Socialist Culture with Chinese Characteristics

The excellent Chinese traditional culture, which originated from the civilization history of the Chinese nation for more than 5,000 years, was cast in the revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture created by the people in revolution, construction and reform led by the Party, and rooted in the culture of great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. As early as the beginning of Reform and Opening-up, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: “We must improve the scientific and cultural level of the whole nation, develop a noble and colorful cultural life, and build a high-degree socialist spiritual civilization while building a high-degree material civilization”. The 6th Plenary Session of the 12th CPC Central Committee decided to include strengthening the spiritual civilization construction into the overall layout of China’s socialist modernization construction. The 6th Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee emphasized that spiritual civilization was an important feature of the socialist society. Later, the Party brought it forth that “building the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics means to develop a national, scientific and mass culture of socialism that faces modernization, the world and the future, by taking Marxism as the guide and cultivating citizens with ideals, morality, culture and discipline as the goal”.

The 6th Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee put forward the development path of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics and the goal of building a socialist country with advanced culture. The 19th CPC National Congress put socialist culture with Chinese characteristics on a par with the socialist path, theoretical system and system with Chinese characteristics. The connotation of developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics is to develop a national, scientific and mass culture of socialism that faces modernization, the world and the future, and promote the coordinated development of socialist spiritual civilization and material civilization, by taking Marxism as the guide, sticking to the Chinese cultural stand, and combining the contemporary China’s reality and conditions of the times. The way to develop culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to persist in serving the people and socialism, letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and realizing the creative transformation and innovative development, so as to constantly create new glory in Chinese culture.

Specifically, we need to focus on the following six aspects. Firstly, we must firmly grasp the leadership of ideological work and promote the sinicization, modernization and popularization of Marxism. Secondly, we must cultivate and practice socialist core values. Thirdly, we must strengthen ideological and moral construction, improve people’s ideological awareness, moral standards, and civilized literacy, and improve the civilization degree of the whole society. Fourthly, we must prosper and develop socialist literature and art. Fifthly, we must promote the development of cultural undertakings and industries, deepen the reform of the cultural system, and improve the cultural management system. Sixthly, we must promote the construction of international communication capacity and improve the national cultural soft power.