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"Literature Observation" hope to save the literary world from its current state of chaos.

Officially launched in this past January in the People’s Daily with a several-page dialogue among a handful of leading figures in Chi­na’s literary and academic circles, the column “Literature Observa­tion” is taking on the ambitious task of dispelling chaos in the con­temporary Chinese literary world. Jointly sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the People’s Daily, the column is directed by CASS Vice President Zhang Jiang. The sponsors and editorial staff of “Literature Obser­vation” expect that it will be both a platform for expressing the quali­ties that define socialist literature, and a vehicle for exploring the re­lation between literature and his­tory, literature and morality and literature and society’s outlook.

Chen Jin, deputy director of the CPC Central Committee’s Litera­ture Research Centre, and Han Zhen, president of Beijing Foreign Studies University, are both faith­ful readers of the “Literature Ob­servation”. They offered glowing praise for the column’s achieve­ments in the weeks since it was launched, expressing their strong support for the contributing col­umnists’ ideas.

He Jianming, vice president of the China Writers Association, said that he has carefully read every article of every issue so far, and could not agree more with the opinions expressed by the au­thors.

“Among many readers, works portraying the ugly facts of life have been popular for a long time, while works that are full of opti­mism cannot find an audience and don’t quite mesh with the contem­porary literary world.” 

He Jianming continued: “The pursuit of what is noble and ma­jestic forms the backbone of our nation.” He believes that it is writ­ers’ obligation to uphold a sublime vision, delving deep into the things that inspire optimism and creativ­ity in mainstream society.

Yu Wujin, a professor of the School of Philosophy at Fudan University, remarked that it is not just the literary world that is in a state of chaos, but also other fields related to ideology and culture.

The sponsors and editorial staff of “Literature Observation” hope the column will provide a new reference point for bolster­ing the popularity of Marxism in Chinese academia.

Many commentators have faith that “Literature Observation” will exert a far-reaching influence because it squarely addresses the inadequacies of contemporary lit­erature. It utilizes Marxist literary theory to prescribe a clear, pub­lic-minded role for writers—that they should take responsibility for the people, the State and the various ethnicities that constitute it, history and socialist ethics.

“With a down-to-earth attitude, scholars are applying the power of Marxism to the broad masses of the people. The path to academic popularity of Marxism will be­come broader and broader,” Han Zhen asserted.

 

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 565, Feb. 28, 2014

                                                  Translated by Zhang Mengying

                                                   Revised by Charles Horne

The Chinese link:

http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/guoneixinwen/87988.html