Feng Lihua: Enhancing the Value Appeal of Socialist Culture in the New Era
Culture is the soul of a nation and a people, and the power of value appeal is the core benchmark for measuring the vitality and influence of a culture. The "Suggestions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development," adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee [1], made strategic deployments for cultural construction. It explicitly required "stimulating the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation," the deep-seated aim of which is to promote cultural prosperity and development, strengthen value guidance, and enhance spiritual strength. Deeply grasping the theoretical logic, core tasks, and practical paths for enhancing the value appeal of socialist culture in the New Era plays a vital role in solidly advancing the construction of a socialist cultural powerhouse and ensuring that Chinese-path modernization moves forward steadily and reaches far.
Enhancing Cultural Confidence within the "Two Combinations"
The fundamental basis for enhancing value appeal lies in the advanced nature and guiding power of culture itself. This requires us to consolidate our theoretical foundation and demonstrate our civilizational height through the integration of theory and practice. The source of value appeal for socialist culture in the New Era is rooted in the solid cultural subjectivity established through the "Two Combinations" [2], and is manifested in its creative contribution to a new form of human civilization.
Value appeal stems from the distinctive cultural subjectivity forged by the "Two Combinations." The prerequisite for cultural appeal is the establishment of cultural subjectivity. The "Two Combinations"—and particularly the "Second Combination"—proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping represent another liberation of the mind [3]. They break through the binary opposition between tradition and modernity, East and West, deepen the connotation of the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism, and achieve the creative transformation and innovative development [4] of fine traditional Chinese culture. The "combination" is not a "platter" or a simple "physical reaction," but a profound "chemical reaction" that creates a "new cultural lifeform" through this integration. It ensures that socialist culture in the New Era retains the scientific background and the light of truth of Marxism while remaining deeply rooted in the fertile soil of over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization; it upholds the fundamental direction of socialism while remaining infused with the unique spiritual temperament and value pursuits of the Chinese nation. This autonomous cultural creation—formed based on historical lineage, grounded in great practice, and responding to the needs of the people—completely casts off the "apprentice mentality" and "state of dependency" in the cultural sphere, thereby laying the most fundamental foundation of cultural confidence for value appeal.
Value appeal is manifested in the grand historical responsibility of creating a new form of human civilization. Chinese-path modernization has created a new form of human civilization. This new form transcends the old Western path of modernization, which is dominated by the logic of capital, bloated by materialism, and suffers from severe polarization between rich and poor. As the spiritual expression and value carrier of this new civilizational form, the appeal of socialist culture in the New Era lies not only in serving the well-rounded development of the person, but also in contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to address the common challenges facing humanity and exploring more rational social systems. It advocates the common values of humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom—and proposes the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity and the Global Civilization Initiative. It manifests a civilizational vision of "maintaining a global perspective" [5] and a value sentiment of "establishing oneself and then helping others to be established" [6]. These value propositions, which transcend a single country or region and concern the collective welfare of humanity, endow the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era with moral height and intellectual depth, giving its value appeal the potential power to bridge civilizational divides and trigger broad resonance. Enhancing value appeal is, in essence, enriching and developing a new form of human civilization and making new and greater contributions to the progress of human civilization.
Leading the Improvement of Civilized Literacy with Core Values
Value appeal does not exist in the abstract; it requires concrete carriers and practical applications. Its core task lies in internalizing core values as a national consensus and externalizing them as the civilized literacy of all people.
Socialist core values are the spiritual carrier of value appeal. Core values carry the spiritual pursuits of a nation and a country, representing the most concentrated and core manifestation of cultural value appeal. The socialist core values of "prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony; freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law; and patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship" [7] embody contemporary Chinese spirit in a concentrated way and condense the common value pursuits of all people. To enhance cultural value appeal, the primary task is to deeply advance the cultivation and practice of socialist core values. This requires us not only to clarify their historical origins, theoretical basis, and contemporary significance in theory, but also to "integrate them into the construction of the rule of law, into social development, and into daily life" in practice. They must become behavioral norms that all people "use daily without even noticing" [8], thereby fortifying the common ideological and moral foundation for the united struggle of all people and forming a powerful spiritual force that centers the soul and consolidates strength.
The improvement of the people's civilized literacy is the fundamental destination for the realization of value appeal. The fundamental role of culture lies in "cultivating the person through culture" [9]. The strength of value appeal must ultimately be reflected in the improvement of the people's ideological awareness, moral standards, civilized literacy, and the civilized level of the whole society. Improving the people's civilized literacy is not only an inherent requirement for meeting the people's aspirations for a better spiritual and cultural life, but also a foundational project for achieving high-quality development and advancing the modernization of national governance. A population with high civilized literacy is better able to master and apply modern scientific and technological knowledge, abide by social ethics, professional ethics, and family virtues, and possess a rational, peaceful, and proactive social mentality. This itself is a vivid manifestation of the superiority of socialism and the most persuasive realistic presentation of cultural value. Therefore, to enhance cultural value appeal, we must adhere to a people-centered work orientation, effectively transforming the achievements of cultural construction into a universal improvement in the people's civilized literacy, and cultivating newcomers of the era who are capable of shouldering the great responsibility of national rejuvenation.
Stimulating Innovative Vitality and Effective Communication
Faced with new situations and tasks, enhancing the value appeal of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics in the New Era requires systematic practical exploration, with key focuses on stimulating endogenous dynamism, breaking down institutional barriers, and expanding the radius of communication.
Taking the stimulation of the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation as the fundamental driving force. Innovation and creativity are the lifeblood of culture and the source of vitality for value appeal to remain fresh over time. We must respect the laws of cultural development, promote academic and artistic democracy, and encourage bold exploration and personalized creation. We should guide cultural and artistic workers to "immerse themselves in life and take root among the people" [10], drawing inspiration and refining themes from the great practices of the New Era. We must create and produce more masterpieces that are "ideologically profound, artistically exquisite, and excellently produced," which disseminate contemporary Chinese values, embody the spirit of Chinese culture, and reflect the aesthetic pursuits of the Chinese people, driving literary and artistic creation toward new heights. Conforming to the trends of the digital age, we must promote the deep integration of culture and technology, using new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the internet to empower cultural innovation, develop new types of cultural business models, and enrich forms of cultural expression, making the expression of cultural values more appealing and attractive.
Taking the deepening of the reform of the cultural system and mechanisms as the institutional guarantee. Systems and mechanisms are key factors affecting cultural vitality and the efficiency of value dissemination. To enhance value appeal, we must look to reform for momentum. We must always adhere to the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological sphere, consolidate and strengthen mainstream public opinion, and improve the responsibility system for ideological work. We must optimize cultural management and production/operation mechanisms, improve the modern cultural industry system and market system, handle the relationship between social benefits and economic benefits well, and always place social benefits first. We must cultivate a massive workforce of outstanding cultural talents, reform the evaluation and incentive mechanisms for talent, and create a favorable environment where everyone can make the most of their talents. Faced with the "greatest variable of the internet" [11], we must improve the comprehensive internet governance system, strengthen content construction and management, and create a clean and healthy cyberspace, making the internet an effective platform for disseminating advanced culture, promoting core values, and improving the literacy of the people.
Taking the construction of a Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative system as the key to communication. Value appeal requires effective communication to realize its influence. In the context of globalization and a complex international public opinion environment, to enhance the influence of Chinese culture, we must focus on solving the problem of "having the truth but being unable to speak it, or speaking it but being unable to spread it." We must focus on promoting the construction of China's autonomous discourse system and narrative framework, forming a series of new concepts, categories, and expressions that both contain Chinese values and possess the capacity for international dialogue. "Using culture to carry the Dao and using culture to transmit the voice" [12], we must present a true, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive China to the world, showcasing the eternal charm and contemporary value of Chinese culture, and continuously enhancing the country's cultural soft power and the influence of Chinese culture.
Enhancing the value appeal of socialist culture in the New Era is a great project concerning the future of the country and the spirit of the nation. It is deeply rooted in the new cultural situation initiated by the "Two Combinations," serves the new form of civilization created by Chinese-path modernization, and relies on the widespread practice of socialist core values and the universal improvement of the people's civilized literacy. With a high degree of cultural self-awareness and cultural confidence, we must continue to stimulate cultural innovation and creativity, deepen the reform of the cultural system and mechanisms, effectively build a modern communication system, and continuously enhance the cohesion, guidance, and infectiousness of socialist culture to advance the construction of a socialist cultural powerhouse.