IV. Vigorously Developing Socialist Culture

(14) To develop literature and art, media, publishing, philosophy, and other social sciences and cultural undertakings, and to meet the increasingly growing ethical and cultural demand of the people play an important role in improving the quality of the nation, and promoting economic development and all-round social progress. The great practice of the reform and opening-up and the construction of socialist modernization has injected new vitality into cultural development, but also eagerly calls for major improvements and development in cultural undertakings. Only by striking roots deeply in the history-making activities of the people, inheriting and carrying forward the fine national culture and revolutionary cultural traditions, and actively absorbing the outstanding achievements of world culture can our own cultures develop in a healthy way, and prosper with each passing day.

(15) The prime task in promoting flourishing literature and art is to create more outstanding works. Efforts should be made to adhere to the orientation of serving the people and the cause of socialism, carry out the principle of letting a hundred flowers blossom, and letting a hundred schools of thought contend, and give full scope to the theme of our times, while advocating diversity. We should foster the awareness of and implement a strategy of creating excellent works. In all fields of literature and art, we should try every means to produce a number of excellent works, featuring the unity of ideological content and artistic quality, with strong appeal that will be well received by the broad masses, to promote the all-round prosperity of socialist art undertakings.

People need literature and art, while literature and art need the people even more. Writers and artists should get nutrition, and enrich themselves by immersing themselves among the masses, and by plunging into the thick of life. They should have correct creative ideas, earnestly and seriously consider what social effects their works may produce, and try their best to contribute the best cultural works to the people. In leading the work of literature and art, we should avoid both flagrant interference and negligence of guidance. We should respect the law of literature and art creativity, try our best to create a fine atmosphere, featuring liveliness, unity and enterprise, to give full play to the creativity of writers and artists and let them develop their art styles and art forms freely. We should actively carry out healthy art criticism, using it as a means of guiding literature and art in the correct direction. We should firmly oppose the wrong tendencies of neglecting the direction of serving the people and the cause of socialism, alienating oneself from the practice of the masses, pandering to low tastes, doing everything for the sake of money, despising revolutionary art traditions, and holding in esteem the decadent trends of thought in literature and art.

(16) The press should adhere to the principles of the Party spirit and the practice of seeking truth from facts, persist in positive publicity in favour of unity, stability and boosting the morale of the people, and stick firmly to correct orientation of public opinion. The newspapers and journals of the Chinese Communist Party, the State news agency and radio and television stations should play a leading role. They should strengthen guidance on important topics and supervision over public opinion, help the Party and the government to improve their work, improve the links between the Party and the government and the people, and boost the people's confidence and enthusiasm in building socialist modernization. The news media should make use of their respective advantages, improve working methods, and pay attention to the results of their work. The broadcasting and television stations should endeavour to raise the quality of their programs, increase the number of China-made outstanding programs, and prohibit programs with vulgar tastes and unhealthy content.

The publishing circles should build and perfect the management mechanisms, endeavour to raise the quality of the publications, and try to produce more good works, while preventing the production of bad works. Great efforts should be made to demonstrate outstanding Chinese and foreign cultural achievements, pay attention to the publishing of traditional excellent cultural works and valuable academic works, and actively support publishing undertakings of ethnic minorities, to constantly meet the multi-level and multi-faceted demands of the people. The news media, and the publications, should set an example for the whole society in correctly using the language of the motherland.

Macro-control over press and publishing circles should be strengthened, and effective measures should be taken to curb the present problems of excessiveness in the total number, the imbalanced structure, overlapping production, and neglect of quality. Efforts should be made to shift priority of expanding scale and quantity to improving quality and efficiency. Those press and publication units which have constantly violated the rules, and repeatedly caused problems, or failed to satisfy the basic conditions should be earnestly overhauled, and those who can not meet the requirements should be closed.

(17) Philosophy and other social sciences must adhere to the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, keep to the practice of linking theory with reality, and serve the decision-making of the Party and government, as well as the promotion of material, ethical and cultural progress. We must take the study of major theoretical and practical problems concerning reform, opening up and the modernization drive in general as the major task, and actively explore the law of economic, political, and cultural development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Importance must be attached to the research of basic theories, along with efforts to boost the development of key subjects. Close attention must be paid to the fresh changes and ideological trends in the world today, along with scientific analysis with a view to correct understanding. The research of philosophy and other social sciences should be well planned, and forces co-ordinated to tackle major problems to ensure the maximum achievements.

We must adhere to the principle of "let a hundred schools of thought contend," advocate a serious and scientific academic attitude, and encourage the exchange of ideas between different academic viewpoints, together with attention paid to distinguishing academic questions from political issues, as well as positive guidance concerning ideological issues. On issues concerning political orientation and major principles, however, we must take a clear-cut stand, and distinguish right from wrong, to guarantee that the research of philosophy and other social sciences develop along a correct path.

(18) In order to promote the healthy development of the cultural market, equal attention should be paid to prosperity and management. We will by no means allow the cultural market, an important front for the promotion of socialist ethical and cultural progress, to become an area where decayed ideology and culture breed and spread. We must actively foster and perfect the cultural market, give full support to healthy cultural products, advocate healthy cultural activities and entertainment which match the consumption ability of the general public, and make more efforts to invigorate and enrich people's cultural lives. We will also safeguard legal management, protect intellectual property rights, and ensure good management in introducing overseas cultural products. We must make unremitting efforts to wipe out pornographic publications and crack down on illegal publishing practices. In order to regularize the activities of the cultural market, we will spare no efforts to formulate and perfect relevant laws and regulations, strengthen law enforcement, improve the management systems, and bring into full play the supervisory role of the broad masses.

(19) Reform of the cultural system, a fundamental way towards prosperity and development of cultural undertakings, is intended to enhance the vitality of the cultural undertakings, bring the cultural workers' initiatives into full play, and produce more good works, together with more talents. The reform must meet the demands of the promotion of ethical and cultural progress, observe the internal law of cultural development, and allow the market mechanism to play a positive role. As cultural products with a special attribute are different from material products, and produce important influences upon people's thinking, morality, and scientific and cultural qualities, we will firmly attach a first priority to the pursuit of social results, while trying our best to achieve an optimized combination of social and economic benefits. In the process of reform, we must distinguish between different situations, with guidance directed towards different categories of matters. We must establish a rational relationship between the state, institutions, and individuals, and gradually form a development pattern allowing the state to guarantee the priorities, with society in general encouraged to develop a variety of cultural undertakings. Enterprises and institutions involved in cultural undertakings must strive to deepen relevant reforms and strengthen management in a bid to set up a mechanism binding the incentives of competition, together with responsibilities.

V. Carrying Out Mass Activities to Promote Profound Socialist Ethical and Cultural Progress

(20) The nationwide ethical and cultural building activities involving the broad masses represent a great creation of the people in changing old customs and reforming society, which is instrumental in combining the efforts of ethical and cultural progress with material advancement, and ensuring the fulfillment of this task at the very grass-roots level. In a deepening and enduring manner, we need to carry on ethical and cultural building activities in households, enterprises and institutions, as well as with the joint efforts of the military, the police and the civilians. We will carry out mass activities on culture, health, sports and popular science, advocate a civilized and healthy life-style, and build up a community culture, village culture, enterprise culture and campus culture. We need to carry out the activity of the government and people supporting the army, and giving preferential treatment to families of servicemen and martyrs in particular, and of the army supporting the government and caring for the people, in a bid to enhance unity between the army, government and people, along with efforts to promote unity among, and progress, of all nationalities.

In improving the quality of urban residents, and raising the level of urban civilization as a target, we need to carry out activities of building up civilized cities. All units need to push ahead with the ethical and cultural building of their cities, focusing on fostering a beautiful environment, establishing good social order, and offering top quality service. Municipalities directly under central government, provincial capitals, capitals of autonomous regions, and large coastal cities and major traffic roots should play a leading role in those activities. All provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government must work out a blueprint in this regard, and build a group of model cities and urban areas by the year 2010. We must ensure that the main-force role of the working class be brought into full play, in promoting ethical and cultural progress.

We will take the improvement of farmers' livelihoods and quality in general, and the construction of socialist rural areas, with a new style, as the target of activities of building up civilized villages and townships with a high ethical and cultural standard. We will take townships as a focus, and with proper plans, allow their progress to spread to villages to seek gradual progress. The construction of civilized villages and townships must go hand in hand with the building of grassroots organizations of the Party, with the consolidation of grassroots governments, with the strengthening of the collective economy, with the enhancement of rural collective organizations' service functions for the broad masses of farmers, and with work concerning family planning, land-conservation and environmental protection. Villages and townships can work out their own rules in accordance with state laws and regulations, break away from outmoded customs, and oppose illegal religious activities. We will work hard to bring culture, science and technology to the rural areas, continue aid-the-poor programs. In the process of ethical and cultural construction, the role of Party members and cadres, teachers, intellectuals and demobilized servicemen should be brought into full play.

With the aim of serving the people and making contributions to society, activities will be carried out among all trades and professions to offer good services. All trades and professions, especially those serving as "windows," which are closely related with people's daily lives, must, in line with their own characteristics, offer education to their employees on professional responsibilities, ethics and discipline, strengthen job training, standardize professionalism, and create new work standards in their respective trades.

All activities involving promotion of ethical and cultural progress must be closely related with solutions to the practical problems that people are generally concerned about, and with the promotion of economic development and social progress. The activities must be conducted perseveringly, with emphasis on practical results, so that people will receive an education from their participation, and their consciousness raised in practice. Formalism is strongly opposed.

(21) Advanced groups and individuals emerging in the socialist modernization construction are examples in the promotion of socialist ethical and cultural progress. Their deeds and ideas should be widely publicized in various forms to cultivate an atmosphere in which the whole of society respects and learns from them. Those who make outstanding achievements in the promotion of socialist ethical and cultural progress should be commended. We must care about heroes and models who contribute to the interests of the people and perform heroic deeds, with concrete measures to help solve their practical problems.