The Chinese Soviet has been established for a long time and has already accomplished many great and astonishing feats. However, in the realm of literary and artistic creation, we have achieved very little.
The establishment of the Chinese Literary and Artistic Association today represents a pioneering initiative in the Soviet movement over the past decade.


In the past, there were many comrades who had an interest in literature and art, but we lacked organization and systematic planning to engage in literary and artistic work among the worker and peasant masses. In other words, up until now our efforts have been predominantly military in nature.


Now, however, we need not only military strength but also cultural prowess; we must be proficient in both arms—military and literary.


This is because China currently faces two fronts: one is the anti-Japanese front, and the other is the civil war front. To forge a united national front against Japan, drive out Japanese imperialism, and secure the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, we must first bring the civil war to an end.


Yet there are those who refuse to halt the civil war; instead, they are attacking the People’s Red Army—the mainstay of the anti-Japanese resistance—with the aim of destroying its leadership and the core of the Soviet regime, as well as all forces committed to resisting Japan. Even anti-Japanese literature and art are being targeted for suppression.


Therefore, if we are to carry forward the anti-Japanese struggle, we must first put an end to the civil war.


How can we achieve this? We must act on both the literary and military fronts. On the literary side, we should seek to persuade those who resist ending the civil war and to educate and enlighten the entire population, fostering unity in the anti-Japanese cause. Should our literary efforts fail to sway them, then we will have no choice but to resort to military means to compel their compliance.


You writers and artists must also go to the front lines to encourage the soldiers and defeat those who persist in the civil war.


Thus, in the campaign to end the civil war and unite in the anti-Japanese struggle, every member of the Literary and Artistic Association bears a weighty responsibility.


To promote the workers’ and peasants’ literature and art of the Soviet era and to cultivate an anti-Japanese literary and artistic tradition rooted in the national revolutionary war—this is your noble and glorious mission.


Printed in the November 30, 1936 issue of Red China.


Note [1]: The Chinese Literary and Artistic Association was founded on November 22, 1936, in Bao’an County, Shaanxi Province (now Zhidan County), at the initiative of thirty-four individuals including Ding Ling, Cheng Fangwu, and Li Bozhao. At its inaugural meeting, Mao Zedong proposed the name “Chinese Literary and Artistic Association,” which was unanimously adopted by all members. The purpose of establishing this association was to advance new literary and artistic endeavors under the banner of the united national front against Japan, thereby forming a fresh fighting force within that united front.