Talk with Cartoonists[1]

(August 1942)

There is a picture called *The Tree Planted in 1939*. Is that about tree-planting in Yan’an? I think it is about tree-planting on Qingliang Hill.[2]

In many places in Yan’an the trees that were planted are growing well, though there are also some that are not growing well. Your picture makes it seem as if all the trees planted in Yan’an are doing poorly. This turns a partial thing into a general thing, an isolated thing into a universal thing.

Can cartoons also draw contrasting pictures? For example, on tree-planting: one picture shows trees growing well, thriving and flourishing, to encourage people to learn; another picture shows trees growing poorly, their branches gnawed bare, or even withered and dead, to warn people not to follow suit. Put the two pictures together, either side by side, or one above the other. Would drawing this way make things difficult for you artists?

Inside Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts you can draw and even exhibit such works, and they can be sharper. If you want to publish them in the Border Region newspapers, you must be cautious, because looking at the Border Region as a whole, the relations between cadres and the masses are good. If you publish them in nationwide newspapers, you must be even more cautious, because the influence will be greater.

Do not always be sarcastic about the people’s shortcomings. Encourage the people.

[1] In August 1942, Mao Zedong, through Shu Qun, invited Hua Junwu, Cai Ruohong, and Zhang E to Zaoyuan for a talk. This is part of Mao’s conversation with the four.

[2] This picture depicts a tree planted in 1939 on the barren land by the Yan River, its branches gnawed bare by horses. Qingliang Hill was a place where intellectuals were concentrated, implying that the tree was not planted by the laboring people.

Do not treat the people’s shortcomings with cold sarcasm, do not look on with cold indifference; use warm satire. Lu Xun’s collection of essays is called *Hot Wind*, and its attitude is very good.