The Counter-Encirclement Struggle on the Cultural Front

The Communists and the progressive cultural circles in the KMT-ruled areas waged a counter-“encirclement” struggle on the cultural front. While the military and civilians in the base areas were fighting against the “encirclement” militarily, the Communists and progressive cultural figures in the KMT-ruled areas were also fighting against the “encirclement” on the cultural front, forming a powerful left-wing cultural movement.

In the second half of 1929, the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC formed the Cultural Working Committee ("Cultural Committee") in Shanghai in accordance with the instruction of the CPC Central Committee on the establishment of a unified cultural organization, to strengthen the unified leadership of the Party work on the cultural front in the KMT-ruled areas and to unite and organize progressive cultural workers to oppose the KMT's cultural “encirclement”. At the beginning of 1930, the CPC, under the direct leadership and support of the Cultural Committee, convened a general meeting in Shanghai on March 2 to formally establish the Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers (abbreviated as Left League), in response to the demand of progressive writers to unify their organizations.

The congress adopted the theoretical and operational programs of the Left League, elected Lu Xun, Shen Duanxian (Xia Yan), Feng Naichao, Qian Xingcun, Tian Han, Zheng Boqi, and Hong Lingfei as executive members, and decided to establish the Marxist Literary and Artistic Theory Research Society, the International Cultural Research Society, and the Society for the Study of the Popularization of Literature and Art, as well as to found the publication Sprout Monthly and Pathfinder. Under the leadership of the Cultural Committee, left-wing cultural groups such as the Chinese Union of Social Scientists, the Chinese Union of Left-Wing Dramatists, the Chinese Union of Left-Wing Journalists, film and music groups were established one after another. To facilitate the unified leadership of these organizations and groups, the Cultural Committee established the General League of Chinese Left-Wing Cultural Circles in Shanghai in October 1930.

Eight left-wing “Cultural Revolution” groups participated in the “Cultural Revolution”, of which the largest, most active, and most influential were the Left League and the League of Social Democracy. The General League of Chinese Left-Wing Cultural Circles and its affiliated organizations are the united front organizations of the cultural circles under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. They have united and won over a large number of left-wing cultural workers, fought fiercely against the counter-revolutionary cultural “encirclement” of the KMT, and played an important role in spreading progressive ideas and promoting the anti-Japanese movement for liberation.

Lu Xun's essays, Qu Qiubai’s commentaries, Mao Dun's novel Midnight, the song March of the Volunteers composed by Nie Er and lyrics by Tian Han, and Life Magazine (Shenghuo Zhoukan) sponsored by Zou Taofen all had a wide and profound impact on the masses. Lu Xun was the best of them, and was hailed by Mao Zedong as “on the cultural front he was the bravest and most correct, the firmest, the most loyal and the most ardent national hero, a hero without parallel in our history.”