I. The Course of Mao Zedong’s Exploration of Independence in Cultural Construction
As early as his youth, Mao Zedong formed an independent character, never attaching himself to or blindly following others. During his years at the Hunan First Normal University, Mao developed the habit of thinking for himself and advocated for independent research in academic pursuits.
In the summer of 1917, Mao Zedong wrote a preface for Xiao Zisheng’s study notes, All Into One (Yiqiè rù yī), in which he criticized the flaws of old Chinese scholarship as "consisting in a confused lack of order, categorized by the Classics, History, Philosophy, and Belles-lettres [1], where politics and education are unified and the metaphysical and the descriptive are not distinguished." He advocated instead for a scholarly method characterized by a critical spirit. In August of the same year, Mao wrote a long letter to Li Jinxi discussing the "fundamental source" (dàběn dàyuán) of saving the nation and the people, expressing the desire that "everyone acts according to their own true convictions and does not blindly follow the rights and wrongs of others." During this period, Mao’s advocacy for independence in cultural thought stemmed from his understanding of the autonomy of the internal movement of things in the universe. For instance, in his marginal notes to The Principles of Ethics [2], Mao argued: "The activities of a person’s whole life simply obey the activities of the Self; the activities of all things in the universe simply obey the activities of the Self."
In 1919, accompanying the tide of ideological liberation of the May Fourth Movement, Mao Zedong further proposed the idea of cultural independence. In the founding manifesto of the Xiangjiang Review (Xiāngjiāng pínglùn), Mao called for "thorough research" in academics and declared that we must "not be shackled by any tradition or superstition, but must find what the truth is." Here, "tradition and superstition" referred not only to the feudal culture that imprisoned thought, but also to the power-culture of Western capitalism; this reflected Mao’s courage to seek "New Thought" without fearing authority. It should be noted that during the May Fourth period, Mao’s cultural propositions reflected a strong ideological characteristic of "breaking with feudalism." In November 1919, a young woman in Changsha, Zhao Wuzhen, was forced to commit suicide to protest her parents' arranged marriage, sparking heated public debate. The following day, Mao published a commentary: "Yesterday’s event was a major event. Behind this event lies the corruption of the marriage system, the darkness of the social system, the inability of thought to be independent, and the lack of freedom in love." Mao elevated an individual incident to a lashing of the entire feudal system, reflecting his reflection on the entire feudal cultural apparatus. The fundamental goal of cultural independence was to create a new culture. To this end, Mao stated bluntly in a manifesto written for the Cultural Book Society (Wénhuà shūshè): "Our goal—that every person in Hunan improves their thinking like the Master [3], thereby producing a new culture. Our method—to sincerely perform the work of introducing new books and newspapers, ensuring they are spread throughout Hunan Province."
After the founding of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong threw himself into the burgeoning revolutionary movement. To fulfill the historical task of opposing imperialism and feudalism, it was necessary to conduct not only arduous political and military struggles but also struggles on the ideological and cultural fronts. During the Great Revolution [4] period, while focusing on promoting political and military movements, Mao also emphasized promoting the development of the cultural movement in integration with reality.
In November 1925, in his reply to the Reorganization Committee of the Young China Association, Mao Zedong emphasized the requirements for cultural work—"study the social sciences, and currently focus on studying the Chinese peasant problem." Mao’s call proceeded from the actual national conditions of China. At that time, peasants accounted for about 80% of the total population, with owner-peasants making up about 50%, semi-owner peasants about 20%, and tenant farmers about 30%. Thus, clarifying the peasant problem through social science was of paramount importance for advancing the revolutionary movement of the time. Mao not only treated the peasantry as an object of cultural study but also advocated for the peasantry to be the subject of culture itself, raising their cultural level. In his Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, Mao pointed out that the cause of "cultural deformity" under feudal society was that "in China, it has always been only the landlords who have culture, while the peasants have none. But the culture of the landlords was created by the peasants, for what goes into the making of the landlords' culture is nothing other than the sweat and blood wrung from the peasants." During the revolutionary movement, the "night schools" and "peasant schools" movements launched in the rural areas of Hunan led to a rapid rise in the peasants' cultural level. Mao praised this greatly. The rise of the rural cultural movement was of considerable significance for breaking free from the "cultural rule" of the landlord class and carrying out independent cultural construction.
During the Land Revolutionary War [5] period, while the Kuomintang reactionaries carried out military "encirclement and suppression" against the Red Army and the revolutionary base areas, they also conducted a cultural "encirclement and suppression." In response, the CPC launched a counter-"encirclement" struggle on the cultural front from two directions. On one hand, it used the "Left-Wing Writers' League" (Zuǒlián) as a platform to open up vast revolutionary cultural positions. At that time, the League carried out work in major regions across the country, sponsoring journals such as Sprout (Méngyá), The Pioneer (Tuòhuāngzhě), Modern Fiction (Xiàndài xiǎoshuō), and Mass Literature (Dàzhòng wénxué). Its leading figure, Lu Xun, published a large number of highly militant articles directed squarely at Chiang Kai-shek and the imperialist reactionaries. Lu Xun specifically emphasized a path for literature and art that accorded with Chinese reality. In 1936, Lu Xun wrote "A Letter in Reply to the Trotskyists" to the Trotskyist Chen Zhongshan, criticizing forms of literature and art that did not fit China's national conditions, stating: "I count as my comrades and take pride in those who are practical and have their feet on the ground, who are bleeding and fighting for the survival of the Chinese people today." The struggle of Lu Xun and the Left-Wing League played a vital role in breaking the cultural "encirclement" and consolidating the Party’s cultural positions. Mao Zedong later assessed this: "The enemy's 'blockhouses' were built in schools, in books, newspapers, and magazines, and in social, cultural, and educational organizations, also showing a momentum of 'striking surely and hitting hard, advancing step by step.' On this point, it is enough to look at Mr. Lu Xun's miscellaneous essays. His militant essays attacking the maladies of the times were precisely directed against the cultural 'encirclement' and the oppression of young people’s thought."
On the other hand, Mao advocated for cultural research and social science research that accorded with China’s national conditions. In 1930, Mao wrote "Oppose Book Worship" (Fǎnduì běnběn zhǔyì), criticizing dogmatic social science research and pointing out that "the 'book-worshiping' method of social science research is also extremely dangerous and may even lead one onto the counter-revolutionary path; have not many Chinese Communists who spent their lives solely on books in their social science research turned into counter-revolutionaries in batches?" After the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army arrived in the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet area, Mao particularly advocated for social science reading materials written by Chinese Marxist scholars to carry out cultural construction in the base areas. In October 1936, Mao wrote to Ye Jianying and Liu Ding, instructing them to "buy a batch of popular social science, natural science, and philosophy books, about ten to fifteen types in total; you must select those that are truly popular and yet have value (such as Ai Siqi’s Philosophy for the Masses or Liu Shi’s Talks from the Street)"; in popularizing these readings, he specifically emphasized they were to be "used for raising the political and cultural level of cadres in schools and the military." In May 1937, Mao directly proposed "implementing necessary cultural construction" in the base areas. Mao’s propositions for counteracting the cultural "encirclement" formed an important component of his thought on independence in cultural construction.
During the period of the Nationwide War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao Zedong developed deeper reflections on how to conduct cultural construction independently, forming on this basis the New Democratic view of culture.
In January 1940, in On New Democracy, Mao systematically expounded the New Democratic cultural theory, proposing a "national, scientific, and mass culture." This cultural program fully embodied Mao’s advocacy for independence in cultural construction. On the one hand, one must maintain criticality and independence when facing foreign cultures. New Democratic culture "opposes imperialist oppression and advocates the dignity and independence of the Chinese nation," and absorbs the beneficial components of the socialist and New Democratic cultures of other nations. Mao particularly emphasized: "To us, everything foreign must be like our food, which must be chewed in the mouth and moved through the stomach and intestines, mixed with saliva, gastric juices, and intestinal juices, and decomposed into essence and dross; then the dross is excreted and the essence absorbed, only then is it beneficial to our bodies. We must never absorb it uncritically and swallow it whole." On the other hand, traditional culture must be absorbed critically. On this point, Mao pointed out: "We must respect our own history and never cut ourselves off from it. However, this respect means giving history a certain scientific status and respecting the dialectical development of history; it does not mean 'extolling the past to disparage the present' [6] or praising any feudal venom."
While proposing an independent cultural program, Mao also emphasized the need to maintain proletarian leadership in the "culture of the anti-Japanese united front" to ensure the direction of independent cultural development. Mao pointed out: "As the current Chinese revolution cannot leave the leadership of the Chinese proletariat, the current new culture of China cannot leave the leadership of the cultural thought of the Chinese proletariat—that is, it cannot leave the leadership of communist thought." To consolidate the subjecthood of the proletariat in cultural construction, Mao attached great importance to the theoretical study of worker and peasant cadres, using the construction of independent cultural textbooks as an important lever. In 1942, the Xinhua Bookstore published the Culture Textbook (Wénhuà kèběn) edited by Kai Feng, Xu Teli, Fan Wenlan, and others, which was a significant achievement of cultural construction in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Revolutionary Base Area. Mao praised this highly, noting that "the publication of the Culture Textbook is a great victory, the credit of Comrades Kai Feng, Xu Teli, and Fan Wenlan," and lauded it by saying "with this textbook, the door to learning culture has been opened."
During the War of Liberation [7], the CPC promoted cultural revival through political and military victories. Mao spoke highly of this, pointing out: "This culture of the Chinese people, in its spiritual aspect, has already surpassed the entire capitalist world." On the eve of the founding of New China, Mao stated bluntly: "With the arrival of the high tide of economic construction, there will inevitably appear a high tide of cultural construction. The era in which Chinese people were regarded as uncivilized is over; we will emerge in the world as a nation with a high degree of culture."
After the founding of New China, while learning from the Soviet Union’s experience in cultural construction, Mao Zedong and other Chinese Communists further explored an independent path for cultural construction. On one hand, in the early years of the People’s Republic, feudal cultural remnants, decadent bourgeois thought, and Western culture still pervaded corners of Chinese society, leading to a coexistence of diverse ideological and cultural forms. Therefore, establishing the guiding position of Marxist thought became the core task of cultural construction at that time. Mao attached great importance to the guidance of Marxist-Leninist thought to guarantee the correct direction of cultural construction. For example, at the opening ceremony of the Eighth National Congress of the Party, Mao pointed out that "among many of our comrades, there still exist viewpoints and styles of work that violate Marxism-Leninism," emphasizing the need to overcome shortcomings within the ranks through inner-Party education. On the other hand, continuing the literary and artistic creative thought of "making the past serve the present and weeding through the old to bring forth the new" [8] proposed during the Yan'an period, the Party implemented the "Double Hundred Policy" [9], which differed from the Soviet path. In On the Ten Major Relationships, Mao specifically addressed the issue of autonomy in learning from the Soviet Union, pointing out: "We must learn with analysis and criticism; we cannot learn blindly, copy everything, or transplant things mechanically. Their shortcomings and flaws, naturally, should not be learned." Distinguishing himself from the cultural dogmatism and revisionism of the Stalin era, Mao proposed the policy of "letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend." In April 1956, at an enlarged meeting of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, Mao proposed: "Letting a hundred flowers bloom in matters of art and a hundred schools of thought contend in matters of scholarship—this, I think, should become our policy." In 1957, in a talk with representatives from the literary and art circles, Mao criticized the dogmatism and commandism of the Soviet methods of cultural construction, reiterating: "Our cultural and educational policy does not adopt their methods; we adopt the led 'blooming of a hundred flowers and contending of a hundred schools.'"
II. Basic Characteristics of Mao Zedong’s Thought on Independence in Cultural Construction
In the practice of leading China’s revolution and construction, Mao Zedong had a full understanding of the importance of cultural construction. He explicitly proposed:
"Culture is indispensable; no society can be built up without culture." In Mao Zedong’s view, to establish a New Democratic society, it was essential to carry out cultural construction independently. In the process of leading cultural work, Mao Zedong proposed a series of policies and positions, forming a body of thought on the independence of cultural construction. This thought is characterized by three distinct features.
(1) Adhering to the Guiding Position of Marxism
Marxism is the banner and soul guiding the Communist Party of China (CPC) in advancing cultural construction; it provides the value coordinates and scientific guide for the CPC’s cultural endeavors, ensuring that culture always advances in the right direction during the process of independent exploration. Independence is by no means "wood without roots or water without a source," nor is it a form of self-isolation that abandons principle. In exploring the path of cultural construction, Mao Zedong always adhered to Marxism as the fundamental guiding ideology.
Marxism provided the CPC with an entirely new conceptual form for cultural construction. Mao Zedong pointed out: "Since the 'May Fourth Movement' [10], a brand-new cultural force has emerged in China: the communist cultural thought led by the Chinese Communists—that is, the communist worldview and theory of social revolution." The introduction of communist cultural thought allowed early revolutionaries like Mao Zedong to gradually break free from the influence of social trends such as the Old Three People's Principles [11], liberalism, and anarchism, turning instead to explore a revolutionary path that combined Marxism with China’s concrete realities. Marxism was both the fundamental principle for Mao Zedong and other Chinese Communists in conducting cultural construction and a vital component of the content that needed to be popularized through culture and education. Regarding this, Mao Zedong noted: "As the policy for national culture, communist thought occupies the guiding position, and we must strive to propagate socialism and communism among the working class, and appropriately and step-by-step use socialism to educate the peasantry and other masses."
Marxism provided the CPC with the methodology of historical materialism for cultural construction. Mao Zedong’s thought on the independence of cultural construction was inspired by historical materialism, a fact particularly evident in his views on the May Fourth Movement. On one hand, Mao affirmed the intellectuals and young students of the May Fourth Movement for "opposing classical Chinese and advocating the vernacular, opposing old dogmas and advocating science and democracy," recognizing their progressive and revolutionary nature. On the other hand, Mao also pointed out: "The May Fourth Movement itself had its defects. Many of its leaders did not yet possess the critical spirit of Marxism; the methods they used were generally still bourgeois methods—that is, formalist methods." In Mao's view, bourgeois culture remained "blind in the social sciences," whereas Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism scientifically revealed the laws of human social development. To this end, Mao stated: "Only with the emergence of Marxism was there foresight regarding social development, bringing humanity’s understanding of social development to a new stage."
Marxism provided the CPC with the ideological principle of seeking truth from facts for cultural construction. During the New Democratic Revolution period, an erroneous tendency toward dogmatism once appeared within the CPC. Mao Zedong criticized this: "Their method of studying Marxism directly violates Marxism... they violate a basic principle that Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin repeatedly warned people about: the unity of theory and practice." Mao profoundly realized that seeking truth from facts is the essence of Marxism, emphasizing that "Marxism must be integrated with the specific characteristics of our country and realized through a certain national form." Consequently, by integrating with China’s national conditions, Mao Zedong opened a path for cultural construction distinct from that of the Soviet Union. In 1957, while speaking with representatives from literary and art circles, Mao mentioned the dogmatism following the Soviet October Revolution, noting that "the literary organization 'RAPP' [12] at that time practiced commandism [13] toward writers, forcing them to write in a certain way," and emphasized that China would not adopt the Soviet Union's cultural and educational policies.
(2) Adhering to the Absorption of Fine Traditional Chinese Culture
The independent character of Mao Zedong’s cultural thought was rooted in his early critical appreciation of fine traditional Chinese culture. As a youth, Mao systematically studied classics such as the Book of Documents (Shangshu) and the Zuo Zhuan, and was deeply influenced by fine traditional Chinese culture. When reading and annotating Friedrich Paulsen’s A System of Ethics, Mao took ancient sages as his models and declared his aspirations: "My intent is roughly the same as Mencius’s discussions on the 'vast, flowing qi' (haoran zhi qi) and the two chapters on the 'Great Man' (dazhangfu)." [14] It is evident that Mao possessed the spiritual character of self-strengthening and independence from an early age. Fine traditional Chinese culture deeply influenced Mao’s way of thinking and codes of conduct, providing important intellectual resources for his subsequent propositions on cultural construction.
When carrying out cultural construction during the Yan'an period [15], Mao Zedong attached great importance to studying the historical and cultural heritage, specifically emphasizing: "We are Marxist historicists; we must not sever history. From Confucius to Sun Yat-sen, we should summarize and inherit this precious legacy." Regarding those who only knew how to blindly follow the West in culture while "understanding nothing" or "very little of their own history," Mao criticized: "They come back from Europe, America, or Japan, and only know how to swallow foreign things whole. They play the role of a phonograph, forgetting their own responsibility to understand and create new things." Speaking on specific cultural work, Mao emphasized: "We must inherit all fine literary and artistic legacies and critically absorb all beneficial elements therein, using them as a reference when creating works from the literary and artistic raw materials of the people's lives in this time and place."
While valuing traditional culture, Mao Zedong did not accept it wholesale without reflection; instead, he maintained considerable autonomy, critically inheriting the essence of the historical legacy. In July 1944, during a conversation with the British journalist Gunther Stein, Mao pointed out: "It is absolutely true that there are many good things in what Chinese history has left us. We must turn these legacies into our own. However, some people in China worship old, outdated ideas that are not only inapplicable to today's China but harmful. Such things must be discarded." At that time, traditional culture's deepest influence on the masses lay in their ways of thinking and living habits. Regarding this, Mao noted: "In the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region with its population of 1.5 million, there are still over one million illiterates and two thousand shamans; superstitious ideas are still influencing the broad masses... We must tell the masses to stand up themselves and fight against their own illiteracy, superstition, and unhygienic habits." In general, Mao maintained an attitude of critical inheritance toward traditional culture, as he himself emphasized: "We neither reject everything nor blindly transplant everything; rather, we receive it critically to facilitate the advancement of China's new culture."
While critically inheriting traditional culture, Mao also advocated for the transformation of its backward elements. Faced with a situation where the majority of the masses were bound by backward ideas due to low levels of education, Mao actively promoted literacy campaigns, enabling the masses to gradually discard superstition and unhygienic habits. Furthermore, Mao advocated using the new culture to transform traditional cultural workers, enabling them to disseminate new culture and new ideas to the masses. For example, in On Coalition Government, Mao pointed out: "Regarding the attitude toward old cultural workers, old educators, and old doctors, we should adopt appropriate methods to educate them, helping them acquire new perspectives and methods to serve the people."
(3) Adhering to the Fundamental Standpoint of Taking the People as the Center
The people’s standpoint is the fundamental political standpoint of the CPC and a prominent sign distinguishing a Marxist party from other political parties. From the day of its founding, the CPC has adhered to serving the people wholeheartedly. Regarding this, Mao Zedong once recalled: "When I was a primary school teacher, I only relied on teaching to make a living and hadn't thought of starting a Communist Party; the Communist Party was founded later because the people needed it." In cultural construction, while insisting on independence, Mao similarly took the fundamental interests of the masses as the starting point and the ultimate goal.
Regarding the subjects of cultural creation, Mao Zedong insisted that the masses are the primary subjects of cultural construction and innovation. Feudal society held the traditional hierarchical view that "those who labor with their minds govern, and those who labor with their strength are governed," believing that the masses at the grassroots could neither create nor enjoy cultural achievements. Mao overturned this traditional concept. In Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, Mao highly affirmed the peasants' initiative in independently running night schools, envisioning that "tens of thousands of schools would spring up in the countryside across the province." When reviewing the history of feudal society, Mao specifically emphasized: "Only the peasantry and the handicraft workers were the basic classes that created wealth and culture." In Mao’s view, the production and daily lives of the masses are the important sources of cultural creation. He pointed out: "China's revolutionary writers and artists, writers and artists of promise, must go among the masses; they must for a long period of time, unconditionally and wholeheartedly, go among the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers... to observe, experience, study, and analyze all sorts of people, all classes, all the masses, all the vivid patterns of life and struggle, and all the raw materials of literature and art, only then may they enter the process of creation."
Regarding the intended audience of cultural construction, Mao advocated that cultural policy must serve the broad masses of the people. In May 1941, New China Daily (Xin Zhonghua Bao) published the "Administrative Program for the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region," primarily drafted by Mao. It demanded "the continued implementation of the policy to eliminate illiteracy, the promotion of education in the New Script [16], the improvement of the regular school system, and the universalization of national education." It also proposed a series of cultural policies with broad reach, such as improving the lives of primary school teachers, respecting intellectuals, welcoming scientific and artistic talent, protecting refugee students and youth out of school, and implementing a two-hour daily study system for public officials. In March 1944, Mao specifically discussed cultural and educational work in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, proposing: "There is much to be done in culture—literacy groups, singing, New Year scrolls [17], etc., must be organized." The targets for activities like literacy groups, singing, and New Year scrolls were not artists or intellectuals, but the broad grassroots masses lacking education, which fully reflected the "people-centeredness" of his cultural and educational policies. In October of the same year, Mao further emphasized: "Our culture is a people’s culture; cultural workers must have a high degree of enthusiasm for serving the people and must link with the masses rather than being detached from them."
Given the national reality where peasants constituted the vast majority of the population, Mao particularly emphasized that the focus of cultural popularization must be the broad peasantry. In On Coalition Government, Mao pointed out: "The peasantry—this is the primary object of China's cultural movement at the present stage. If we depart from the 360 million peasants, would not the so-called elimination of illiteracy, the so-called universalization of education, the so-called literature and art for the masses, and the so-called national health largely become empty words?" At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the illiteracy rate among peasants was still as high as 95%. In response, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Mao Zedong as their chief representative, actively promoted cultural education for peasants, implementing a "walking on two legs" policy of running schools by both the state and collectives in rural areas, and widely establishing rural middle schools and vocational schools while vigorously conducting rural literacy campaigns. Furthermore, Mao proposed that the good things of the Chinese nation "should not be discarded even in ten thousand years," and that fine traditional culture, such as New Year scrolls, New Year paintings, and traditional opera, should be carried forward, while simultaneously accelerating the promotion of modern cultural forms that the peasants welcomed, such as radio and film.
III. The Contemporary Value of Mao Zedong’s Thought on the Independence of Cultural Construction
The Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century explicitly points out: "Independence is the soul of the Chinese national spirit and an important principle for our Party and country." As the primary founder of the CPC and the core of the Party's first generation of central collective leadership, Mao Zedong made foundational contributions to the independent development of cultural construction. Mao Zedong's thought on the independence of cultural construction is an important component of Mao Zedong Thought; it provided the theoretical basis for cultural construction during the New Democratic Revolution and the period of socialist revolution and construction, and offers important practical insights for continuing to advance the Party’s cultural undertakings in the New Era.
(1) Cultural Construction in the New Era Must Adhere to the Party's Cultural Leadership
Although Mao Zedong did not explicitly propose...
Mao Zedong never systematically employed the term "cultural hegemony" [18], but his cultural theory contained rich ideas regarding it. In Mao’s view, leadership over ideological work was of the utmost importance. As early as November 1928, Mao proposed: "The question of proletarian ideological leadership is an extremely important one." Subsequently, Mao’s understanding of the importance of cultural hegemony continued to grow. In 1945, at the Party’s Seventh National Congress, Mao emphasized: "Grasping ideological education is the central link in uniting the whole Party for great political struggle."
Mao deeply recognized that the core of cultural hegemony lies in the broad identification of the masses with the Party's ideology. He pointed out: "Leadership is not something to be shouted as a slogan from morning till night, nor is it about overbearingly demanding that others obey us; rather, it is about using the Party's correct policies and one's own exemplary work to persuade and educate those outside the Party, making them willing to accept our proposals." During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, Mao condensed the people’s hearts by proposing a "national, scientific, and mass culture," making Marxism an ideological weapon to unite the broad masses of the people. Practice has proven that cultural hegemony is an important political advantage for the Party, a vital path for consolidating ideological consensus and stimulating cultural vitality, and a major guarantee for the Party to lead the people in overcoming hardships and obstacles on the road of revolution and construction.
Xi Jinping has pointed out: "The leadership of the Party is the fundamental guarantee for the development of socialist literature and art." Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Communist Party of China has placed leadership over ideological work in an extremely prominent position. Regarding this, Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must firmly hold the leadership, management, and discourse power [19] of ideological work in our hands; it must never be allowed to fall into other hands at any time, otherwise we will make irrecoverable historical errors." Since the New Era, a series of relevant policy documents have been issued under the Party's leadership, including the Regulations on the Propaganda Work of the Communist Party of China, the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee on Prospering and Developing Socialist Literature and Art, and the Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Cyber Civilization. These have provided safeguards for consolidating the Party’s ideological leadership and ensuring the healthy and orderly development of cultural undertakings.
In June 2023, at a symposium on cultural inheritance and development, Xi Jinping further explicitly proposed the concept of "the cultural leadership of the Communist Party of China." On the new journey of the New Era, we must deeply understand the significance of persisting in the Party’s cultural leadership, use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our theoretical armament, incorporate cultural leadership into the overall layout of the modernization of national governance, form a synergy in cultural governance, and promote the prosperity of socialist cultural undertakings.
(2) Promoting the development of cultural undertakings in the New Era through the "Two Combinations"
Mao Zedong’s thoughts on independence and self-reliance in cultural construction not only emphasized the Party’s leadership over culture but also focused on combining the basic principles of Marxism with China’s specific realities.
The "First Combination" [20] was the crystallization of the theory and practice of Mao Zedong and others. During the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, based on China’s semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature, Mao proposed the revolutionary path of "encircling the cities from the countryside," combining Marxist class struggle theory with China’s peasant problem. He criticized the tendency of Wang Ming [21] and others to "mention Marx and Lenin in every breath" while being detached from reality, emphasizing that "no investigation, no right to speak," and demanding that theory must serve the practical needs of the Chinese revolution. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao further extended the "First Combination" to the cultural sphere. In On New Democracy, Mao proposed that in treating traditional culture, we must "strip away its feudal dross and absorb its democratic essence," and advocated analyzing cultural heritage using materialist dialectics.
During this period, although Mao did not explicitly propose the thesis of "combining Marxism with China’s fine traditional culture," the internal logic of the "Second Combination" [22] was already reflected in his cultural thought. For example, Mao integrated Marxist philosophical works such as On Practice and On Contradiction with traditional Chinese views on knowledge and action (zhixingguan) and dialectical thinking, transforming abstruse theories into "Chinese discourse" understandable to the masses. In the practice of cultural construction, Mao promoted the fusion of traditional cultural elements with contemporary needs. During the cultural construction of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, a series of measures were taken, such as transforming Northern Shaanxi folk storytelling (shuoshu) into a tool for revolutionary propaganda and adapting the legend of the "White-Haired Immortal" into revolutionary operas like The White-Haired Girl [23], achieving the innovative development of cultural forms and content. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao repeatedly stated his "valuation of national things," demanding that on this basis, we "create China’s own things with a unique national style."
Since the New Era, Xi Jinping has creatively proposed the major thesis of the "Two Combinations" while profoundly revealing the theoretical and material foundations of the innovative development of Marxism in China. If Mao Zedong emphasized the "critical inheritance" of traditional culture, then the "Two Combinations" place more emphasis on the compatibility between the basic principles of Marxism and the spiritual core of China's fine traditional culture. For example, combining "the world belongs to the public" (tianxia wei gong) [24] with communist ideals, "the unity of knowledge and action" (zhixing heyi) with practical epistemology, and "harmonious coexistence" (hehe gongsheng) with the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity has achieved the value sublimation of China's fine traditional culture. Xi Jinping pointed out: "The 'Second Combination' allows Marxism to become Chinese, and China's fine traditional culture to become modern; it allows the new culture formed through 'combination' to become the cultural form for Chinese-path modernization." Today, as cultural soft power increasingly becomes a part of international competitiveness, we must not only adhere to the principle of "making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China" but also carry out "creative transformation and innovative development" in response to the changes of the times, providing a new cultural form for fortifying the spiritual home of the Chinese nation and promoting the progress of human civilization.
(3) Continuously proposing new cultural missions according to the changes of the times
Mao Zedong’s thoughts on independence and self-reliance in cultural construction always adhered to a problem-oriented approach, emphasizing that the cultural mission must respond to the needs of the times. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, the main task facing the Party was to oppose imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, to strive for national independence and people’s liberation, and to create the fundamental social conditions for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Under these requirements of the times, Mao proposed that the core task of the cultural front was to overthrow imperialist and semi-feudal culture and establish a new democratic culture that was anti-imperialist and anti-feudal. In the early period after the founding of New China, the main task facing the Party was to realize the transition from New Democracy to socialism, carry out the socialist revolution, and advance socialist construction. Facing the feudal and comprador cultures left over from the old society, Mao proposed a series of ideas for cultural transformation. On the one hand, he cleared away feudal remnants and decadent bourgeois culture through measures such as the ideological remolding movement. On the other hand, he proposed the policy of "letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend" [25] to stimulate cultural vitality and creativity to serve socialist construction. During this period, the Party’s cultural mission focused on consolidating the new regime, shaping the "new socialist man," and serving socialist construction.
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Communist Party of China, based on changes in national conditions, has endowed cultural work with new historical tasks. Xi Jinping has clearly pointed out: "To continue promoting cultural prosperity, building a leading country in culture, and building the modern civilization of the Chinese nation at a new starting point is our new cultural mission in the New Era." This judgment has pointed out the direction and provided the fundamental follow-through for cultural construction in the New Era. Facing the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development, the Party Central Committee has incorporated cultural construction into the Five-Sphere Integrated Plan, developing cultural undertakings and industries, providing public cultural services, establishing a comprehensive governance system for cyber culture, and fortifying the fronts of ideological work. It has creatively proposed iconic concepts such as a "community with a shared future for humanity" and the "common values of all humanity," leading to historical achievements and historical changes in the cause of cultural construction.
From the founding of the Party to today, the Communist Party of China has always endowed cultural work with new missions with a spirit of historical initiative. On the new journey of the New Era, we need to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, base ourselves on the historical experience of the "Two Combinations," accurately grasp the overall strategy for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the world’s once-in-a-century profound changes, and, under the premise of upholding cultural subjectivity, follow the historical trend of the technological revolution and mutual learning between civilizations to build the modern civilization of the Chinese nation and provide a successful answer to the cultural mission of the times.