Hu Qiaojun on Literature and Art

Author: Writing Group of "The Biography of Hu Qiaojun"
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-09-01
Features: "Hu Qiaojun on Literature and Art" collects seventy-one essays, starting from Hu Qiaojun's literary paper "Observations on Modern Literature" written in April 1930 during his secondary school years, and ending with the postscript to the reissue of "People Are More Beautiful Than the Moonlight," which he reviewed three days before his death on September 25, 1992. Among them, twenty-three essays are selected from "The Collected Works of Hu Qiaojun," personally compiled by Hu Qiaojun himself; forty-eight essays are collected from his articles, speeches, talks, and letters on literature and art, including seven articles and letters (one of which has never been publicly published), fourteen speeches and talks (twelve of which have never been publicly published), and twenty-six letters (thirty-seven in total, fifteen of which have never been publicly published). The editors have proofread every essay in the book, provided introductions and annotations, added titles to speeches, talks, and letters that lacked them, and conducted textual revisions for some speeches and talks.
"The Collected Works of Hu Qiaojun on Literature and Art" is a thematic collection that fully records Hu Qiaojun's lifelong love for literature and art, his care and support for literary workers, and his attention and contributions to the Chinese left-wing literary movement and the socialist literary cause. The main part of the book showcases, after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, Hu Qiaojun's persistent efforts in adhering to emancipating the mind and reform and opening up, while also upholding the Four Cardinal Principles and opposing bourgeois liberalization. He unwaveringly raised the banner of socialist literature, striving for the development and prosperity of socialist literature and advancing the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. All of this by Hu Qiaojun also reflects the Communist Party of China's emphasis on literature, attention to the literary cause, trust, and care for literary workers. It vividly portrays, from a certain perspective, the struggles and construction of socialist culture led by the Communist Party of China in the cultural front from the mid-1930s to the early 1990s.
This thematic collection contains Hu Qiaojun's critical reviews of the history of literary and artistic development in China and abroad over six decades, as well as his comments on numerous literary and artistic figures, works (especially contemporary Chinese literary figures and their works), and styles and schools. It holds significant academic value. His discussions on the content and form of Chinese poetry (including his interpretations of Mao Zedong's poems), his summaries of the history of the Chinese left-wing literary movement, and his critiques of writers and works from the 1930s all offer insightful and unique perspectives. Hu Qiaojun's aesthetic ideals, literary views, and methods of thinking and research will have a profound and positive impact on adhering to the direction of "serving the people and the revolution" and the principle of ", " (let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend), as well as on literary theory, literary criticism, and literary history research.
Some of the essays in this book are selected from archives and materials provided by the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Archives, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Xinhua News Agency.