Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 8, 2025

The Border Region Dimension of Yan’an Literature and Art

(Abstract)

Zhou Weidong

The revolutionary base areas upon which Yan’an literature and art relied underwent changes in their official designations: from Suqu (Soviet Area) to Bianqu (Border Region) or Tequ (Special Region) and finally to Jiefangqu (Liberated Area). Among these, “Border Region” was in use the longest. The Communist Party of China’s naming of the base area as “Border Region” signified not only the transformation of the base area from a Soviet government to a democratic government of resistance against Japanese aggression but also represented the extension of the base area theory formed during the Soviet Area period into the stage of total resistance against Japanese aggression by the whole nation. This highlighted the Party’s pathway and thought for the War of Resistance. Under the Chinese united front against Japanese aggression, the Border Region positioned itself as a “model area for resistance.” This positioning fostered an “outward-oriented” field of literary and artistic dissemination for Yan’an literature and art, as well as an atmosphere of “elevation” under the goal of creating a “new national culture of the Chinese nation.” The construction of a cultural community within the Border Region propelled the formation of an “on-site literature and art system.” The interaction and complementarity between “on-site” and “non-on-site” literature and art constituted the practical foundation of “people’s literature and art.” As the Border Region expanded with the opening of backstage battlefields, it took on an “archipelagic structure,” producing diverse yet harmonious forms of Yan’an literature and art organized by base area units. This structure fostered a dynamic mechanism for sublimating experiences from local to universal. The “Border Region dimension” of Yan’an literature and art reflects the Party’s leadership in constructing literature and art within the Border Region while adhering to the line of total resistance against Japanese aggression by the whole nation. It also reflects the Party’s leadership, using the Border Region as a model, in guiding the overall development of wartime literature and art under the Chinese united front against Japanese aggression.