Cultural Programme of the New-Democratic Revolution

The fundamental ideals and goals of the CPC on cultural issues during the New-Democratic Revolution.

Mao Zedong summed up the basic experience of the New Cultural Movement since the May Fourth Movement, and in his works “On New Democracy” and “On Coalition Government”, he comprehensively expounded the Party's cultural program in the period of the New-Democratic Revolution. In his opinion, a given culture (as a conceptual form) is the ideological reflection of the politics and economics of a given society. The nature and characteristics of the New-Democratic Revolution determined that the content of China's new national culture at the present stage was neither the cultural despotism of the bourgeoisie nor the socialism of the proletariat, but the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal New Democracy of the masses, under the leadership of proletarian-socialist culture and ideology. Then the national culture referred to the content of this culture: "It opposes imperialist oppression and upholds the dignity and independence of the Chinese nation.” This was a culture of "resisting imperialism and national oppression, advocating national independence and liberation, and advocating national self-confidence." Formally speaking, this kind of culture "belongs to our own nation and bears our own national characteristics.” This was a kind of culture with “a correct grasp of the reality and characteristics of the nation". It should not have been gulped any of this foreign material down uncritically but must have adopted the attitude of taking the essence and removing the dross, and endowed the Chinese people with the national form they loved to see in the process of absorbing.

The scientific culture meant that it opposed to all feudal and superstitious ideas, it stood for seeking truth from facts, for objective truth and for the unity of theory and practice. This was a culture of “opposing arbitrariness, superstition, and ignorance, supporting scientific truth, taking truth as a guide for one's own practice, advocating science and scientific thought that can truly grasp truth, and cultivating scientific life and scientific working methods.” This culture must have critically collated and inherited the splendid ancient culture of China, and absorbed the essence of democracy in ancient culture, and eliminated its feudal dross.

The popular culture referred to a cultural form that “it should serve the toiling masses of workers and peasants who make up more than 90% of the nation's population and should gradually become their own culture.” “Who is the people?” Mao Zedong pointed out: “More than 90% of the people are workers, peasants, soldiers and the urban petty bourgeoisie.” “These four kinds of people are the largest part of the Chinese nation and the broadest masses of the people.” Therefore, they were the main recipients and users of new culture, so that they should have been the basic service objects of new cultural work.

Revolutionary culture was a powerful revolutionary weapon for the broad masses of the people, and therefore there was a close link between the knowledge imparted to the revolutionary cadres and the knowledge imparted to the revolutionary masses, between the raising of cultural standards and popularization.

Mao Zedong proposed this new democratic cultural program in detail, which was the general line, general program and general policy of the Communist Party of China on cultural work during the New-Democratic Revolution.