The United Front in Cultural Work
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of The United Front in Cultural Work has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:
- The United Front in Cultural Work, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
- General Policy for the United Front in Culture and Education, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 8, Routledge, New York and London, 2015.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a conference of cultural and educational workers of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 30th of October, 1944. It was first published in the Jiefang Ribao (1st of November, 1944).
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#THE UNITED FRONT IN CULTURAL WORK
#SPEECH DELIVERED AT A CONFERENCE OF CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL WORKERS OF THE SHAANXI-GANSU-NINGXIA BORDER REGION
#Mao Zedong
#30th of October, 1944
#★
The purpose of all our work is the overthrow of Japanese imperialism. Like Hitler, Japanese imperialism is approaching its doom. But it still has strength, and we, the Chinese people, and especially China's Liberated Areas, must continue our efforts, for only so can we achieve its final overthrow. In our work, the war comes first, then production, then cultural work. An army without production is a starving army. Likewise, an army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy, liberate the people, and build an industrialized New China. Therefore, we need culture. That some comrades have looked down on cultural and educational work in the past is a mistake. After this conference, we should all pay due attention to cultural and educational work.
Our culture should be a new-democratic culture, namely, the culture of the broad masses of the people against Japan, against the Chinese traitors, and against the dark traditions of feudalism. The political-economic basis of this culture is the popularly elected government, the reduction of rent and interest, and a private economy led by factories of various sizes and cooperatives in different forms. The new-democratic culture reflects these social forms and pushes them forward continuously.
At present, Chinese industry is still weak and small and the industry of the Liberated Areas is even more so, but they have an unlimited future. China must use industry as the basis in overcoming its backwardness. The economy of the Liberated Areas has its progressive side and its backward side. The culture of the Liberated Areas also has its progressive side, but it also has a backward side. The Liberated Areas already have a new culture, a people's culture, but a good many vestiges of feudalism survive. Among the 1'500'000 people of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, there are more than 1'000'000 illiterates, there are 2'000 practitioners of witchcraft, and the broad masses are still under the influence of superstition. These are enemies inside the minds of the people. It is often more difficult to combat the enemies inside people's minds than to fight Japanese imperialism. We must call on the masses to rise up in struggle against their own illiteracy, superstitions, and unhygienic habits. For this struggle, a broad united front is indispensable. And this united front has to be particularly broad in a place like the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which has a sparse population, poor communications, and a low cultural basis to start from, and in addition is fighting a war. Hence, in our education we must have, not only regular primary and secondary schools, but also scattered, irregular village schools, newspaper-reading groups, and literacy classes. Not only must we have schools of the modern type, but we must also utilize and transform the old-style village schools. In the arts, we must have not only modern drama, but also the Shaanxi opera and the yangge dance. Not only must we have new Shaanxi operas and new yangge dances, but we must also utilize and gradually transform the old opera companies and the old yangge troupes, which comprise 90% of all yangge troupes. This approach is even more necessary in the field of medicine. In the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the human and animal mortality rates are both very high, and at the same time, many people still believe in witchcraft. The infant mortality rate is as high as 60%, the adult mortality rate is as high as 30 out of 1'000 people, and 7'800 oxen, 4'000 donkeys, 210'000 sheep, and 2'300 mules died last year. In such circumstances, to rely solely on modern doctors is no solution, because the few modern doctors we have have the important task of serving our few government bodies and army units. Of course, modern doctors have advantages over doctors of the old type, but if they do not concern themselves with the sufferings of the people, do not train doctors for the people, do not unite with the 1'000 and more doctors and veterinarians of the old type in the Border Region, and do not help them to make progress, then they will actually be helping the witch doctors and showing indifference to the high human and animal mortality rates. So, a united front of the new and the old is absolutely necessary. There are two principles for the united front: the first is to unite, and the second is to criticize, educate, and transform. In the united front, capitulationism is wrong, and so is sectarianism, with its exclusiveness and contempt for others. Our task is to unite with all intellectuals, artists, and doctors of the old type who can be useful, to help them, convert them, and transform them. In order to transform them, we must first unite with them. If we do it properly, they will welcome our help.
Our culture is a people's culture; our cultural workers must serve the people with great enthusiasm and devotion, dedicate their lives to serving the people, and they and all other intellectuals must link themselves with the masses, not divorce themselves from the masses. Cadres of worker and peasant origin should also treasure and trust these revolutionary intellectuals. In order to do so, they must act in accordance with the needs and wishes of the masses. All work done for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-intentioned, or from historical dogma. Appropriate methods should be used in light of the particular time and place. For instance, even though the policies for both the Border Region and the Liberated Areas are the same, various specific methods, appropriate for the Border Region but not for the other Liberated Areas, which are directly confronting the enemy, have a denser population, and are culturally more developed, should not be arbitrarily copied, and other methods that are more suitable to local conditions should be adopted. It often happens that objectively the masses need a certain change, but subjectively, they are not yet conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined to make the change. In such cases, we should wait patiently. We should not make the change until, through our work, most of the masses have become conscious of the need and are willing and determined to carry it out. Otherwise, we shall isolate ourselves from the masses. Unless they are conscious and willing, any kind of work that requires their participation will turn out to be a mere formality and will fail. The saying, «Haste does not bring success», does not mean that we should not make haste, but that we should not be impetuous; impetuosity leads only to failure. This is true in any kind of work, and particularly in the cultural and educational work, the aim of which is to transform the thinking of the masses. There are two principles here: one is the actual needs of the masses, rather than what we fancy they need, and the other is the wishes of the masses, who must make up their own minds instead of our making up their minds for them.