China’s cultural heritage should be fully and critically utilized.


China’s culture, spanning several millennia, is predominantly that of the feudal era; however, it is not entirely feudal. It also contains elements rooted in the people and in anti-feudal thought.


It is essential to distinguish between feudal and non-feudal elements.


Moreover, not all aspects of feudalism are inherently negative.


We must be mindful of the differences among the various stages of feudalism—its emergence, development, and decline.


During its formative and developmental phases, feudalism encompassed many commendable features.


Likewise, not every element of anti-feudal culture can be adopted uncritically.


Even folk works from the feudal period inevitably bear some imprint of the ruling class.


We ought to exercise sound analytical judgment and employ feudal culture in a critical manner, rather than accepting it without question.


While anti-feudal culture is undoubtedly superior to feudal culture, it too requires critical evaluation and selective application.


This is my understanding, and it aligns with our current policy.


As for the comprehensive utilization of our cultural heritage, we have yet to achieve that goal.


There exist copious classical Chinese texts, which are currently being systematically collated and edited according to modern scholarly principles, then republished.


You mentioned that certain Chinese painters have been imitating Western painting techniques; such instances do indeed occur.


This practice has persisted for several decades, even approaching a century, particularly in the realm of European styles. These artists hold their own national cultural legacy in low regard and persistently emulate the West.


We have been criticizing this trend for some time, as it constitutes an unhealthy tendency.


The phenomenon is not confined to painting; it extends to music as well, with a segment of practitioners similarly dismissing their own national traditions in favor of Western models.


A similar dynamic exists in literature, though to a lesser degree. We have engaged in criticism on this front, resulting in improvements in fiction, although the issue remains unresolved in poetry.


In the cultural sphere, each nation’s people should contribute to humanity by drawing upon their unique national characteristics.


Cultures worldwide share commonalities, yet they also exhibit distinct differences.


The shared context lies in their belonging to the same historical epoch—the latter half of the twentieth century—thereby giving rise to certain universal traits.


However, if everyone were to produce identical artworks or perform the same musical compositions, the resultant uniformity would be undesirable. Such work would fail to engage audiences or elicit appreciation.


Printed from the transcript preserved in the Central Archives.


Note [1]: This is an excerpt from a conversation Mao Zedong held with a Cuban women’s delegation and an Ecuadorian cultural delegation.