Strive to do a good job of people-oriented literary criticism

General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out in the Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress that to continue to promote theoretical innovation on the basis of practice, we must first grasp the world outlook and methodology of Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, and adhere to and make good use of the standpoints and methods that run through it. For this reason, "six musts" are put forward, the first of which is "the people must be supreme". When it comes to the "five major principles" that must be firmly grasped on the way forward, there is also "adhering to the people-centered development thinking". In the definition of "Chinese-style modernization", "modernization of common prosperity for all people" is even more impressive. It can be said that the people’s status as masters of the country has been clearly highlighted and emphasized in this report.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, based on the historical view that the people are real heroes and the people-oriented ruling view, the Supreme Leader General Secretary has delivered a series of important speeches on how to adhere to the Party’s mass line, maintain the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the people, and earnestly safeguard the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people under the new historical conditions. To sum up, its central idea is to "ensure the implementation of citizens’ economic, cultural and social rights, strive to safeguard the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and ensure the people’s yearning for and pursuit of a better life." This central idea was later condensed into "people first". It is not only reflected in the material aspects such as the Party and the country’s efforts to improve the distribution system, ensure employment priority, improve the social security system and promote the policy of healthy China, but also in the spirit of effectively protecting the people’s rights to enjoy cultural achievements, participate in cultural activities and carry out cultural creation, and then become the cultural masters of this era.

The cause of socialist literature and art has always been highly valued by the party and the government, and its prosperity and development naturally cannot be separated from the norms and guidance of this central idea. How to always adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, with eyes down and center of gravity down, and provide more and better spiritual food for the people has always been a major concern of the Supreme Leader General Secretary. In 2014, at the symposium on literature and art work, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader summed up the historical experience of literature and art development, expounded the law of literature and art development with Marxist standpoint and method, and pointed out the direction for the development of literature and art in the new era. He pointed out that only by firmly establishing the Marxist concept of literature and art and truly taking the people as the center can literature and art exert the greatest positive energy. In his speech when he visited the members of the cultural and artistic circles and social science circles who attended the second session of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, he pointed out: "It is a fundamental problem to find out for whom to create literature and art, and to study philosophy and social science." "The people are the source of creation. Only by taking root in the people can creation gain an inexhaustible source." In view of this, he proposed that "cultural and literary workers should go into the depths of practice, observe people’s lives, express people’s voices, and write, describe and sing people with their hearts and feelings". So, how to do this? His request is "multi-grounding gas" and constantly enhances "Foot strength, eyesight, brain power and pen power "to" cultivate feelings for the people ". In short, "there are one hundred and one thousand ways to create literature and art, but the most fundamental, crucial and reliable way is to take root in people and life". Only in this way can literature and art truly become "the horn of the times, which can best represent the style of an era and lead the atmosphere of an era".

In recent years, following the instruction of General Secretary of the Supreme Leader, the vast number of literary and art workers have made unremitting efforts to go deep into life and take root in the people, and created a large number of literary and art works rooted in history and reflecting the times, such as The Banquet at the Tang Palace, Only the Green, The Awakeing Age and Minning Town, which not only enjoyed by the people, but also achieved considerable economic benefits, prospering the literary and art market and activating cultural life. However, it should also be noted that there are still some negative errors in the field of literature and art that contradict the mainstream values of society, the real life and fundamental wishes of the people, and thus deviate from the mission of socialist literature and art. As far as the creation of movies and TV plays is concerned, there is a phenomenon that the story is separated from real life, and the large flow is out of touch with positive energy. In some places, sweet pet dramas, commercial war dramas and "legal style" occupy prime time, only using artificial flavor enhancers to adjust the storm of a glass of water, and then using beauty filters to cover up the vicissitudes of life, which not only seriously breaks away from the lives of ordinary people, but also shields and distorts the joys and sorrows that characters will inevitably produce in specific scenes, thus making the works lose their relevance to a wider audience, resonate with the same frequency of today’s great era, and convey a positive and healthy outlook on life. Although the investment in the early and late stages is huge and the cast is strong, it just can’t win the audience or even the box office. Sometimes, the interests of all parties earn a lot of money, but the voices, demands and interests of the audience are excluded and not reflected. All this needs to arouse the high vigilance and conscious resistance of literary and art workers.It is necessary for literary and art workers to launch targeted and meaningful literary criticism in order to achieve the purpose of transforming the false into the false, stirring up chaos and clarifying the Qing Dynasty.

General Secretary of the Supreme Leader once asked literary and art workers to "strengthen and improve literary theory and criticism, praise the good and discard the bad, stir up confusion and clarify the situation, guide creation more effectively, introduce fine works, improve aesthetics and lead fashion". According to this requirement, in 2021, the Central Propaganda Department and other five departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Literary Criticism in the New Era", aiming at promoting literary criticism to better polish the weapon and grasp the steering wheel. Fundamentally speaking, this is precisely to put "people first", that is, to meet the cultural needs of the people. Its ultimate conclusion lies in the social atmosphere that people are regarded as the main body of literary expression and people are respected as important participants in aesthetic appreciation and judgment. Therefore, in contact with the spirit of the important exposition of the Supreme Leader General Secretary, "The times are the writers, we are the respondents, and the people are the reviewers", as literary and art critics in the front line, we must regard serving the people as our most sacred duty, not stick to the study and be obsessed with word games; Instead of relying on one’s own status, we should always demand and test ourselves by caring for the people, and sing praises of truth, goodness and beauty and expose falsehood, ugliness and ugliness in a language that the people can understand, thus creating a new situation of fresh and lively literary criticism.

Therefore, we should be soberly aware that with the influx of various western thoughts in the last century, "people’s nature" and "people’s literature and art" have been challenged to a great extent by aesthetics and humanity. Some people regard aesthetics and humanity as a new yardstick for judging literary creation and criticism, and try to re-understand literature and art on this basis, and even define literature and art, and draw many specious conclusions, resulting in many conceptual misunderstandings. We don’t mean to deny the significance of aesthetics and humanity to literary creation and criticism, but only think that people can’t be replaced by narrow, abstract or individual people, because it is impossible to create "human literature" in the true sense. The development history of literature and art is far more than the development history of people’s sensibility, body and desire. It should go beyond the empty time form and abstract personal experience, and be linked with the more essential direction of human progress and the future and destiny of a wider group of people. Especially today, when literature and art are no longer literature and art in the traditional sense, and literary creation is different from personalized creation in the traditional sense, but has become the production of various forces, many new literary forms are loved by the public and accepted as their own emotional expressions and even basic spiritual activities. We need to carefully screen, effectively guide, call on various means to keep pace with the times, adopt various theories, study the text in depth, be close to the object of criticism, and be sensible.While defending their cultural rights, we should effectively improve their appreciation level and broaden their aesthetic taste, so that they can really be encouraged by literature and art and gain the strength to move forward from aesthetics.

Looking back on the glorious history of our party’s leading literary and artistic work, as early as Yan ‘an period, faced with some people’s one-sided emphasis that literature and art must be formal and specialized, and then blindly worship "greatness", "westernization" and "antiquity", that is, they are keen on performing big dramas, foreign operas and ancient operas, and obsessed with "super-class love" and "abstract humanity", Comrade Mao Zedong put forward in a clear-cut manner at the Yan ‘an forum on literature and art: "Why is the problem of people one? Today, the position of writing for the people and singing for the people contained in "Speech at Yan ‘an Forum on Literature and Art" has not faded and lost its persuasiveness with the passage of time. We must inherit and carry forward the essence of Comrade Mao Zedong’s Speech, combine the current reality and the task of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, seriously study and understand the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, further adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, launch more outstanding works to enhance the people’s spiritual strength, cultivate more literary artists with both morality and artistry, and cultivate a large-scale team of cultural and literary talents, while actively participating in the practice of literary criticism. Through my own scientific and rational observation, penetrating analysis, timely and effective suggestions and clear writing style, I will deepen the education of patriotism, collectivism and socialism,And in the whole society to carry forward the spirit of labor, struggle, dedication, creativity, diligence and thrift, cultivate a new look of the times, cultivate new people of the times who can take on the great responsibility of national rejuvenation, and make their own contributions to improve the modern public cultural service system, innovate and implement more specific, arduous and lasting undertakings such as the cultural benefit project. (Author: Wang Yonghao, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Literary Critics Association, Professor of Chinese Department of Fudan University)

China Art Newspaper (3rd edition, November 28th, 2022)