Speech at the Forum on Literary and Art Work

An Important Speech delivered by Xi Jinping at the Symposium on Literary and Art Work held in Beijing on October 15, 2014. Xi Jinping chaired the Forum on Literature and Art Work organized in Beijing on the morning of the 15th, and gave an important speech. He said: “lLiterature and art are the bugle call for the progress of the time, they are most able to represent the spirit of an age and are most able to guide the customs of an age. To realize the ‘Two Centenaries’ struggle objectives and realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the role of literature and art is irreplaceable, literature and art workers have a great role. All the literature and art workers must understand the position and function of literature and art from this height, and understand the historical mission and responsibilities they have undertaken, persisting in a creative orientation with the people at the center, strive to create and produce ever more excellent works that disseminate the values and ideas of current-day China, embody the spirit of Chinese culture, reflect the aesthetic pursuits of Chinese people, and inspire the people of all ethnicities in the entire country to become full of vigor and vitality and march towards the future.” Contained in Selection and Compilation of Important Documents since the 18th National Congress (Vol. 2). Xi Jinping expounded the importance of literature and art and the principles of literature and art work, and put forward ardent hopes and demands for the vast number of literary and art workers.

He pointed out that literature and art undertaking is an important undertaking of the Party and the people, the literature and art front is an important front for the Party and the people. Culture is an important force in the existence and development of a nation. Without the flourishing and prosperity of Chinese culture, there will be no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The rejuvenation of a nation requires major material strength, it also requires major spiritual strength. Without the vigorous guidance of advanced culture, without the great wealth of the people’s spiritual world, and without the incessant strengthening of the nation’s spiritual strength, a country and a nation cannot stand tall among the forest of the nations of the world. To let literature and art creation flourish and to promote literature and art innovation, we must have a large batch of famous literary men and artists endowed with both virtue and artistry. We must put the construction of literature and art troops into an even more prominent and important position. We must hold fast to the standpoint of Chinese culture, inherit China’s cultural genes, and display China’s aesthetic bearing. Socialist literature and art, essentially speaking, is the people’s literature and art. Literature and art must reflect well the hearts and voices of the people, and so must persist in this fundamental orientation of serving the people and serving Socialism. This is a basic task that the Party has put to the literature and art front, and is crucial in deciding the future destiny of our country’s literature and art undertaking.

Putting people at the center means that we must make satisfying the people’s spiritual and cultural needs into a starting point and stopover point for literature and art, and literature and art work, make the people into the subjects of literature and art expression, make the people into connoisseurs and critics of literature and art aesthetics, and make serving the people into the vocation of literature and art workers. The Chinese spirit is the soil of Socialist literature and art. Because of this, we must forcefully carry forward and practice the Socialist core value view in all of society, ensure that, like air, there is no place it doesn’t penetrate, and no time at which it does not apply, that it becomes a common value pursuit for all of the people, becomes a unique spiritual pillar for us to live as Chinese people, and becomes a behavioral norm that the common people use daily without being conscious. In the Socialist core value view, the most profound, fundamental and eternal matter is patriotism. Our contemporary literature and art must ever more make patriotism into the main melody of literature and art creation, guide the people in establishing and upholding correct view of history, views of the nation, views of the country and views of culture, and strengthen the backbone and confidence of the Chinese people. We should strengthen and improve the Party's leadership over literature and art work. Party leadership is the fundamental guarantee for the development of Socialist literature and art. To strengthen and improve Party leadership over literature and art work, we must grasp two matters: Firstly, we must firmly rely on the broad number of literature and art workers; Secondly, we must respect and abide by the laws of literature and art. All levels’ Party Committees must, from the height of building a strong Socialist culture country, strengthen their cultural consciousness and cultural self-confidence, bring literature and art work into the important matters agenda, implement the Party’s literature and art principles and policies well, and grasp the correct orientation of literature and art development. The “Speech” profoundly expounded the status, role and major mission of literature and art, creatively answered a series of fundamental and directional important questions concerning the prosperity and development of literature and art and gave a comprehensive guidance for doing a good job in the sphere of literature and art work under the new historical conditions.