Zhu Hong and Li Wenjia: An Analysis of the Practical Paths and Significance of Inheriting the Long March Spirit in the New Era
Introduction
As a vital component of the spiritual pedigree of Chinese Communists, the Long March spirit is a precious spiritual treasure formed by the Party during arduous revolutionary practice. Characterized primarily by firm ideals and convictions, defiance of hardships and dangers, seeking truth from facts, solidarity and cooperation, and reliance on the masses, it highlights the spiritual main line of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) in leading the cause of China’s revolution, construction, and reform. As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, the historical significance and practical functions of the Long March spirit have been continuously re-examined. How to achieve its creative transformation and innovative development under new historical conditions has become an important topic of common concern in the fields of political science, sociology, and cultural studies. The Long March spirit is not only a symbolic emblem of revolutionary history but also a spiritual resource that plays a foundational role in modernizing the national governance system, constructing the social value system, and reshaping the landscape of cultural communication.
In recent years, although the academic community has produced relatively rich results in the study of the Long March spirit, overall, it remains dominated by historical investigations and commemorative expositions, lacking systematic theoretical integration and reality-oriented analysis. Existing research has matured in explaining its ideological origins and spiritual core, but a sufficient scholarly construction regarding its practical mechanisms and the pathways for transforming its social efficacy within the context of the New Era has not yet been formed. Particularly against the backdrop of the accelerated process of modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity, how the Long March spirit can be embedded into institutional systems, integrated into public life, and used to shape value consensus still requires deepening through structural and mechanistic analysis. Meanwhile, the development of emerging fields such as digital communication, social synergy, and the integration of culture and tourism provides a new context and technical support for inheriting and promoting the Long March spirit, while also posing new challenges to traditional research perspectives. Based on this, and grounded in the historical coordinates of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, this article aims to conduct a systematic analysis of the contemporary expression, practical paths, and epochal significance of the Long March spirit.
I. The Generative Context and Ideological Origins of the Long March Spirit in the New Era
The Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the 1930s was a major historical event marking the strategic turning point of the Chinese revolution led by the CPC. It concentratedly reflected the Party’s organizational capacity and spiritual strength in advancing the revolutionary cause under extremely difficult conditions. As the value core distilled therein, the Long March spirit possesses distinct historical characteristics and epochal momentum. It is not a stagnant ideological category but a dynamic spiritual structure that is constantly generated, evolved, and embedded into reality; its development has always been closely related to the social practice led by the CPC. Overall, the Long March spirit has undergone prototype shaping during the revolutionary war period, the deepening of its connotations during the period of socialist construction, and the expansion of its functions during the period of reform and opening up, achieving a dual embedding into both the institutional and cultural systems in the New Era. As the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics continues to deepen, the historical mission and epochal meaning referred to by the "New Long March" are constantly being redefined, and its spiritual form continues to evolve through theoretical interpretation, institutional practice, and social communication. Accurately grasping the historical logic and contemporary expression of this spirit is the fundamental prerequisite for an in-depth analysis of the connotations of the Long March spirit in the New Era.
(1) The Historical Evolution of the Long March Spirit: From Revolutionary Spirit to Pillar of the Era
The evolutionary process of the Long March spirit profoundly reflects the core mission and value ideals of the CPC at different historical stages.
1. The Long March Spirit: The Original Form of Revolutionary Idealism
The Long March spirit germinated amidst the perilous environment of the Red Army's strategic shift in 1934. Under extremely difficult conditions, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army distilled a spiritual core centered on firm faith, tenacious struggle, and the mass line, constituting its original form. At that time, Party leaders had already summarized and interpreted this spirit on many occasions: In October 1935, Chen Yun delivered a speech on the victory of the Red Army's Western Expedition, summarizing the spiritual elements of the victory; Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized that the spirit of Communists "being unafraid of any hardships or difficulties" was the key to winning the Long March; in 1936, Zhou Enlai pointed out that "the Long March spirit must never be lost"; and in 1938, Zhang Wentian explained the spiritual essence of struggling and sacrificing for an ideal from the perspective of idealism.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Long March spirit continued to be inherited and promoted during socialist construction. Although there was little systematic research in the early years, its spiritual content gradually took root in the hearts of the people through commemorative activities and publicity and education. Especially at key milestones such as the 50th (1986), 60th (1996), and 70th (2006) anniversaries of the victory of the Long March, the Party Central Committee repeatedly issued authoritative summaries of its spiritual connotations, forming a relatively consistent social consensus. The academic community generally believes that the Long March spirit mainly includes: firm loyalty to revolutionary ideals; the quality of will to fear no hardships or obstacles and to spare no sacrifice; the ideological line of independence and seeking truth from facts; the collectivist spirit of taking the big picture into account, strict discipline, and solidarity and cooperation; and the struggling spirit of relying closely on the people and sharing weal and woe [1] with the masses. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The great Long March spirit is a vivid reflection of the revolutionary character of the Chinese Communists and the people's army they lead, and a concentrated display of the national character of the Chinese nation’s constant self-improvement."
2. The New Long March Spirit: Spiritual Reconstruction in the Context of Reform and Opening Up
After the reform and opening up, as the nation's focus of development shifted toward economic construction, the "New Long March" became a core metaphor in the discourse system of the Party and the state. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee proposed to "struggle for the undertaking of a new Long March," introducing the Long March spirit into the epochal vision of modernization for the first time. Subsequently, the 12th Party Congress proposed the goal of "achieving the Four Modernizations," and the "New Long March" was gradually endowed with a development orientation of "self-reliance and arduous struggle." In his speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, Yang Shangkun emphasized that the core purpose of promoting the Long March spirit was to assist the process of socialist modernization. Subsequently, Party and state leaders such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao also continuously stressed the epochal value of inheriting the Long March spirit during the "new journey" at relevant commemorative occasions.
Compared to the clear expressions at the level of political discourse, the academic community's definition of the "New Long March spirit" is relatively vague. Some studies argue that it is essentially the specific transformation of the Long March spirit within the context of reform, highlighting its epochal characteristics of "entrepreneurship and innovation"; other scholars, from the perspective of political symbolism, point out that its systematic construction is not yet sufficient. Overall, as a continuation and development of the Long March spirit, the "New Long March spirit" is an important manifestation of the Party's discourse reshaping and functional grafting in the new period; its core points toward the historical themes of "reform" and "development."
3. The Long March Spirit in the New Era: The Spiritual Foundation in the Journey Toward National Rejuvenation
Since the 18th Party Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a New Era, and the Long March spirit has been endowed with richer practical connotations and missions. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out many times that "every generation has its own Long March," and has defined the realization of the Two Centenary Goals and the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as the "Long March of the New Era." In this context, the Long March spirit has not only become a retrospection of history but has also been transformed into spiritual support for advancing the modernization of governance and realizing national strategies.
Compared with the previous two stages, the Long March spirit in the New Era possesses even more distinct epochal characteristics. On the basis of continuing the tone of revolutionary idealism, it emphasizes "confidence in the system" [2], the people-centered stance, and technological empowerment, forming a spiritual system compatible with national development. From "revolutionary mobilization" to "developmental governance," its core function has achieved a transition from political mobilization to governance guidance.
Since its formation, the Long March spirit has undergone original construction, functional expansion, and systemic embedding, consistently serving as an important pillar of the CPC's political culture and becoming internalized within the practical application of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under the conditions of the New Era, its spiritual qualities continuously integrate with institutional advantages and the logic of technological innovation, becoming an important spiritual support for promoting the process of Chinese-path modernization. Therefore, systematically clarifying its internal structure and developmental logic not only helps deepen the understanding of the spiritual pedigree of Chinese Communists but also provides theoretical support for the research and application of red cultural resources.
(2) The Core Essentials of the Long March Spirit in the New Era
The Long March spirit in the New Era is not a single-dimensional abstract concept, but a multi-dimensional structural system that includes core driving force, institutional support, practical paths, and social effects.
1. Faith Power: The Spiritual Core
As the most essential and deepest component of the Long March spirit, faith power is its inexhaustible ideological source. The fundamental impetus for the victory of the Long March stemmed from the Red Army's firm faith in Communist ideals and the revolutionary cause. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "When there is faith in the heart, there is strength under the feet." On the journey of the New Era, firming up faith in Marxism, conviction in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and confidence in the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation remains the fundamental source for coagulating social consensus and stimulating the will to struggle. To inherit the Long March spirit in the New Era, we must continuously cultivate idealistic sentiments throughout society, especially among the youth, transforming the power of faith into a primary driver of practice.
2. Organizational Power: The Institutional Foundation
Organizational power is manifested as the institutional framework and organizational system that transforms faith into orderly action; it is the institutional guarantee for achieving goals and tasks. During the Long March, it was precisely because of the Party's strong organizational leadership, strict disciplinary constraints, and high degree of solidarity and cooperation that an epic victory was achieved. In the context of the New Era, organizational power is manifested in upholding and strengthening the Party’s overall leadership, improving the organizational system, and promoting the transformation of institutional advantages into governance efficacy. It forms a majestic force of unified will and common struggle, serving as the realistic extension of the spirit of "taking the big picture into account, strictly observing discipline, and uniting closely."
3. Action Power: The Wings of Practice
Action power is the path through which the Long March spirit is manifested in reality, showcasing a practical spirit of fearing no difficulties, seeking truth from facts, and being determined to innovate. In the New Era, inheriting this quality requires us to have the courage to take responsibility, adhere to a problem-oriented approach, and break new ground amidst the challenges of reform and bottlenecks of development. Whether in technological breakthroughs, industrial upgrading, or in social governance and the improvement of people's livelihoods, it is necessary to uphold a struggling posture of "standing at the forefront," daring to explore and try, bravely shouldering heavy burdens, and pushing Chinese-path modernization toward new stages.
4. Communication Power and Cohesion: The Field of Values
Communication power and cohesion together constitute the social influence dimension of the Long March spirit. Communication power determines its social reach and vitality. In the digital media environment, promoting the Long March spirit requires expanding modes of expression and communication platforms, utilizing emerging technologies such as big data and virtual reality to empower the dissemination of red culture [3]. For example, the Long March National Cultural Park in Guizhou uses immersive narratives and interactive experiences to allow the red spirit to be transmitted to the public in a perceptible and participatory way, particularly enhancing cultural stickiness among the youth. Cohesion involves the value-aggregating role of the Long March spirit in social relations; its key lies in constructing national consensus and national identity. To inherit the Long March spirit in the New Era, we must always answer the fundamental question of "for whom and by whom," adhere to the people-centered philosophy of development, and transform spiritual identification into a synergy for action, thereby consolidating the value foundation for advancing Chinese-path modernization.
The Long March spirit in the New Era forms a system of synergistic mutual construction across the five dimensions of faith power, organizational power, action power, communication power, and cohesion. Faith power provides the ideological core, organizational power lays the institutional support, action power guides the practical path, and communication power and cohesion expand social efficacy. This structure inherits revolutionary traditions, responds to the questions of the times, and has become an important spiritual resource for promoting social progress and national rejuvenation in the New Era.
II. The Value Connotation of Inheriting the Long March Spirit in the New Era
The historical value carried by the Long March spirit is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In the grand process of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, how to transform it from a revolutionary memory into a practical path and from a historical spirit into an institutional resource constitutes a proposition of the era with far-reaching significance. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to "walk the Long March of today well," which not only highlights the guiding significance of the Long March spirit in contemporary political life but also provides a theoretical basis and practical direction for the systematic unfolding of its present value. Within the logic of inheritance in the New Era, the Long March spirit is being embedded into national strategy and people's lives through multi-dimensional paths such as political leadership, social governance, cultural construction, and international communication, demonstrating powerful vitality and continuous spiritual tension.
(1) Political Value: Party Building Leadership and Political Identity
In the context of the New Era, the prominent value of the Long March spirit in the political sphere lies in its deep alignment with the CPC's leadership and political construction. The ideals, convictions, political loyalty, organizational discipline, and mass line it contains constitute a unity of ideological core and practical logic in Party building in the New Era. By transforming the Long March spirit into an important pillar for the education of Party members and cadres, institutional design, and political cultural construction, the political identification of the masses with the Party can be further enhanced, and organizational resilience strengthened.
At the practical level, a systematic "Long March spirit–Party spirit education–organizational building" nested transmission path has been constructed from the central to local levels. For example, the "Long March Academy" in Ninghua, Fujian, serves as a typical educational platform; as of 2023, it has trained a cumulative total of 59,000 person-times, forming a Party spirit tempering system centered on experiential teaching. Regions such as Ruikin, Jiangxi, and Yan’an, Shaanxi, rely on red resources [4] along the Long March route to incorporate red education into local cadre training mechanisms on a normalized basis, achieving a dual enhancement of spiritual education and organizational efficacy. The Long March spirit is entering the system of rule of law through institutional norms. For instance, Guilin, Guangxi, issued the Regulations on the Protection of Cultural Sites of the Red Army's Long March Xiangjiang Campaign, realizing a leap for red culture from a value proposition to a legal norm. This is both an institutional response to the Long March spirit and a practical modality for functionalizing red culture within the construction of a Law-based China. The Long March spirit has achieved functional extension and structural embedding within the field of political construction in the New Era.
(II) Social Value: Social Governance and the Appeal of People's Livelihood The social value of the Long March spirit is primarily manifested in its high degree of coupling with grassroots governance, public services, and mass mobilization. Concepts emphasized by the Long March spirit, such as the "mass line," "unity and cooperation," and "self-sacrifice," have become dual sources—both as a cultural foundation and an action guide—within the social governance system of the New Era.
Currently, the red spirit is widely embedded in local governance mechanisms and service systems. Taking Ruikin, Jiangxi, as an example, it has established "Long March Volunteer Teams" to participate in community epidemic prevention, flood control, and social security affairs, forming a grassroots governance model of "Party building leadership–mass participation–organizational synergy," achieving a dual enhancement of governance efficacy and value dissemination. In provinces like Hunan, Shaanxi, and Guizhou, red elements are embedded into grassroots institutional units such as village codes and community conventions [5], community deliberation mechanisms, and volunteer credit-point systems, promoting the institutionalization and routinization of mass participation.
On the other hand, the Long March spirit is driving a transformation in social governance concepts from passive response to proactive construction. By stimulating social trust through emotional identification and activating public participation through organizational mobilization, a multi-layered cycle mechanism of "spiritual identification–social behavior–governance effect" has been constructed. Red spirit is no longer merely a tool for political education; it provides deep value logic and behavioral support across multiple strategic levels, including rural revitalization, common prosperity, and social integration.
(III) Cultural Value: Value Systems and Spiritual Identification In the cultural dimension, the Long March spirit represents not only a symbol of revolutionary history but also a vital spiritual resource for constructing the cultural identity of the modern Chinese nation-state. As an important component of the spiritual pedigree of Chinese Communists [6], the Long March spirit, together with the core socialist values and fine traditional Chinese culture, constitutes the multicultural foundation of the Chinese spirit.
In recent years, the cultural transformation of the Long March spirit has gradually achieved a leap from red education toward public culture, and from commemorative inheritance toward lifestyle embedding. For example, the "One Park and Three Museums" in Guangxi, including the Memorial Hall of the Red Army's Long March Xiangjiang Campaign, have received over 100,000 batches of visitors and more than 16.5 million person-times since opening. Through immersive displays, digital guides, and interdisciplinary curriculum designs, they have driven the transformation of red cultural education toward sensory experience and interactivity, becoming important bases for patriotic education and red tourism destinations both within and outside the region. Simultaneously, various localities are promoting the deep integration of red culture with modern art, youth culture, and cultural and creative industries. Projects such as "Red Army Diaries" digital illustrations, "The Long March Road" themed theater, and "Red Cultural and Creative Bazaars" have built a cultural diffusion system centered on visual translation, narrative reconstruction, and community dissemination, realizing the movement of the Long March spirit "from exhibition halls to city streets" and "from textbooks into daily life." This cultural generation mechanism not only enhances the intergenerational transmission capacity of red culture but also shapes a public cultural space with the red spirit as its core and youth identification as its orientation, providing key support for building a socialist cultural powerhouse with Chinese characteristics.
(IV) International Value: China's Story and a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity Against the backdrop of the deep restructuring of globalization and the complex evolution of international relations, the Long March spirit, as an important part of China's cultural soft power, has gradually moved from domestic narrative toward international expression, ascending from a national spirit to a value carrier for civilizational dialogue.
The international communication paths of the Long March spirit are becoming increasingly diversified and contextualized. The "90th Anniversary of the Start of the Long March" international exchange project in Ninghua, Fujian, invited overseas youth, diplomats stationed in China, and internet influencers to conduct field visits to Long March sites. Through documentaries, vlogs, and short videos released on multilingual platforms, it broke through the formal boundaries of traditional external propaganda, enhancing the interactivity and influence of the expression of the Chinese spirit. Secondly, the Long March spirit is also being progressively embedded into the national technological image and the narrative of a modern state. The naming of the "Long March" series of rockets is not just a commemoration but a technological translation of the Chinese spirit, constituting a symbolic chain of "historical journey–technological expedition," injecting cultural depth into the discourse system of a leading power in science and technology.
The concepts of collectivist values, strategic endurance, and future-orientation embodied in the Long March spirit are providing a cultural foundation and spiritual resonance for China's participation in global governance and its promotion of a community with a shared future for humanity. The Long March spirit has become a cultural core and symbolic resource within major international cooperation mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Africa community with a shared future, carrying the ethical connotations and civilizational vision within the "Chinese solution."
The contemporary significance of the Long March spirit far exceeds a mere look back at history; it is profoundly embedded in the core mechanisms of national political construction, social governance, cultural development, and international communication in the New Era. Its political value is reflected in the integration logic of political construction and institutional systems; its social value is manifested as the cultural support for public services and governance concepts; its cultural value lies in the intrinsic motivation for national identity systems and youth culture construction; and its international value highlights the expressive agency and civilizational inspiration of the Chinese spirit within the global discourse system.
III. Practical Paths for Inheriting the Long March Spirit in the New Era In the grand narrative of Chinese social development in the New Era, as an important part of the spiritual pedigree of Chinese Communists, the inheritance of the Long March spirit exhibits a multi-dimensional fusion trend: moving from political propaganda toward institutional embedding, from commemorative rituals toward lived practice, and from slogan-based expression toward theoretical construction.
(I) Systematic Innovation of Ideological and Political Education and the Cultivation of Youth Spirit The power of faith, as the core manifestation of the Long March spirit, is both a spiritual projection of historical strength and a core of value identity among contemporary youth. Inheritance in the New Era no longer relies on traditional, top-down "instillation" modes of expression; instead, it constructs an integrated education mechanism through systematic innovation in ideological and political education, guiding youth to achieve spiritual self-awareness and value identification during the process of socialization.
Ideological and political education in the New Era takes the Party's innovative theories as its guide, strengthening the systematic construction of the faith system. In 2023, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Innovation of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Schools in the New Era, proposing the construction of an integrated education system for ideological and political courses across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Reforms in ideological and political education increasingly emphasize the contemporary relevance of course content and the interactivity of teaching methods. In the field of higher education, universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University have built "Ideological and Political Education Case Databases," combining red themes with real-world issues and conducting case-based teaching and project-based learning. This drives young students to transform from passive recipients of knowledge into participants in value construction. Primary and secondary schools use "Red Education Maps" and "Junior Narrators" to strengthen local grounding and a sense of participation. Faith education in the New Era emphasizes a "contextual embedding" strategy. The "Power of Faith" experiential teaching at the China Executive Leadership Academy in Yan'an and the "Faith Space" exhibition project in Ruikin, Jiangxi, utilize digital media and interactive theater to realize an emotional bridge between history and reality, constructing a "memory community" for youth identification. This strategy strengthens the situational trigger mechanism, moving ideological and political education away from the instillation mode and onto an experiential and participatory track. Under the digital wave, projects like "Digital Long March" and "Virtual Memorial Halls" provide online interactive platforms for youth, achieving a reconstruction of the red education field across time and space. These platforms use gamification mechanisms, immersive interaction, and task-orientation to enhance the active participation of young users, expanding new communication boundaries and identification mechanisms for faith education.
Overall, ideological and political education in the New Era is upgrading toward systematization, interactivity, contextualization, and digitalization, forming a faith cultivation path from cognitive transmission to value construction, and from emotional stimulation to action orientation. This educational innovation not only responds to the media consumption characteristics of the youth but also reflects the state's cultural governance capacity in ideological construction.
(II) Institutional Transformation of Red Resources and Innovation in Local Governance The organizational power carried by the Long March spirit is manifested in high discipline, collectivist orientation, and structured mobilization mechanisms. In the context of the New Era, red resources, as spiritual and cultural assets, are being transformed through institutionalized paths into important constituent units of local governance systems, becoming key variables in public policy formulation, organizational restructuring, and community mobilization mechanisms.
The institutional transformation of red resources began with macro-policy guidance. Since the release of the 14th Five-Year Special Plan for the Protection and Utilization of Revolutionary Cultural Relics and the Project for the Inheritance and Development of Fine Traditional Chinese Culture, red resources have been incorporated into the national cultural strategy system and have formed an institutional closed loop with financial guarantees, legal construction, and evaluation mechanisms. Red culture is no longer a symbolic existence but is embedded within policy systems such as education, cultural tourism, and urban-rural construction, undertaking the dual functions of governance philosophy and social mobilization. At the level of grassroots governance, various localities are transforming red resources into institutional tools for organizational practice. For example, the "Red Gene Inheritance Project" in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, combines red education with grassroots Party building, and the "Red Organizational Life Hall" in Xingguo County has become a functional venue for Party branch construction. Activating red resources through institutional means enhances the political cohesion and cultural affinity of governance units. Cadre education, as a key node in institutional construction, plays a mediating role in the transformation of red resources. The China Executive Leadership Academies in Jinggangshan and Yan'an, and the Zunyi Cadre College in Guizhou, have formed standardized curricula, case databases, and evaluation systems, ensuring that red cultural education achieves goal-orientation, process control, and results evaluation within institutional spaces. The cadre corps constructs political identity through systematic training, forming a dual fusion of red spirit and governance capacity. The red culture supply mechanism has extended to urban and rural spatial governance. For instance, Zunyi City in Guizhou has incorporated red culture into local legislation, forming a mechanism of rigid constraint and continuous supply; Chongqing and other places have guided the integration of Long March spirit connotations into public cultural service systems through "Red Space Planning," promoting the construction of "institutional cultural spaces." This institutionalization process strengthens the functional expression of cultural governance within spatial contexts.
Institutional transformation has allowed red resources to shed their roles as symbolic, festive, or temporary fixtures, moving toward normalized, systematic, and functional development. Within this logic, the inheritance of organizational power is not only about commemoration and succession but is a practical path for the optimization of governance systems and the reshaping of institutional logic.
(III) Reproduction of Red Culture in Digital Narrative Spaces As one of the core elements of red culture, the Long March spirit is being constantly reproduced within the context of highly developed digital media; its communication paths, cognitive structures, and emotional constructions are undergoing profound restructuring. In digital narrative spaces, red culture is no longer dominated by linear narratives and fixed meanings; instead, under the influence of interactive communication, user participation, and algorithmic logic, it achieves diverse expression and dynamic interpretation. This process of cultural reproduction is an important dimension of the enhanced communicative power of the Long March spirit in the New Era.
The logic of digital narrative has not only changed the forms of expression of red culture but has also reshaped its reception mechanisms. With the aid of media technologies such as short-video platforms, virtual reality, and interactive games, the presentation of red culture has moved from "telling" to "co-acting," and from "education" to "participation," forming a contextualized and immersive communication structure. For example, projects such as "Cloud Tour of the Long March Road" and "Red Army VR Battles" enhance a user's sense of presence and substitution through spatial restoration and task simulation, allowing the Long March spirit to be experienced tangibly within digital contexts.
On digital platforms, red content...
"Secondary creation" [7] has become an important mode of cultural reproduction. Through video editing, voice acting imitations, and virtual recreations, youth groups in universities transform "red memories" into content characterized by entertainment value, communicative power, and a sense of resonance, thereby activating the possibilities for cultural identity and intergenerational transmission. This bottom-up mechanism of content production allows red culture to acquire a communicative logic of "re-interpretation" within new media spaces. The digital reproduction of red culture also involves a strategic tension between authority and diversity. On one hand, mainstream media and government platforms construct authoritative narrative frameworks by strengthening technical means and discourse norms; on the other hand, grassroots creators and user groups expand the aesthetic forms and coverage of social issues within red culture through discursive deconstruction and creative re-imagination. This interactive tension ensures that the transmission of the Long March spirit maintains its historical gravity while possessing the flexibility and adaptability for dissemination in the contemporary era.
Theoretically, the reproduction of red culture in digital space can be viewed as "symbolic re-creation" within the "ritual view of communication" [8]. Digital ritual scenes and repetitive content production allow the Long March spirit to be continuously activated, remembered, perceived, and identified within the everyday media environment, forming a mechanism of spiritual transmission empowered by technical media. In the contemporary communication ecology, digital media is not merely a tool but a field for the construction of meaning. The digital reproduction of red culture is not a simple translation process, but a profound reconstruction of communicative structures, cultural logics, and social psychology. This reconstruction not only broadens the audience boundaries of the Long March spirit but also reshapes its narrative energy and cultural vitality.
(IV) Spiritual Re-practice in Social Synergy and Public Action
The agency [9] embodied in the Long March spirit is rooted in the high degree of unity between collective will and goal orientation. Under the conditions of the New Era, this agency is transformed—through social synergy mechanisms and the process of co-construction and sharing among diverse subjects—into a practical logic for promoting social participation, public coordination, and collective governance. Red spirit has leaped from historical memory to a guide for action, activating social forces in real life and promoting the construction and operation of multi-domain communities.
Within social organizational systems, the Long March spirit is being transformed into an important component of organizational culture and operational methods. Various social organizations—such as youth volunteer groups, community self-governance organizations, and professional service agencies—establish an operational logic based on collectivism by introducing a dual structure of "Red Guidance + Synergy Mechanisms." Practices such as "Red Property Management," "Pioneer Buildings," and "Youth Pioneer Posts" embed the red spirit into urban grassroots governance and community service systems, strengthening civic responsibility and identification with action. At the level of public action, the red spirit has become the value-leading basis for major social actions such as disaster relief, public welfare activities, and rural revitalization. For example, during the 2021 Zhengzhou floods in Henan, several volunteer teams invoked the slogan "The Long March spirit fears neither sacrifice nor hardship" to mobilize the masses for rescue efforts, reflecting the realistic conversion of spiritual resources into social dynamism. The role of the Long March spirit in public action is not as a symbolic slogan, but as a framework of meaning and psychological support that sustains the participants' actions.
Collaborative governance mechanisms have also expanded their practical dimensions under the "Red +" model. Many local governments cooperate with social forces to co-build platforms such as "Red Deliberation Halls" and "Red Volunteer Alliances," constructing a multi-party synergistic structure of joint discussion, construction, and governance. This process drives the transformation of government governance logic from one-way supply to a collaborative network, while simultaneously embedding the Long March spirit into institutionalized participation processes, exercising the dual functions of value coordination and emotional cohesion. In the interaction between universities and communities, red-themed social practices build a bridge between academia and reality. Study tours such as "Retracing the Long March Road" and volunteer projects for "Red Culture Transmission" promote authentic interactions between young students and local communities. Such embedded actions not only reshape the social identity of young students but also make the Long March spirit a fusion node for participatory education and social restructuring.
The re-practice of the Long March spirit is manifested not only in the recurrence of historical contexts but, more importantly, in the participatory structures and organizational logics of contemporary social mechanisms. Through social synergy and public action, the agency of the Long March spirit has acquired realistic forms of institutional reliance, platform support, and group practice, demonstrating its active value in the social construction of the New Era.
(V) Emotional Scenes and Value Experiences in the Integration of Red Culture and Tourism
The cohesive force of the Red spirit is not only reflected in institutional structures and organizational systems but is more deeply integrated into the emotional scenes and immersive experiences constructed by the integration of culture and tourism. As a trigger for emotional identification and a transmitter of value construction, "Red Tourism" [10] is becoming the "field of emotional mobilization" and "field of memory experience" for the inheritance of the Long March spirit in the New Era.
Red cultural scenic spots along the Long March route are gradually transforming from "sightseeing-oriented" to "experience-oriented." In this process, the fusion model of "Culture + Technology + Tourism" has been widely adopted. For instance, the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall reconstructs the atmosphere of the meeting site through AR interaction and immersive performances, allowing tourists to understand the hardship of political decision-making through "being there." The Long March Departure Point scenic area in Yudu has introduced interactive theaters and live-action Red dramas to strengthen the tourists' sense of substitution and emotional resonance. One of the core functions of Red Tourism is to construct emotional scenes; unlike rational, "preaching-style" propaganda, situational expression strategies are more likely to trigger an identification response. Through storytelling, role-playing, and ritual participation, the Red spirit is activated as a "perceivable order of values." This value order not only creates a resonance of meaning at the individual level of the tourist but also facilitates the social dissemination of "symbolic identification" at the collective level. At the same time, the integration of Red culture and tourism emphasizes the unity of value guidance and aesthetic expression. Through content planning, thematic design, and the construction of visual symbols, an aestheticized re-presentation of the core values of the Long March spirit is achieved. For example, the "Long March Cultural Route" project integrates Mao Zedong's poetry, Red Army stories, and straw sandal elements into its visual system, forming a unique Red aesthetic style. This mode of aesthetic expression enhances the spiritual orientation and internal infectiousness of the cultural consumption process.
Tourism experiences are not merely acts of cultural consumption but are social practices through which the public engages in value negotiation and identity construction. In the process of visiting, interacting, commemorating, and sharing, many participants internalize the Red spirit as part of their own cognitive life, reflecting a transformation of identity from "tourist" to "member of a spiritual community." This identity transformation process helps to build emotional bonds and value consensus among diverse subjects. The communicative effects of Red Tourism also benefit from the secondary amplification of digital platforms. Short video platforms and image-text social media have become important channels for the "online re-transmission" of Red scenic spots, allowing emotional experiences to transcend the limitations of the physical site and enter a broader network field. Cultural and tourism content is continuously endowed with meaning and transformed through secondary creation, and the Long March spirit enters popular culture and daily life through this decentralized process.
Therefore, the integration of Red culture and tourism is not only an industrial form combining economy and culture but also an effective path for the re-embedding of the Long March spirit into life scenes and emotional dimensions in the New Era. In this process, the Red spirit completes its transformation from political discourse into life experience, and from historical narrative into contemporary identity, demonstrating its enduring vitality and broad social appeal.
Conclusion: The Path of Development from Spiritual Resource to Modern Construction
As a highly condensed spiritual achievement of the Communist Party of China's century-long struggle, the Long March spirit not only carries the historical memory of the Chinese nation forging brilliance through suffering but also performs a generative reality-based function within the national development system of the New Era. It has transcended the category of static historical commemoration and been transformed into the cultural gene of institutional design, the leading path of ideological education, the value logic of social action, and the spiritual support of the national narrative. This article has conducted a systematic study of the theoretical evolution, practical paths, and contemporary value of the Long March spirit in the New Era, revealing its comprehensive functional mechanisms at the levels of faith-shaping, organizational construction, social action, cultural transmission, and value cohesion. In the context of the New Era, the Long March spirit not only continues the spiritual undertones of revolutionary idealism but also achieves a dynamic embedding within institutional systems, cultural structures, and social operational logics, becoming an important spiritual force driving the process of Chinese-path modernization.
Looking to the future, the contemporary expression of the Long March spirit should further transcend ritualized communication and symbolic representation to deeply integrate into the overall layout of the national governance system, the cultural innovation system, and the international communication system. By strengthening the internal continuity of its institutional logic, cultural logic, and civilizational logic, we must promote the transformation of spiritual resources into governance concepts, social actions, and civilizational exchanges. This will ensure that the Long March spirit continuously radiates new vitality in the developmental practice of New Era China. Only through this two-way interaction between history and reality, and between tradition and modernity, can the Long March spirit truly complete its leap from Red memory to civilizational resource, and from national spirit to global value, providing the enduring ideological impetus and cultural support for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
About the Authors: Zhu Hong is a Professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Nanchang University; Li Wenjia is a Lecturer at the School of Music, Jiangxi Normal University, and a doctoral student at Nanchang University.
Source: Journal of China Executive Leadership Academy Jinggangshan (CELAJ), 2025, Issue No. 6. Editor: Huihui