Comments on the Draft of a Speech at a Forum
(June 26, 1964)
Read. Well spoken.
Mao Zedong
June 26
[I]
This comment was written on the letter sent by the office of the "1964 Peking Opera Modern-Themes Performance Festival" on June 24, 1964, to Jiang Qing, submitting for review the transcript of Jiang Qing's speech at the forum on the modern-themes Peking opera performances.
On June 23, 1964, Zhou Enlai and others received the principal leading members, main performers, and creative personnel of the performing troupes and observation groups participating in the Peking Opera Modern-Themes Performance Festival, and convened a forum. Jiang Qing spoke at the forum. She said:
We must be firm in our confidence about the matter of Peking Opera performing modern themes. On the stages of our socialist motherland under the leadership of the Communist Party, if the dominant position is not occupied by workers, peasants, and soldiers—the true creators of history—that is inconceivable. We must create a literature and art that protects our own socialist economic base. We advocate revolutionary modern dramas. We must reflect the real life of the 15 years since the founding of New China, and we must create images of contemporary revolutionary heroes. This is the primary task. On the premise of not hindering this primary task, historical dramas can be undertaken, and it is not that we want none of the traditional operas. How to begin? I believe the key lies in the scripts. In creative work, we must cultivate new forces; send them down, and in three to five years they will blossom and bear fruit. On the other hand, there is adaptation. Adaptation requires careful selection: first, we must see whether the political tendency is good; second, we must see whether the conditions of the troupe are suitable.