Yan'an Forum

TheYan'an Forum on Literature and Art(simplified Chinese:Diên an văn nghệ tọa đàm hội;traditional Chinese:Diên an văn nghệ tọa đàm hội;pinyin:Yán'ān Wén Yì Zuòtánhuì) was a May 1942 forum held in theYan'an Sovietand a significant event in theYan'an Rectification Movement.It is most notable for the speeches given byMao Zedong,later edited and published asTalks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art(Chinese:Tại diên an văn nghệ tọa đàm hội thượng đích giảng thoại;pinyin:Zài Yán'ān Wén Yì Zuòtánhuì shàng de Jiǎnghuà) which dealt with the role of literature and art in the country. The two main points were that (1) all art should reflect the life of theworking classand consider them as an audience, and (2) that art should serve politics, and specifically the advancement ofsocialism.

ChairmanMao Zedongand others at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art includingChen Xuezhao(5th from the left in the third row)

Group photo of representatives of the Yan'an Forum

Background

During theLong March(1934-1935), theChinese Communist Party(CCP) andPeople's Liberation Army(PLA) used song, drama, and dance to appeal to the civilian population, but did not have a unified cultural policy. For three years after the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese Warin 1937, the main message of the CCP art organizations, such as the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Drama Society, was to "oppose Japan" (Phản nhật,fǎnrì) or "resist Japan" (Kháng nhật,kàngrì). In 1938, the CCP established theLu Xun Academy of Fine ArtsinYan'an(Yenan), which was to train people in literature, music, fine arts, and drama.

In 1940, Mao issued apolicy statementin his text,On New Democracy:"The content of China's new culture at the present stage is... the anti-imperialist anti-feudal new democracy of the popular masses led by the culture and thought of the proletariat". During the Yan'an Rectification Movement (1942-1944), the CCP used various methods to consolidate ideological unity among cadres aroundMaoism(as opposed to Soviet-style Marxism–Leninism). The immediate spur to the Yan'an talks was a request by a concerned writer forMao Zedongto clarify the ambiguous role of intellectuals in the CCP.Thus began a three-week conference at the Lu Xun Academy about the objectives of and methods of creating CCP art.

Mao delivered the Yan'an Talks in May 1942.

Content

The Yan'an Talks outlined the CCP's policy on "mass culture" (Chinese:Quần chúng văn hóa;pinyin:qúnzhòng wénhuà) in China, which was to be "revolutionary culture" (Chinese:Cách mệnh văn hóa;pinyin:gémìng wénhuà). The core concept of the Yan'an Talks was that art should translate the ideas of theChinese Communist Revolutionfor rural peasants.In this view, cultural workers and the masses would both serve as teacher and student for each other.This revolutionary style of art would portray the lives ofpeasantsand be directed towards them as an audience.Mao scolded artists for neglecting "The cadres, party workers of all types, fighters in the army, workers in the factories and peasants in the villages" as audiences, just because they were illiterate. He was particularly critical ofChinese operaas a courtly art form, rather than one directed towards the masses. However, he encouraged artists to draw from China's artistic legacy as well as international art forms in order to further socialism.Mao also encouraged literary people to transform themselves by living in the countryside,and to study thepopular musicandfolk cultureof the areas, incorporating both into their works.

Mao stated that transformations in the socialrelations of productionrequired development of a new societal consciousness.Mao stated that in addition to reorganizing production, a revolution should create a culture in which the interests and needs of a working culture take priority.In this view,socialist literatureshould not merely reflect existing culture, but should help culturally produce the consciousness of a new society.In particular, cultural work should be viewed as a transformative experience which would built revolutionary relationships among cultural workers, the masses, and the CCP.Mao articulated five independent although related categories of creative consideration for cultural production: (1) class stand, (2) attitude, (3) audience, (4) work style, and (5) popularization/massification.

In the Yan'an Talks, Mao argued that it was important for art to depict allies and enemies clearly, urging artists to expose the cruelty of enemies and the inevitability of their defeat.Artists were also instructed to extol "the masses of the people, their toil and their struggle, their army and their Party."

Mao also expressed that there are no absolute criteria for evaluating art, only contextual and pragmatic considerations.In this view, there is no such thing as art-for-art's-sake.

Legacy

The Talks became the most important guiding document of the Yan'an Rectification Movement.After the formal publication of the Talks in October 1943, theCommunist Party's Central Committeeissued two circulars stating that all Communist Party Members should study the Talks, stating that they were theSinicizationofMarxism and Leninism.

Implementing the principles of the Yan'an Talks involved the creation of new literary forms and content tailored to the socialist transformation of China and its culture, an endeavor that was much more complex than applying ideological standards to measure existing artistic forms.As summarized by academic Cai Xiang, the great writers of the period embraced this endeavor, while the practice was essentially inaccessible to hacks.

An immediate change inChinese musicthat resulted from the Yan'an Talks was the growth in respectability of folk styles.The Yan'an Talks also provided political legitimacy to traditional Chinese novel forms such as episodic chapters.

Key quotations from Yan'an Talks form the basis of the section on "Culture and Art" in the Maoist textQuotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.TheGang of Four's dramatic interpretation of the Yan'an Talks during theCultural Revolutionled to a new CCP-sanctioned form of political art,revolutionary opera.Conversely, certain forms of art, such as the works ofBeethoven,Respighi,Dvorak,andChopin,were condemned in CCP papers as "bourgeoisdecadence ".

Cai writes that over time, the important principles of the Yan'an Talks became increasingly simplified, ultimately resulting in the dogmatizing of the requirements for literature during the Cultural Revolution, which undermined the radicalism of China's socialist literature.After the death of Mao and the rise ofreformist leaderslikeDeng Xiaoping,who condemned the Cultural Revolution, the Yan'an talks were officially reevaluated. In 1982, the CCP declared that Mao's doctrine that "literature and art are subordinate to politics" was an "incorrect formulation", but it reaffirmed his main points about art needing to reflect the reality of the workers and peasantry.

For the 70th anniversary of the Yan'an Talks in May 2012, a group of 100 Chinese writers and artists includingMo Yanparticipated in hand-copying the text of the Yan'an Talks as a celebration.

On 15 October 2014, General SecretaryXI Jinpingemulated the Yan'an Talks with his Speech at the Forum on Literature and Art.Consistent with Mao's view in the Yan'an Talks, Xi believes works of art should be judged by political criteria.In 2021, Xi quoted the Yan'an Talks during the opening ceremony of the Eleventh National Congress of theFederation of Literature and Artand the Tenth National Congress of theChinese Writers Association.

See also

• Socialist realism
• Red Detachment of Women

Further reading

• McDougall, Bonnie. (1980).Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Conference on Literature and Art": A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary.University of Michigan Press.ISBN9780892640393