Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 8, 2025

Integration with the Masses and Engagement with Folk Culture—A Study of the Theory and Practice of Literary Popularization during the Yan’an Period

(Abstract)

Li Jikai

As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and as “New Popular Literature and Art” becomes a focal point in academic discourse, it is timely and valuable to revisit the literary popularization movement of the Yan’an period. By reconstructing the wartime conditions and cultural environment of the time, and analyzing the theoretical and practical aspects of literary popularization, we can extract lessons of enduring significance. The popularized literature and art of Yan’an represented a modern, people-oriented revolutionary culture—unprecedented in Chinese history—yet it retained a profound connection with fine traditional Chinese culture, including folk culture. Amid the difficult phase of the war, the Yan’an literary movement reconstructed a people-centered ethos grounded in the longstanding traditions of people-based and folk-based values and adopted modern stances of “taking the people as the new” and “seeing the people as the beautiful.” These efforts led to extensive theoretical exploration and effective practical engagement with literary popularization, giving rise to cultural phenomena that actively integrated with the masses and engaged folk traditions. The “Yan’an people” demonstrated a remarkable cultural consciousness, characterized by respect for and emphasis on fine traditional Chinese culture, while actively seeking to promote the healthy development of wartime Yan’an literature through integration with the masses and folk culture. Reflecting today on Yan’an literature’s people orientation and its popularization practices, and contemplating its potential relevance to the contemporary “integration of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture” and the construction of an independent discourse system, can still yield many valuable insights.