Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2018

 

Research on Xi Jinping Thought on Literature and Art

(Abstract)

 

Zhang Jiang, Bai Ye, Ding Guoqi, Duan Jifang and Yang Xiangrong

 

Editor’s note: on Oct. 18, 2017, the 19th CPC National Congress was successfully held, and President Xi delivered a report titled “Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” He pointed out that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era after longterm efforts, and this is a new historical milestone in the development of China. Great literature and art will be accomplished in great times. It is the historical mission of literature and art workers and researchers to write a great epic for the rejuvenation of China and promote discourse construction of contemporary Chinese literary theory. The five articles included in this volume interpret the connotation and research direction of literature and art in the new era from different perspectives.

Zhang Jiang points out that the national rejuvenation requires strong spiritual force. It is an urgent requirement for literature and art to become the pioneer of the changing times and social transformation in the new era. Literature and art should be participants, promoters and builders of the new era. The essential task is to record, provide spiritual and intellectual support to, and become the driving force of the times. The great practice in changing the objective and subjective world of human being determines the course of history and also constitutes the richest and deepest source of creation in literature and art. More effort should be centered on the great practice of the people to write the epic of the new era of national rejuvenation.   

Bai Ye concentrates on the relationship between cultural construction and national rejuvenation. He argues that cultural confidence determines cultural construction, which in turn affects national rejuvenation. The traditional, revolutionary and socialist advanced cultures are the outcomes of the evolution and accumulation of great Chinese culture, and products of the inheritance and historical development of the national spirit. They constitute a distinctive and enduring mark of our national spirit. In theoretical criticism and literary creation, the “Chineseness” cultural position should be highlighted to illustrate the aesthetic style of “nationality.” In literary and artistic creation, realistic themes should be enhanced for telling China’s story and creating the “new epic of China.”

Starting from explaining the essential attributes of things, Ding Guoqi puts up that the definition of the essential attribute of literature and art is changed with times. We should respect the characteristics of literature,fulfill the historical mission and commitment of literature and art，and make it better serve the era and society. Through the theoretical exposition on the proposition of the “popular character” (renminxing) of literature and art, President Xi scientifically summarized the essential features of socialist literature and art with Chinese characteristics in the new era, which is a new understanding of the development stage of Chinese literature and art and its special rules, which is of distinctive contemporaneity and concreteness.

Duan Jifang interprets the philosophical, practical and global dimensions of the theoretical connotations of cultural confidence. The “culture” in cultural confidence includes not only philosophy but also the essential thoughts in historical and social dimension. Its practical dimension includes both the political and economic reality of China’s rise and the current cultural reality. Cultural confidence is a new observation about the direction of human civilization rather than the confidence behind closed doors.

Yang Xiangrong argues that it is the cornerstone and basic position of constructing the spirit of literature and art discourse in today’s China to critically reflect on the interpretation of Western theory and strengthen the interpretability of local experience in the context of the literature and art of the new era. In the construction of socialist discourse of literature and art with Chinese characteristics in the new era, Chinese practical experience should be regarded as the root, theory must be realistic, and problemdriven. Only those theories that solve the problems raised in reality are solid and rigorous. 

The five articles above present our preliminary examination on Xi Jingping’s thoughts about literature and art. We will promote the research by taking into account the reality of the construction of the theory of literature and art, writers’ works as well as literary and artistic trends.