Peking Review No. 38, 20 September 1960 ('Friends from the Four Seas')

=== [PDF page 1] === The Path of Socialist Literature And Art in China Report by Chou Yang to the recent Third Congress of Chinese Literary and Art Workers (p. 6). Hands Off the Congo! China firmly backs the struggle of the Congolese Government and people against aggression and intervention by the U.S.-led imperialist bloc (p. 16). From Cities to Rural Regions How Kiangsu Province carries on the mass drive to support agriculture (p. 21). Groundless Indian Charges of Intrusions By Chinese Aircraft Refuted Cinema, Art and Other Features A WEEKLY MAGAZINE OF CHINESE NEWS AND VIEWS === [PDF page 2] === NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 1956 — 1967 Tue National Programme for Agricultural Development (1956-1967) is of tremendous significance for the high-speed development of a socialist agriculture in China and the building of a new, socialist countryside. It provides for a big growth in farming, forestry, animal husbandry, side-occupations and fishery within a not too long period of time and proposes various concrete measures for reaching this goal as well as plans for the development of culture, education, public health and other fields of activity in the rural areas as production increases. In addition to the programme, this booklet contains the full texts of the report delivered by Vice-Premier Tan Chen-lin entitled “Strive for the Fulfilment, Ahead of Schedule, of the National Programme for Agricultural Development,” the resolution of the Second Session of the Second National People’s Congress of the Chinese People’s Republic, and the Renmin Ribao editorial on the same subject. This manera throws an illuminating light on the big leap forward in China’s agriculture and the great changes that have taken place in the Chinese countryside. 62 pp. Published by: FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS Pai Wan Chuang, Peking (37), China Distributed by: GUOZI SHUDIAN P. O. Box 399, Peking, China === [PDF page 3] === PEKING REVIEW bk ae A 4h (BEIJING ZHOUBAO) A WEEKLY MAGAZINE OF CHINESE NEWS AND VIEWS September 20,1960 Vol. III No. 38 CONTENTS ROUND THE WEEK Democratic Parties Meet; Rail Transport Paves the Way; Quick On and Quick Off; Sinkiang Goes Industrial; Trade Aids Agriculture— A New Way; Aiding Agriculture— The Students’ Way ARTICLES The Path of Socialist Literature and Art in China (I) — Chou Yang Chinese Government Statement on Situation in the Congo On the Side of People! the Congolese Statement on Alleged Violations of Indian Air Space by Chinese Aircraft President Toure's Memorable Visit — Our Correspondent From the Cities to the Rural Regions — Our Correspondent CINEMA, ART CHINESE PRESS OPINION U.S. Slander Exposed: American Criminals in China; The Passing Show CHINA AND THE WORLD G.D.R. Leaders Greeted; In the Socialist World; Around the World with Chinese Arts; Popular Chinese Pavilion in Damascus: Briefs; Friends from the Four Seas WHAT'S ON IN PEKING 16 17 19 21 27 Published every Tuesday by PEKING REVIEW Pai Wan Chuang, Peking (37), China Cable Address: PEKING 6170 Post Office Registration No. 2-922 Printed in the People’s Republic of Chino September 20, 1960 ROUND THE WEEK Democratic Parties Meet Six of China’s democratic parties have been holding enlarged sessions of their central committees in Peking. Five of them —the China Democratic League, the China Association for Promoting Democracy, the Chinese Peasants’ and Workers’ Democratic Party, the China Chih Kung Tang and Chiu San Society—have recently ended their sessions which lasted for more than a month. The central committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang is still meeting. During their respective sessions, the democratic parties discussed at length the current domestic and international situation and the question of remeulding the ideology of bourgeois intellectuals. It was the unanimous opinion at these sessions that much has been achieved by China’s intellectuals in the past two years in serving socialism and in self-education and self-reform. While great progress has been made, however, many feel they have not kept up with the rapid pace of developments. In view of this, the sessions stressed the importance of studying Marxism-Leninism and the works of Chairman Mao Tse-tung and gradually discarding bourgeois world outlook and developing a_ proletarian world outlook. Participants in these meetings were of the opinion that they had profited much from their discussions and enhanced their ideological and political understanding. During the sessions Mao Tse-tung, Liu Shao-chi, Chou En-lai, Chu Teh, Peng Chen and other leading members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party received all the participants in these enlarged sessions and had warm and cordial talks with the chairmen and vice-chairmen of these parties. Chou En-lai, Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Committee; Li Fu-chun, Vice-Premier of the State Council; and Li Wei-han, Director of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, delivered important reports at the sessions. The six democratic parties unanimeusly adopted a message of greetings to Chairman Mao Tse-tung. They pledged themselves to rally still closer round the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao, learn from the working people, go all out and aim high, and take an active part in the mass movements for technical, cultural and educational revolutions. They also pledged to earnestly study Marxism-Leninism and Chairman Mao’s works, remould their world outlook and reform themselves into workingclass intellectuals, so as to make their contributions to building China into a powerful socialist country with a modern industry, agriculture, science and culture. They reaffirmed their determination that they would always hold aloft the three red banners of the seneral line, the big leap forward and the people’s commune. They demonstrated their solidarity with the people of the whole country in strengthening the unity of the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Unien and the unity of the people of the whole world. They exvressed their resolute support for the national independence movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the revolutionary struggles of the peoples in various ccuntries of the world. They pledged, too, their firm determination to carry to the end the struggle against imverialism headed by the United States and to defend world peace. Rail Transnort Paves the Way Timely transport of coal and iron ore is of vital importance to the continued lean forward in the iron and steel industry. China’s railwavs are doing their best to speed deliveries to the steel centres. Railway administraticns in Peking. Taiyuan. Harbin. Shenyang, Chengschow and five other cities have called on railwaymen throughout the country to start a friendlv emulation drive to fulfil and overfulfil this year’s transport tasks. These ten railway administrations. which handle a large pronortion of the transport of coal and other major products, are giving ton vriority to the transport of coal and iron ore in larger amounts and with greater speed. === [PDF page 4] === Their friendly challenge has been sent out in response to the call issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for increased production and greater economics with grain and steel as the central links. They themselves are working out measures of better co-ordination with the mines, and popularizing advanced methods of leading and unloading. Their watchword is: Bigger loadings, greater speed, punctuality and safety. Quick On and Quick Off China’s railway workers have ample grounds for their confidence that they can fulfil their tasks. The ingenious innovations they have introduced recently have greatly raised the efficiency of transport. Among those now being widely popularized throughout the country are inclined shafts, slides or troughs to speed up loading and unloading of coal and other goods. Most railway stations are now using or introducing these new devices. Applying the gravitational principle, China's railway workers initiated these quick methods of loading and unloading during the mass movement for technical innovations and_ technical revolution, High platforms are built to move goods on to the goods-wagons when loading. while the wagens are shunted on to relatively higher levels to unload goods into low goods-sheds or yards. These simple innovations are giving excellent results, raising efficiency many times over. Thev have greatly reduced the time needed for loading and unloading. speeded up the turn-round of goods-wagons and ended lont hold-ups of goods-wagons at loading and unloading points. With the help of auxiliary machines and tools. excluding fragile items. 80 per cent of all goods can be handled in these new ways. Their obvious advantages have been their best recommendation. The railway station in Houma, a little town in southern Shansi Province, built a multi-purpose high platform capable of loading goods on to open or covered wagons. Before introducing the new device. 24 workers took three heurs and 20 minutes to load a wagon full of coke. Now ten workers can do the job in a little over an hour. Bvy using more efficient methods for loading and unloading coal and ore wagons, workers of the Peking railway administration have speeded up the turn-round of these wagons three to four times. Introduced only a few months ago, these new devices for quick loading and unloading are being constantly improved and perfected. Sinkiang Goes Industrial Sinkiang, China’s great northwest, has long been known as an agricultural and pastoral region. Now it is in the news because of its flourishing light industry. Ten years ago, the region had only a few small workshops, and it relied almost entirely on the other provinces and imports for its light industrial goods. Now large and small factories producing light industrial goods have risen by the hundreds north and south of the Tienshan Mountains. The Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region has immense potentialities for light industrial development. Favoured by nature with particularly suitable weather for cotton growing, it now has six times as much land under this industrial crop as in the early years after liberation. In the Tarim basin, Turfan and the southern part of Dzungaria, the cotton fields spread for miles on end. They give high yields ef top-quality cotton. Millions of cattle, sheep, camels, horses and goats graze on its lush pastures. They provide not only rich dairy produce, but the raw materials for flourishing industries making leather and leather goods, woollen fabrics and _ tinned foods. Besides its world-famous orchards and vineyards, the region has a big area under sugar-beet, flax and mulberry trees. Sinkiang is now tapping these rich resources to develop its light industries on a big scale. Sinkiang’s light industrial growth began with the liberation, particularly since the big leap forward year of 1958 when the whole pecple went in for setting up industries. Large numbers of factories of varying sizes and using both modern and indigenous methods are now operating not only in the cities, but in localities close to sources of raw materials in various parts of the region. Textile mills, together with sugar refineries, silk filatures, paper mills, tanning and food processing plants. form the backbone of Sinkiang’s thriving light industry. Now preducing more than 10,000 kinds of light industrial goods, Sinkiang is going in for still greater variety. It aims to achieve self-sufficiency in some of the major commogities as scon as possible. To date, it is basically self-sufficient in such products as cotton cloth, leather, soap, wine, dairy produce and other foods. It is also turning out goods which only a few years ago it never produced at all, such as machine-made paper, thermos flasks, electric bulbs and batteries, enamel and glass ware. Once a rural backwater, Sinkiang is now well on its way to becoming a flourishing industrial area. The completion of the Lanchow-Sinkiang Railway in the near future, linking up Sinkiang with the railway network in the rest of the country, will further stimulate the rapid development of its light industry. Trade Aids Agriculture—A New Way Trading organizations all over the country are playing a majer role in the present campaign to give all-out aid to agriculture. They are ingenious in devising more effective ways of serving both immediate needs on the farms and the long-term aim of the technical transformaticn of agriculture. Trade organizations in Shanghai's suburbs are particularly in the spotlight with their way of giving prompt service to the front line of agricultural production: they send personnel dewn to set up general stores to serve the production brigades of the rural people’s communes. These stores not only sell farm tools and consumer goods, but buy agricultural produce from the peasants as well. They have been doing a brisk trade and have proved so useful that there are now more than 1,500 of them on Shanghai’s outskirts. In Chuansha, Putung, Nanhui and other counties, there is one such store for almost every productien brigade. Established close to the production brigades which they serve, these general stores can the better co-ordinate their activities with the requirements of the farming season and the needs of the peasants. They stock a wide range of over 300 kinds of consumer goods and means of production — from scythes, hoes and chemicals to towels, socks, thread and needles. They are able not only to supply large farm tools or machinery promptly from stock or warehouse but, on demand, make whatever special purchases a customer Peking Review === [PDF page 5] === asks for. This saves the peasants both the time and trouble of going to nearby towns to do their shopping. These stores also make it more convenient fer the peasants to sell products of their side occupations and other things which they do not need for themselves. Such purchases are made at the stores themselves, or sometimes through the help of the community dining-rooms. Trade personnel also frequently visit the peasants’ homes with stocks of articles of daily use and sell and purchase at the same time. With their help. many production brigades have also set up their own service trades, such as_ hairdressers, public bath-houses and laundries. And on top of all this the handy store-men and women often lend a hand with farm work too. Aiding Agriculture — The Students’ Way Students tco are helping to give a boost to work on the farms. Some put in a few days’ work in the fields, others help the people’s communes perfect and introduce technical innovations. and still others join veteran farmers in scientific research. They find a wide field for their initiative in the national effort to promote agricultural production. Fourth-year students of agronomy in the Shansi Agricultural Institute— more than 130 of them—went to the rural people’s communes in the central and southeastern parts of the province. As a part-time job while working with the peasants. they studied local methods of wheat cultivation and after two months’ work produced two comprehensive books on wheat growing in the two areas. Totalling 200,000 words, these two studies have proved to be so useful that both cadres and members of the people’s communes refer to them as their “technical teachers.” The student authors set themselves the task of systematically summing up the rich experience gained by the peasants in increasing wheat yields. They studied wheat cultivation in over a dozen counties, carefully observed and analysed the whole process of planting and field management on more than 20,000 mu of wheat. They also interviewed large numbers of experienced peasants, technicians and scientific research werkers in the people’s communes, did their own soil analysis on an extensive scale and collected a mass of other useful technical data on the wheat cultivation in those parts. The two books devete special attention to the experience gained by the people’s communes in reaping highyield wheat crops over large areas. Detailed accounts are given of the efficient methods used by pecple’s communes, their implementation of the Eight-Point Charter for Agriculture and their scientific research work. These studies are particularly valuable because of their descriptions of practical production techniques and explanations of theoretical matters in terms which the peasants easily understand. Three hundred girl students of the Wuchang’~ Kindergarten Teachers’ School in central China enjoyed a wellspent summer vacation in nearby rural districts and hill areas. In groups of ten each, they visited over a score of counties. Besides lending a hand with the farming they opened short-term training classes and helped train more than 14,000 child-care workers and teachers fer the rural people’s communes’ nurseries and kindergartens. Quite a bit of the training was done under informal conditicns at evening chats, intervals during field work or when heavy rain put a temporary stop to field tasks, but it all added up to a big gain in knowledge. Economics students of Amoy University have established long-term cooperative links with a number of people’s communes in the surrounding counties. Every term they go to work on these farms for regular periods, and study and tackle problems there together with the peasants. During their stay there last term, they made a survey of economic conditions in the local people’s communes, studied their methods of management, and hew they kept their accounts and worked out their plans. In co-operation with the peasants, they helped draft improved regulations and schemes for distribution and accumulation of funds, and draw up long-term and short-term preduction plans. They also set up classes to teach members of the people’s communes arithmetic, book-keeping, accounting, | statistics, etc. They used the material collected to compile several handy manuals. Two of these, Finance and Accounting in the People’s Communes and Statistics in the People’s Communes, have been published by the Agricultural Publishing House in Peking for use as textbooks in rural people’s communes. A Travelling Stall Comes to the Village September 20, 1960 Painting in Chinese ink and colours by Ya Ming === [PDF page 6] === The Path of Socialist Literature And Art in China by CHOU YANG Following is the first instalment of a translation of the report delivered by Chou Yang to the Third Congress of Chinese Literary and Art Workers on July 22, 1960. Chou Yang, well-known literary critic, is Vice-Chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Writers’ Union. — Ed. HE Third Congress of Chinese Literary and Art Workers has opened today. Nearly seven years have passed since the Second Congress was held in September 1953. And it is eleven years since the First Congress, held in July 1949. Although ten years or so are no more than a brief moment in the whole course of the history of mankind, yet in this brief space drastic changes have taken place in our country and in the world. Having successively won great victories in the democratic revolution and in the socialist revolution, our people teday, guided and inspired by the Party’s general line for building socialism, are scoring great successes in industrial and agricultural production and on all other fronts. In this vast land of ours a series of new phenomena have appeared. Socialist economic construction is leaping forward continuously at unprecedented speed; the rural and urban people’s communes are like the morning sun rising in the east; millions of people are drawn into the movements for the technical revolution and cultural revolution which are being carried forward with tremendous fervour. An incomparably profound change has taken place in the spiritual outlook of the masses. Comrade Mao Tse-tung has most aptly used the phrase “so high in spirit, so strong in morale and so firm in determination” to describe the Chinese people during the big leap forward. The heroism displayed by our people in the revolutionary struggle and in productive labour, their lofty ideals and moral qualities, have won the praise of progressive mankind all over the world. China is step by step changing its state of poverty, weakness and backwardness and stands in the world in a magnificent revolutionary manner and in all the glory of youth. The broad masses of people of the various countries in the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union are successfully carrying out socialist construction, advancing with giant strides. The mighty strength of the socialist camp, and the political consciousness, unity and struggles of the peoples of the world constitute a powerful bulwark against imperialism and in defence of world peace. The imperialist camp headed by the United States is declining further. The policies of war and aggression pursued by U.S. imperialism are encountering opposition from more and more people throughout the world. A Cuban revolutionary poet has written: People of Cuba! Learn to shout This sentence in English: Yankees, get out! These wrathful lines represent the voice of all the peoples trampled upon by U.S. imperialism, In Asia, Africa and Latin America the movements for national liberation and democratic revolution are surging ahead. The victory of the Cuban people’s revolution, the courageous patriotic struggle of the Japanese people against U.S. imperialism, the Algerian people’s war of resistance for national independence, the rising of the Congolese people against colonialism, the overthrow of traitorous dictators by the peoples of south Korea and Turkey — these have greatly stirred the hearts of the people throughout the world, freed many of their fear of imperialism and inspired the people of the world in the struggle against imperialism. In the imperialist countries, there has been a further development of the just struggle of the broad masses of the people against monopoly capital and against fascism, and to win and safeguard democratic freedoms, and for social progress. A new high tide has appeared in the struggle embracing the broadest sections of the people against the war forces of imperialism and in defence of world peace. The time has now come for the people of the oppressed nations of the world to shatter completely the chains of imperialism and colonialism. The day is not distant when imperialism will finally be wiped off the face of the earth. The superior system of socialism and the beautiful ideal of communism are attracting more and more people in the world. Literature and art are a form of ideology belonging to the superstructure; they are a reflection of the economic basis and are the nerve centre of the class strug- Peking Review === [PDF page 7] === gle. In the imperialist countries people observe a scene of fearful spiritual collapse and moral degeneration. This is also reflected in the works of literature and art of these countries. The films shown by the chief capitalist countries at the 13th International Film Festival held in Cannes, France, last May were, virtually without exception, an agglomeration of sex, obscenity and crime. Even bourgeois critics could not but admit with regret that this was “the most scandalously shameless film festival of all ume.” This was just a projection of the decay and decline of the capitalist world. The monopoly capitalists not only have turned the literature, films and art produced under their control into drugs corrupting and poisoning the hearts of men, but through the writers in their employ, have created a considerable body of bioud-thirsty writings which biatantly advocates aggressive war, colonial ruie and racial discriminalion, and directly serves the war forces of imperialism. In West Germany and Japan, following the revival of iascism and militarism, a considcrab.e body of writing extolling Nazi war criminals and trumpeiing the “soul uf the Yamato race” has been let loose. Many bourgeois writers and arusts in the so-cailed “free worid are iveuwievabiy sunk in menial despair; some of them re- Bard lie end oi capitalism as the end of tne woria anu are unus luli of fear and apprehension, unabie to see any hope lor the luiure of Mankind; some vacillate between capitalism and socialism; some gradually Manage to break througn the barriers of a bourgeois worid outlook and Various kinds of prejudices to turn iv Lhe side of the peopie, the side of socialism. ROGKESSIVE, revolutionary writers and artists are Supjected to ali Kinds of discrimination and persecuuon in ine capitalist countries; yel they are stuoborniy persisting in lhe siruggie, and have produced many fine works retiecling the peupie’s progressive aspirations. Many peace-loving wrilers and artists in various Countries ol the world liave Deen taking an acuve part in the movement to deiend worid peace. in some places where the storm of tne national and democratic revolutions has arisen, revoluuonary writers and arlisis stand in the lorelront of we slruggie, snaring the desuny of thei people, faithiully expressing the people’s tonging for liberation. Let us here express Our greatest respect for all those writers and aruisis wno are lighting heart and soul for peace, democracy, Malionai independence and human progress. Our socialist literature and art are utterly opposed to that literature and art which serve imperialism and the reactionaries, literature and art of capitalism, our literature and art are revoluuionary and full of vitality, a literature and ai which inspire the labouring people to rise up to transform the world, to wage a revoluuluonary struggle. Literature and art of this kind describe the wide world of the people, depict the great struggles of the labouring masses, reflect the rise and prosperity of the new socialist world, the birt and development of the new men and women of communism, The modern revisionists represented by Tito’s clique in Yugoslavia distort the correct principle of peaceful September 20, 1960 in contrast to the moribund, decadeni— coexistence between countries with different social sysiems and loudly advocate so-called “active coexistence”; they deny the antagonism between the socialist camp and the imperialist camp and advocate the interweaving and merging of the socialist and bourgeois ideological systems. They attempt by various ways and means to disrupt the socialist camp ideologically and politically and liquidate the just struggle of the peoples of the world against imperialism. To this end, the revisionists, acting in coordination with the propaganda machine of the imperialists, are everywhere peddling the rotten capitalist culture and way of life, and doing their best to encourage all kinds of ideological trends hostile to Marxism, socialism and the people among the intellectuals, writers and artists of the socialist countries. On the front of literature and art, the struggle between the socialist and the imperialist countries, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the forces of progress and those of reaction is extremely sharp. EVOLUTIONARY literature and art are subordinate to revolutionary politics, while reactionary literature and art are subordinate to reactionary politics, And once a revolutionary writer or artist departs from the people's revolutionary cause, no matter under what flag, he loses his bearings, strays on to the wrong track, and becomes degenerate or even reactionary. Our people’s present political task is to build our country at tne quickest possible rate warranted by objective conditions, into a strong socialist state with a modern industry, modern agriculture, modern science and culture, and to prepare the conditions for the future advance to communism, At the same time, together with the peoples of the various socialist countrits, together with all revolutionary and peace-loving peoples of the world, we must exert our utmost efforts to oppose imperialism and to win lasting world peace. On the ideological front, we must raise still higher the revolutionary banner of Marxism- Leninism and oppose the reactionary ideological trends of modern revisionism; we must, by means ot a protracted and unremitting struggle, make a clean sweep of the political and ideological influences of the bourgeoisie among the masses, and greatly enhance the communist consciousness and moral qualities of our people. Our literature and art should become keen instruments for educating the people in the spirit of socialism and communism, in the spirit of proletarian internationalism. Revolutionary writers and artists should take their stand in the front line of the people's revolutionary struggle, in the forefront of the times. Since the First and Second Congress, and especially since the big leap forward, extremely great successes have been won in our literary and art work; a great wealth of experience has been gained. Under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Comrade Mao Tse-tung, we have found the correct path for the development of socialist literature and art. At this Congress, we should make a good summing up of our experience and elucidate how literature and art in our === [PDF page 8] === country have developed; we should expound what is the correct direction and path of advance which our literature and art should take, and which benefits the cause of socialism and communism as well as the development of socialist literature and art themselves; we should explain how sharp struggles have been waged in the literary and art circles of our country between the proletarian line and the bourgeois line, between the communist world outlook and the bourgeois world outlook. These are the questions which are to be discussed with special emphasis at this Congress. Serve the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers, Serve the Cause of Socialism UR literaiure and art serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, serve the cause of socialism. Since 1942 when Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s celebrated Talks at the Yenan Forum on Art and Literature was published, that literature and art must serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, has always been the firm and unswerving line that has been supported, followed and fought for by our revolutionary literary and art workers. Our achievements in literature and art are the victory of the line on literature and art laid down by Comrade Mao Tse-tung, the victory of Marxist-Leninist principles in literature and art. In our country, the labouring masses of workers and peasants have become the masters of the country; they have overthrown the oppressors and exploiters and done away with the system of private ownership of the means of production; members of the parasitic classes who formerly lived by exploitation are now being remoulded into working people who earn their living by their own labour. By taking the path of co-operation and people’s communes, the former individual peasants and individual handicraftsmen have become collective peasants and collective craftsmen. Whom should literature and art serve if not the labouring masses of workers and peasants, and their intellectuals? Should we serve the landlord class and bourgeoisie instead? I would like to ask who, today, is more worthy of being depicted than the labouring people? The line that literature and art serve the workers, peasants and soldiers has opened up a new world for literature and art; it provides writers and artists with new themes, new subjects to depict and new audiences to serve. This is the direction for the development of the literature and art of mankind; this is a great revolution in literature and art. Today, serving the workers, peasants and soldiers Ineans serving the cause of socialist construction in which millions of people are so vigorously engaged, serving the Party’s general line, serving the great communist tomorrow. It means serving the noble cause of opposing imperialism and winning lasting world peace. It means portraying the great deeds and achievements of our people in the revolution and in construction, portraying their spirit of arduous struggle and lofty communist qualities. It means working in co-ordination with the technical revvolution and cultural revolution of the masses, thoroughly smashing the monopolizing of literature and art by a few, so that literature and art can be accepted and made use of by the broadest masses of workers and peasants. HAT literature and art should serve the workers, peasants and soldiers is the proletarian line in literature and art. It is sharply opposed to the bourgeois line in literature and art. This is why it is looked upon with hostility and is hated by all reactionaries and revisionists both inside and outside the country. Hu Feng called this line “a dagger”; the Yugoslav revisionists revile it as a “persecution” of writers. This is not in the least surprising. For they hate the working class, they hate the revolution. And in the eyes of bourgeois men of letters, literature and art are the monopoly of a small number of the “upper class,” their private property; from their point of view literature and art should praise none but the bourgeoisie and bourgeois intellectuals, should prettify the corrupt way of life of the bourgeoisie and propagate bourgeois individualist ideas and low tastes. How can they, these “literary aristocrats,” be willing to portray or serve the masses of workers and peasants? Therefore, to develop socialist literature and art we cannot but wage an unremitting struggle against bourgeois ideas. This struggle started with the criticism of the film The Life of Wu Hsun in 1951, proceeded to the criticism of the Studies on the “Dream of the Red Chamber” and the repudiation of the ideas of Hu Shih and Hu Feng and the exposure of Hu Feng’s counter-revolutionary clique, down to the struggle against Ting Ling and Chen Chi-hsia’s anti-Party clique and other rightists in 1957, and following these, the repudiation of revisionist trends in literature and art. This series of struggles on the front of literature and art is a reflection in the realm of ideology of the class struggle in our country during the period of the socialist revolution and socialist construction. If we take the criticism of The Life of Wu Hsun as the first shot fired at bourgeois ideas in literature and art since the founding of our People’s Republic, then the struggle against the rightists in this field was a decisive battle on the literary and art front between two roads, two kinds of world outlooks. The bourgeois rightists and the revisionists are always trying to change our literature and art in accordance with their world outlook and aesthetic theory, and they are always trying to drag our literature “and art on to the capitalist road. In order to clear the path for the advance of socialist literature and art, a protracted and repeated struggle against bourgeois thought is inevitable. This is the law of development of socialist literature and art. As a result of these struggles, our literature and art have not “withered,” as some reactionary men of letters insist, but have grown stronger and healthier. Now, we can all see, the literature and art of our country are advancing by leaps and bounds along the socialist track. In our country, literature and art are no longer monopolized by a few, but have become the common undertaking of the broad masses of people of the various nationalities in our land. Revolutionary literature, drama, films and other forms of art have taken a deep hold on Peking Review === [PDF page 9] === our people’s hearts. Many new works of literature run into editions of hundreds of thousands or even more than a million copies. Film audiences in 1959 reached a total of 4,100 million. The new repertoire of traditional operas, modern dramas, new operas, music, dancing, quyi* and acrobatics are attracting increasingly broad audiences. Works of fine art are enjoyed by the broad masses of people; every year tens of millions of picture story books are printed. The labouring masses have found that literature and art are indeed serving them, truthfully reflecting their thoughts, feelings and wishes, and are “textbooks of life’ which encourage them in their work and struggles, and enhance their moral qualities. Workers and peasants are taking a keen part themselves in literary and art creation; spare-time art activities and the movement for spare-time writing in factories, villages and the armed forces are unfolding on a scale that is unprecedented. The talented creations of many unknown worker and peasant authors shine brilliantly side by side with the best works of professional writers and artists. Never before have literature and art occupied such an important position in the people’s life as today, never before have they played such an important role or received such serious attention from the people. The relationship between literature and art and the labouring people has changed and the character of literature and art has also changed. By degrees our literature and art are becoming the labouring people’s own literature and art. HE most outstanding features of our literature and art are their vigorous and clear-cut revolutionary character and militancy. Literary and art workers, in their role as drummers of the times, are using every form of literature and art to give a sharp and prompt reflection of our people’s struggle against imperialism, and in defence of our motherland and world peace, and the new people and new things which are constantly appearing on all the fronts of construction in our motherland, enthusiastically depicting the growth of the new in the midst of struggles, showing the positive role played by literature and art in close co-ordination with politics. There is a considerable body of good writing which gives a comprehensive picture and artistic generalization of the revolutionary history of our people and of the struggles they are now engaged in. Every stage in the history of the stirring people's revolutionary struggle in our country from the time of the Opium War to that of socialist revolution is presented in such novels and stories as Keep the Red Flag Flying, The Song of Youth, Three Families’ Lane, Sacred Fountain Cavern, Sow-Thistle, Railway Guerrillas, Red Sun, Tracks in the Snowy Forest, Sanliwan Village, Great Changes in a Mountain Village, The Builders, Beacon on the Steppes, Dawn on the River, and The Joy of Battle; in such long narrative poems as The Story of Yang Kao, The Carter and Tumultuous Years: in such plays as The Long March, The Red Storm, Long Live Our Heroes!, Prelude to the Eastward March and Locust Tree Village; and in such films as The Battle of Sangkum- *Traditional performances including different kinds of ballad singing, story-telling and comic dialogues. — Ed. September 20, 1960 ryung, Commissioner Lin, The Storm, Nieh Erh, The Song of Youth, Tung Tsun-jui and Youth in the Flames of War. Pictures of the stirring life on every front in industrial and agricultural construction and the big leap forward are given in such novels and stories as Steeled and Tempered, In Time of Peace, Riding on the Wind, Dawn in Wind and Rain, A Stormy Night and My First Superior: in such plays as Taming the Dragon and the Tiger, A Happy Reunion and In Praise of Communism: and in the films New Story of an Old Soldier, The Yellow River Flows Un, Spring Warmth Among the People, Everywhere Is Spring and Five Golden Flowers. DVANCED figures among the masses of workers and peasants have become the major heroes and heroines in our literature and art. Heroic images of workers, peasants, soldiers, revolutionary cadres and_ revolutionary intellectuals have been created in many good novels, stories, films, plays, paintings and other art forms. Writers and artists have embodied their own ideals in the creation of these heroic figures, presenting a new world, new people and new ideas in their works of art. In the works of recent years one can perceive a clear trend that writers are giving a more vivid, more profound portrayal of the world-transforming revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses and their magnificent spirit, while their characterization is fuller and much finer than before. In Keep the Red Flag Flying we see the heroic history of the older generation of revolutionary peasants in attacking the forces of reaction during the long years of dark rule. Chu Chung personifies in full the age-old class hatred of generations of peasants against the landlords, and the demand for revolution of the peasants aroused and inspired by the Party. Sow-Thistle written against the background of all the complex and bitter struggles in the bases established behind the enemy lines during the War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression, depicts a kindly, brave revolutionary mother. Li Yu-kuo, the Red Army instructor in The Long March, devotes his whole life to the Party and the revolution; at the very point of death, he cries confidently: “Let the revolution gallop forward!” His profile makes an impression on our minds not easily forgotten. Red Sun depicts a high-ranking officer, Shen Chen-hsin, who shoulders a heavy responsibility in directing a decisive battle, but gives his commands calmly and with confidence. The soldier Yang Tzu-jung in Tracks in the Snowy Forest epitomizes the intelligence and the daring spirit of revolutionary scouts. The Builders gives a trenchant description of the fierce class struggle in the villages in the course of agricultural co-operation and the different characteristics of villagers of different classes and strata; Liang Sheng-pao is a true portrayal of a young revolutionary peasant determined to take the socialist road. Chin Teh-kuei in Steeled and Tempered, Teng Hsiu-mei in Great Changes in a Mountain Village and the heroines in New Friends and The Story of Li Shuang-shuang are all lively and vivid pictures of young workers and peasants. The creation of these characters has answered the question: Who are the heroes of our time? It shows === [PDF page 10] === that the working class and labouring people have been given the position in our works of literature and art which they deserve. The masses of labouring people are always the creators of human civilization and society's wealth, but owing to the fact that for centuries they were oppressed and exploited politically and economically they were often either ignored or distorted in the literature and art of the past. With its entry onto the stage of history, the working class demands that literature and art correctly portray the labouring people and that they become fighting weapons of the working class. ACK in the forties of the last centurv. Engels was lond in his praise of the descriptions of “the poor and the despised class” which he found in the works of Dickens, George Sand and Eugene Sue, considering this phenomenon as “a thoroughgoing revolution” in the field of novel writing in Europe. (“The Movement on the Continent.”) Later, in the eighties, he formally laid down before revolutionary writers the task of describing the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Descriptions of this revolutionary struggle should, he said, “lay claim to a place in the domain of realism.” (“Letter to Margaret Harkness.”) By the time of Lenin. the centre of the proletarian revolutionary storm had shifted to Russia, and Lenin in his famous “Party Organization and Party Literature” further put forward the Party’s slogan for lilerature, pointing out: “Literature must become part of the common cause of the proletariat.” socialist literature should “serve the millions and tens of millions of working people.” Lenin, indeed. was the first to formulate the fighting programme of proletarian literature and art. The new revolutionary literature and art of our country came into being under the impact of the great October Revolution, and are a part of the socialist literature and art of the world proletariat. To meet the needs of the revolutionary struggle, the Chinese Communist Party, soon after its birth, put forward the idea of the creation of a revolutionary literature and art. To open un the road for proletarian literature and art, Lu Hsun, Chu Chiupai and many other revolutionary writers and artists pioneered the way and even shed their blood or laid down their lives. Comrade Mao Tse-tung, on the basis of the actual practice in the Chinese revolution, has creatively developed the principles of Party literature formulated by Lenin by pointing out clearly that literature and art should serve the workers, peasants arid soldiers. As a result, our literature and art have undergone a fundamental, historic change. Comrade Mao Tse-tung’s great contribution to the Marxist theory of literature and art lies not only in the fact that he posed most clearly and penetratingly the question of whom literature and art should serve, but also in giving a fundamental solution to the question of how this should be done. Comrade Mao Tse-tung has explored from various aspects the way in which literature and art 10 should serve the labouring people, has formulated the dialectical relationship between popularization and elevation in literature and art, and has laid the main emphasis in all problems on the fundamental question of how literary and art workers should link themselves with the worker and peasant masses and by so doing remould their own world outlook. Only by merging with the masses of workers and peasants can literary and art workers find the richest source for creative work, only so can they become familiar with the new life and the new people, only so can they produce works which will faithfully portray workers and peasants, be loved by the masses and be of benefit to the people. The new age has set new tasks for our literature and art: the writers and artists of this new age cannot but take a new path in their life and creative activity which is fundamentally different from that of writers and artists in the past — the path of integrating themselves with the masses of workers and neasants. This is the only wavy for writers and artists who are intellectuals not of proletarian origin to transform their former world outlook. establish a communist world outlook and become truly the snokesmen of the working class. Even the writers and artists from worker or peasant families or those of the younger generation brought up in the new society also need to remould themselves continuously and to maintain close and long-term contact with the workers and peasants. For as soon as they cut themselves off from the masses. from revolutionary struggle and productive labour, they will be unable to stand up to the attack of bourgeois ideas and will take the wrong road by mistake—some may even sink into the quagmire of opnosition to socialism. Liu Shao-tang is a case in point. So the very key to the line that literature and art must serve workers. peasants and soldiers lies in literary and art workers becoming identified with the workers and peasants. INCE the rectification camnaien and struggle against the rightists in 1957. a great many literary and art workers have gone to farms or factories to take part in labour or work at the srass-roots level: and this has nlaved a decisive part in enabling them to merge more completelv with the labouring people. in bringing about a change in their world outlook, way of life and views on literature and art. When they have taken an actual part in labour, literary and art workers have really come to grasp the profound significance of the maxim “Labour is glorious.” They do not go in a_ special capacity as writers and artists to “experience life.” but as ordinary labourers to live and work with the people and join in their labour. This closer contact with the labouring people has familiarized them with those they want to serve and depict, and they have come to speak a common language and share the feelings of the labouring people. Furthermore, influenced by the lofty qualitics of the labouring people, their revolutionary consciousness is greatly enhanced. They begin to see the inner world of the labouring people and to find the way to portray them; they understand what the people need, and what works they should create for them. If a writer does not have a warm love Peking Review === [PDF page 11] === for the masses of workers and peasants, is not familiar with the life, feelings and language of the people, how can he write moving works which faithfully reflect the masses of workers and peasants? It can be said that in the last few years many good works have been produced by writers and artists who have a rich experience of struggle and are familiar with the life of the masses. Following the remoulding of their world outlook and the raising of their political consciousness, many veteran writers and artists have joined the Chinese Communist Party. At the same time, a large new literary and art force has emerged from among the workers, peasants and cadres. A strong force of revolutionary literature and art with writers and artists of the working class as its backbone has grown up. “Those who teach others must themselves be educated.” In order to educate the people in the spirit of communism through their creative practice, literary and art workers must first learn from the masses of people through their practice in life, learn the people's fine qualities, their labour enthusiasm and their fighting spirit and turn the abstract communism learnt in books into a living communism of flesh and blood. The process of going deep among the workers and peasants and taking part in labour is the process of familiarizing themselves with the workers and peasants and, more important, that of transforming their own world outlook. For only by taking part in the revolutionary struggle and the production struggle can writers and artists make the communist world outlook their own soul. At the same time only by taking part in productive labour can our literary and art workers, especially the younger ones among them, gradually overcome the one-sidedness and narrowness caused by the division between mental and physical labour, can they make themselves new people of the communist type with an all-round development. The view that participation in physical labour is a waste of artistic talent is wrong. It merely shows that those who harbour such a view look down upon labour. As a matter of fact, it is in the ranks of the labouring people that countless talents are to be found; and taking part in labour is the necessary way to steel and cultivate the various kinds of talents of the working class. pet literature and art must serve the workers, peasants and soldiers is the most thoroughgoing, most resolute proletarian line in literature and art. It requires literature and art to serve and describe the broadest masses of workers and peasants, and what is most fundamental, it requires literary and art workers to become identified with the workers and peasants and thoroughly transform their world outlook. Following changes in the basis, the superstructure must change also. But changes in ideology which belongs ‘to the superstructure take place much slower than changes in the basis. This is why, after a socialist society has been established, the political and ideological influence of the bourgeoisie remains for a long time; while even in September 20, 1960 communist society there will still be struggles between advanced and backward, between right and wrong. This determines that ideological struggle and ideological remoulding are long-term tasks. During the last decade, bourgeois ideas have been under constant criticism in our country, and revisionism has not been able to occupy a dominant position in literary and art circles in our country; but this does not mean that they do not exist — they take their cue from the climate. When there is the least trouble inside or outside the country, they would start creating disturbances again, rising like scum to the surface of the water to spread their poison once again. The international ideological trend of revisionism is bound to have a certain influence in our country. Hence to persist in the line that literature and art must serve the workers, peasants and soldiers and serve the cause of socialism, we must persist in the struggle against revisionism and various other kinds of bourgeois ideas hostile to this line. Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend HAT literature and art must serve the broad masses of labouring people and the great cause of socialism and communism, is the sole political line for the literature and art of our country; there should be no other line apart from this. Regarding style, form, genre and subject matter in art, however, we are for greater variety and encourage originality, while opposing monotony, rigidity and narrowness. Our principle is the integration of uniformity in political orientation and variety in artistic styles. On the basis of his scientific analysis of the contradictions among the people in the socialist society, Comrade Mao Tse-tung put forward the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend. To carry out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom, a hundred schools of thought contend and developing the new from the old, under the guidance of the line of serving the workers, peasants and soldiers and the cause of socialism — this is the path of development for our socialist literature and art. Practice has proved that this is the most correct, the broadest and the most creative road for the development of the socialist literature and art of our country. This road leads all the talents and creativeness of writers and artists of different schools and styles to one great common goal, linking their individual wisdom with the collective wisdom of the masses, Let a hundred flowers blossom and develop the new from the old — this is the slogan put forward by Comrade Mao Tse-tung soon after the founding of our People’s Republic for the renovation and development of our traditional dramatic art. This slogan brought about an unprecedented flourishing of our traditional drama. In 1956, Comrade Mao Tse-tung put forward, side by side, letting a hundred flowers blossom and letting a hundred schools of thought contend as the line for the development of literature, art and science; and this policy was speedily 11 === [PDF page 12] === further applied to various political and ideological fronts. Free and general airing of views, the use of dazibao* and big debates have become excellent means of self-education and self-criticism for our people. an excellent means of implementing the mass line in the pcople’s political life, of bringing into full play the people's initiative and creativeness; they have also become a powerful weapon for the people in their struggle against the enemy. ae policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend and developing the new from the old has promoted an all-round, multiform development in every branch of literature and art, and speeded up the reform of old traditions. Much effective work has been done to take over and develop our country’s heritage of literature and art. We have revived several hundred kinds of local operas which before liberation were at their last gasp or had long disappeared from the stage; tens of thousands of librettos and folk ballads have come to light again; countless folk songs of the various nationalities, folk narrative poems and folk tales have been recorded, edited and published; a rich variety of folk music, folk dances and folk art has been extensively fostered and enabled to develop. We have opened up one treasure house after another of the long forgotten folk art and art of the various nationalities, clearing away the dust which had covered them for years and in the light of Marxist thought cleaning out the dross to preserve what is good, so that they are transformed and take on a dazzling splendour. Many good traditional dramas, songs and dances, acrobatic items, puppet plays, shadow-plays and so forth, after being edited and revised, have won praise far and wide. Traditional dramas like Fifteen Strings of Cash, Drawing Lots for Life or Death, Mu Kuei-ying Takes Command, Women Generals of the Yung Family, The Runaway Maid, Story of Funu, Father and Son, Over the Wall and Away on Horseback and The Pursuit of the Fish Fairy, as well as many other fine dramas which are frequently staged, are the [ruits of carrying out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and developing the new from the old in traditional drama. Notable innovations both in the script and the performance have been made in many of these traditional operas. With our new wisdom and techniques we have further enriched the fine achievements of our forefathers. This is not merely editing our old heritage, but creating something new. We have also had successful experience in using traditional dramatic forms to express modern themes and we have produced a number of operas like The Red Seed, A Chicken Feather Flies Up to Heaven and After Winter Comes Spring, which are welcomed by the people. On our stage, every type of traditional drama throughout the country has produced a number of talented young actors. Quyi as the shock troops of literature and art, are making a useful contribution by the swiftness with which they reflect the contemporary revolu- * Opinions and criticisms written out in bold Chinese characters on large sheets of paper and posted freely for everybody to see, — Ed. 12 tionary struggle. Our artists in traditional painting, employing traditional methods of expression, depict truthfully and with natural ease the life of the new age and the natural scenery of our motherland, endowing traditional painting with a new lease of life. The industrial and architectural arts have won acclaim for retaining national style while presenting the features of the new age. The policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and developing the new from the old has not only promoted the renovation of old traditions but has made our new literature and art more national in character. More and more, our novelists and story writers are manifesting a national style in their language, characterization and plots. Our poets, under the impact of the new folk song movement, are striving to develop modern poetry on the basis of classical poetry and folk songs; hence there is a new trend in the style of poetry too. All kinds of painting and sculpture, in the same way, are demonstrating much more vivid national characteristics. Our modern operas have not only presented a new revolutionary content but become more national in form too. Successful operas such as Hsiao Erh-hei’s Marriage and The Red Guards of Lake Hunghu are good examples of this. In music, we have produced much instrumental and vocal music unmistakably Chinese in style, expressing the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people in this era of the big leap forward. ‘he Magic Lotus Lantern, The Smail Knives Society and Five Red Clouds are new attempts at creating a national ballet. Great efforts have also been exerted to make our modern plays and films more national in character. The policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and developing the new from the old has enabled the literature and art of our various minority nationalities to make rapid progress. These minority nationalities have produced many talented writers, poets and artists. The literary and art heritage of the minority nationalities is also very rich. Such re-edited folk narrative poems as Gada Mirin, Ashma and Zhaoshutun are gems of popular poetry. Some excellent folk songs and folk legends like Third Sister Liu and Chin Niang-mei have been successfully adapted for the stage. Many fraternal nationalities are beginning to create their own operas and modern plays. [pentose we have carried out the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and developing the new from the old, there is now a much greater variety in the form and style of our literature and art, and their themes cover a much wider range. Novels, short stories, sketches and reportage; full-length drama and one-act plays; symphonic music, choral singing, songs for the masses and folk songs; oil paintings, sculpture, traditional paintings, woodcuts, posters and cartoons; feature, documentary, newsreel, science, educational and art films, and works of photographic art—the special functions and original features of all these have been brought into full play. We attach importance to works of great length Peking Review === [PDF page 13] === and size created with infinite care and attention as well as to short, terse works with the effect of a dagger or a javelin. Our literature and art not only put special emphasis on the portrayal of present-day struggles, creating - images of contemporary heroes, but present outstanding characters in history from a new viewpoint. Kuan Hanching, Tsai Wen-chi and Princess Wen Cheng are successful plays based on ancient history. Children’s literature and plays for children which have the task of educating the rising generation in the spirit of communism have received special attention. Guided by the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and developing the new from the old, we have taken over and renovated our excellent heritage of literature and art to make it a part of our advanced socialist culture, and at the same time we are investing our new literature and art of different forms and styles with more dazzling national characteristics. These two aspects are converging, interlacing and developing together to form a socialist, new national literature and art of infinite variety. S early as twenty years ago Comrade Mao Tse-tung proposed that we should evolve a fresh, lively Chinese style and Chinese flavour which the common folk of China love to see and hear. Our literature and art have a tradition dating back thousands of years; they have accumulated a rich fund of creative experience and have formed our own national forms and styles popular with the people throughout the ages. If revolutionary literature and art possess no national features, if they cannot create new national forms suited to the new content on the basis of our own national traditions, they will not easily take root and blossom among the broad masses of the people. The national character and mass character of literature and art are interconnected and indivisible. Since the May Fourth Movement our literature and art have widely absorbed the experience of foreign literature and art, adopting many foreign forms and methods of expression; this was entirely necessary. Since the founding of our People’s Republic, with the develooment of cultural exchange with foreign countries and thanks to the efforts of translators, we have come into contact with good literature, films and art from various countries of the world on a much greater scale, especially those of the Soviet Union and other fraternal countries, and have absorbed much that is of use to us; this has greatly benefited our readers, audiences and our literary and art circles. However, all art forms and techniques of foreign origin when transplanted to China must be remoulded and assimilated till they possess national features and become our own. Now our literature and art are more and more manifesting their national character and mass character. Distinctive national originality in literature and art is the concentrated expression of the creativeness of the masses, the sign of maturity in the literature and art of an age and of a class. Letting a hundred flowers blossom has resulted in an unprecedented liberation of the masses’ intellectual September 20, 1960 creativeness. In the wake of the big leap forward and the cultural revolution, there came a high tide of creative activity in literature and art among the masses. On work-sites and in villages, poems and paintings cover the walls, while songs echo far and wide. The new folk songs and new wall paintings are products of the big leap forward and in turn give fresh impetus to it. Their revolutionary romanticism and heroic, fresh style reflect the splendour of our age and the style of the masses, The movement for writing reminiscences of the revolution and recording the histories of factories and people's communes has spread far and wide with the co-operation ef cadres and intellectuals with workers and peasants. Collective authorship has become one of the important forms in our literary and art creation, and an important method to carry out the mass line in literature and art. The workers, peasants and revolutionary cadres have made history; now they are taking up pens to write down their own history. Books like A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire, Red Star of the North, Red Anyuan and Green Trees Spread Their Shade are among the first precious fruits. Our literature and art are composed of these two elements, the works of professionals and those of the masses who create in their spare time. These two component parts together make up the splendid variety and wealth of our literature and art. Letting a hundred schools of thought contend has promoted the lively activities of free debate and mass criticism in literary and art circles and throughout the world of thought. We have launched, through debates. the struggle between two paths in literature and art. and at the same time have held helpful discussions on many problems relating to literary and art creation and theory. Through these debates, the Marxist viewpoint has consolidated its position in literary and art theory and criticism. During the last two years, in the departments of literature in universities and the art colleges, criticism on bourgeois theory and ideas in the teaching of literature and art has been carried out; and on the basis of this criticism, the students and the teachers have collaborated to produce works of literary and art theory and histories of literature and art. This marks the rapid growth of the newborn forces of Marxism. W* can see from all these aspects mentioned above that the application of the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend in literature and art has already achieved considerable results, and its correctness has been proved by practice. When this policy was first put forward, however, by no means everyone had confidence in it; indeed, quite a few people have distorted or opposed it. The imperialists and their lackeys—the bourgeois rightists and revisionists — vainly hoped that letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend would be a bourgeois policy of “liberalization,” one which would “tolerate” and ‘compromise with” all bourgeois ideas and anti-socialist poisonous weeds. Misled by their subjective calculations, they got 13 === [PDF page 14] === their heads broken in the latter half of 1957, after which they changed their tune and insisted that we had given up the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, claiming that it had simply been a tactic or trick for a certain period. The class nature of these gentlemen blinds them completely. How can one make them understand correctly the Marxist policy of the proletariat? We have always held that letting a hundred flowers blossom means blossoming within the domain of socialism. The flowers to blossom are socialist flowers. We mean, through free emulation, to develop the socialist literature and art, and to oppose literature and art which are hostile to socialism. Letting a hundred schools of thought contend means contending under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, means propagating and developing Marxist dialectical materialism and opposing bourgeois idealism and metaphysics through free debate. So the policy of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the most correct policy for the rapid development of our literature and art and science: it is beneficial not only in correctly dealing with contradictions among the people in the realm of ideology but in competing with and struggling against bourgeois literature and art and their pseudo-science. Just as Comrade Liu Shao-chi has said, letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is an extremely firm class policy of the proletariat. Bourgeois rightists and revisionists have tried to utilize the slogan of letting a hundred flowers blossom to bring forth their poisonous weeds hostile to socialism. In their eyes, none of our flowers can be considered flowers. Like those with a perverted taste for the filthy and stinking, they only appreciate the declining, decadent art of capitalism, considering it a fragrant flower. When men’s world outlooks differ, their conceptions of beauty differ too. What we regard as fragrant flowers they consider poisonous weeds, while what we consider poisonous weeds they regard as fragrant flowers. They want us to cherish poisonous weeds as if they were fragrant flowers, but of course this is out of the question. Herein lies the main point of divergence and contention on this problem between us and the revisionists and bourgeois men of letters. QO’ the question of letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, we differ from the doctrinaires too. The doctrinaires are cut off from the masses, cut off from reality; they do not understand dialectics; they do not admit that multiplicity exists in the world. They want only uniformity in political orientation, not variety in artistic styles; they allow only a single flower to blossom, not a hundred flowers. This is extemely harmful. Can there be just one kind of flower in the socialist garden? The peony has been called the king of flowers, but if we had nothing but peonies blossoming to the exclusion of all other flowers, no matter how beautiful 14 peonies are, wouldn't people find it monotonous? Monotonous life and monotonous art alike are frowned upon by the people. Since the people's life is rich and varied, the literature and art reflecting their life should be rich and varied too. In our society, the material life of the labouring people is getting better day by day, their spiritual life is getting richer too, so naturally their demand for material and intellectual products will also increase daily. They ask not only for greater amounts of these products but for a greater variety and better quality. Since people’s needs, interests and tastes differ, the greater the variety the better. Only art rich in variety can satisfy the masses’ continuously increasing and varied intellectual needs, and can enable the varied individualities and talents of writers and artists to reach full development. Literature and art must serve politics, which is indeed a very broad field. The ways and forms for literature and art to serve politics are numerous and varied. We advocate works with a high revolutionary ideological content and good artistic form. We advocate literary and art works depicting present-day struggles, and we encourage and help writers and artists to do their best to get in touch and familiarize themselves with the people’s new life and throw themselves into the heat of the people's struggle. At the same time, each writer and artist can, according to his sense of political responsibility, his personal experience of life, his interests and special talent decide what theme to choose and what forms of expression to adopt. The readers and audiences of the new age like stirring works portraving the life and struggles of their contemnoraries, as well as fascinating stories from history and legend performed on the stage. They like stirring militant marching songs, thev also like fine and healthy lyrical music and dances. The new age requires more and better paintings of revolutionary history. revolutionary genre paintings and figure paintings, but shouldn't the new-style landscave paintings and flower-and-bird paintings also have a place in our galleries? The people need inspiration and encouragement in their spiritual life. but they also need things that give pleasure and delight. Provided these do not run counter to the six political criteria specified by Comrade Mazo Tse-tung in On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People, and, most important of all, do not run counter to the socialist path and the leadership of the Communist Party, works of art of various forms, themes and styles can all develop. We advocate using the methods of criticism and emulation to gradually eliminate works which are ideologically faulty or artistically inferior, in order to raise the ideological and artistic level of our works step by step. Socialist emulation in literature and art is the best way to encourage a multiplicity of artistic styles, develop various schools of art and expedite the raising of the quality of our works. HEN we let a hundred flowers blossom, poisonous weeds may appear in the guise of fragrant flowers. Therefore leiting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend necessarily involve two opposite and interrelated aspects: letting a hundred flowers blossom and eradicating the poisonous weeds. Peking Review === [PDF page 15] === Letting a hundred flowers blossom is a problem within the ranks of the people. The contradictions among the people between what is progressive and what is backward, between right and wrong, will always exist. To solve contradictions of this kind, we can use only discussion, persuasion, comparison and emulation, not administrative orders or coercion. In the case of academic problems or questions of art, we are against arbitrary or coercive methods, against crude criticism, but we are for holding full discussions to distinguish right from wrong and to reach the correct conclusion step by step. In some cases a very long time may be required to differentiate between right and wrong in academic matters, or good and bad in art, before a definite conclusion and appraisal can be made. It is often difficult to judge right away whether a new phenomenon is a fragrant flower or a poisonous weed. Some fragrant flowers may also have some partial defects. Therefore one must have an eye for the fragrant flowers as well as for poisonous weeds. We need courage not only in pulling out the weeds but also in protecting the fragrant flowers. So to foster the growth of the new and prevent ideological stagnation and rigidity, we should promote lively, free debates. we should advocate the spirit of thinking, speaking and acting boldly, we should encourage the masses’ initiative, encourage boldness in innovation and originality on the part of writers and critics in their creative and theoretical work. T= elimination of poisonous weeds is a problem between us and the enemy. The existence of poisonous weeds is an objective reality. Their growth is decided by definite historical conditions. It is not possible to prevent them from existing and appearing. The problem is what is the most effective way to eliminate the harm caused by poisonous weeds. The revisionists are against fighting poisonous weeds; they are the protectors of all kinds of poisonous weeds: the revisionist current of thought is itself a poisonous weed which does the greatest harm. They advocate the policy of liberalism and laissezfaire, “tolerance” and “compromise” on the cultural and ideological front, and their aim is to make socialist countries allow the capitalist reactionary culture to exist legally, to let it spread freely, to poision the people and youth. This, of course, we resolutely oppose. On the other hand, we do not approve of the method used by the doctrinaires either. They would ban poisonous weeds as soon as they appear; though the simple method of issuing administrative orders may have a temporary effect, it causes endless future trouble. It actually means allowing poisonous weeds to remain underground for a while, or allowing them to emerge in disguise to cause damage. This is another form of laissez-faire, which will not deal a mortal blow to the enemy. Our policy is: When poisonous weeds start to come out, we let them meet the Masses as antagonists, and urge the masses to discuss them freely, so as to enable more people to recognize their true features, to sharpen the people’s sense of discernment and fighting ability. We have always believed in and relied on the strength of the masses. We are of the firm September 20, 1960 belief that truth will finally triumph over falsehood. Therefore we are not afraid of poisonous weeds and opposite views; we are not afraid of open debates, not afraid that correct views may at one time meet with attacks and misunderstanding. The experience in the struggle against the rightists proved that this way of doing things was completely correct. The result was that the masses, including young students, were not pulled over to the side of the rightists; it was through the people’s debates and by relying on the masses’ strength, that a thorough defeat was inflicted upon the rightists. At the same time practice proved that the debates and criticism carried out by the masses were also an effective, although bitter, medicine which proved helpful to the bourgeois intellectuals in their ideological remoulding. Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend, following the line that literature and art must serve the workers, peasants and soldiers and the cause of socialism, opposes revisionism as well as doctrinairism. And while this ensures uniformity in the political orientation of our literature and art, it also ensures a variety of styles. It not only leads writers and artists to integrate themselves with the workers and peasants and establish a revolutionary world outlook, but also gives them full opportunity to develop their artistic originality. That is why we consider this the most correct path for the development of socialist literature and art in our country. (To be concluded in next issue.) For China’s Views on International Developments Read PEKING REVIEW The weekly magazine of Chinese news and views in English PEKING REVIEW is airmailed to all subscribers the world over and brings you: Up-to-date, authoritative coverage of China. Views on international developments. Theoretical articles. Texts of major policy statements and documents. Cultural trends. Subscribe or renew NOW Inquire at your local bookstore or write direct to our chief distributor GUOZI SHUDIAN P. O. Box 399, Peking, China === [PDF page 16] === Chinese Government Statement on Situation in the Congo China sternly condemns and protests against the aggressive crimes of imperialism headed by the U.S.; firmly supports the Congolese Government and people in their just struggle; and appeals to all peoples, particularly the governments and peoples in Asia and Africa, to firmly condemn and halt the U.S. crime in using Congolese to fight Congolese and Africans to fight Africans. The Government of the People’s Republic of China issued the following statement on September 14, 1960. — Ts acts of aggression and intervention in the Republic of the Congo, carried out under the flag of the United Nations by imperialism headed by the United States, have increasingly aggravated the situation in the Congo. On September 6, the “U.N. forces” under control of the United States went so far as to forcibly occupy the State Broadcasting Station and airports of the Congo and prohibit the legitimate government headed by Prime Minister Lumumba from using them. Moreover, making use of the separatists in the Congo, U.S. imperialism has time and again schemed to subvert the Central Government of the Congo. These crimes of aggression committed by U.S. imperialism have posed a grave threat not only to the national independence of the Congo and the other African countries, but also to peace in Africa, Asia and the world. These criminal acts of the United States have aroused extreme indignation and fierce resistance from the Congolese Government and the Congolese people. The Government and people of China sternly condemn and protest against the flagrant and shameless crimes of aggression and intervention committed by imperialism headed by the United States in the Congo, and resolutely support the Congolese Government and people in their just struggle against imperialism and to preserve their national independence and a unified state. U.S. imperialism has all along been plotting to swallow up the Congo in the name of the United Nations. Back on August 17, U.S. President Eisenhower slandered as “irresponsible actions” the just measures taken by the Congolese Government to resist U.S. intervention in the Congo by means of “U.N. forces,” and threatened that the U.S. Government would fully support the United Nations in “dealing with” the so-called “spectacle of disorder” in the Congo. Hammarskjold, at the beck and call of U.S. imperialism, has arbitrarily intervened in the internal affairs of the Congo, creating splits in the Congo and unjustifiably disarming Congolese troops. He 16 arbitrarily ordered “U.N. forces” to occupy the State Broadcasting Station and airports of the Congo, and brazenly supported the presumptuous act of dissolving the Lumumba government. The facts are clear enough. The plot of U.S. imperialism in the Congo is to use Congolese to fight Congolese and Africans to fight Africans, to create splits in the Congo and in Africa, and to bring about internecine fighting among the Congolese people and African peoples so as to penetrate into the Congo and Africa and realize its ambition of swallowing up the Congo and annexing Africa. But this deadly plot of U.S. imperialism is being more and more exposed. The true features of U.S. imperialism are more and more recognized for what they are by the peoples of the Congo and the other African countries, who are actively rising up against U.S. imperialism. The Central Government of the Congo has on many occasions justly denounced and protested against the aggressive activities in the Congo carried out by the United Nations under the manipulation of the United States. On September 9, the Guinean Command in the Congo declared that Guinea had decided to provisionally withdraw its troops from the U.N. forces until the United Nations stopped its interference in Congolese affairs. On September 12, the Government of the United Arab Republic justly charged the U.N. Command in the Congo with infringing upon the sovereign rights of the Congo and announced the withdrawal of U.A.R. troops from the U.N. forces. On September 13, President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana pointed out that Ghana’s troops in the Congo were used almost exclusively as a cat’s paw against the Lumumba government and declared that if the legitimate Lumumba government was not allowed to use its own radio station, Ghana would withdraw her troops forthwith from the U.N. Command. The Chinese Government warmly welcomes and firmly supports the just stand taken by the above-mentioned Governments. The Chinese Government and people appeal to all peoples throughout the world and particularly to the Governments and peoples of Asia and Africa in the hope that they will quickly take effective measures to give resolute support to the Congolese people and the Govern- Peking Review === [PDF page 17] === ment of the Republic of the Congo in their just struggle to preserve their national independence and a unified state and to firmly condemn and halt the crime of U.S. imperialism in using Congolese to fight Congolese and Africans to fight Africans. The Chinese Government and people will always give resolute support to the Government of the Republic of the Congo and the valiant Congolese people in their just struggle against imperialism and to preserve their national independence and a unified state. The Chinese Government and people maintain that the imperialist bloc headed by U.S. imperialism must immediately restore to the Congolese Government the State Broadcasting Station and On the Side of the S the Chinese Government issued its statement on the Congolese situation, leading popular organizations in the country aiso voiced the Chinese people’s deep feelings of solidarity with their embattled Congolese brothers. On September 14, the China Peace Committee, the Chinese Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity, the Chinese-African People’s Friendship Association, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the All-China Youth Federation and All- China Students’ Federation, and the National Women’s Federation of the People’s Republic of China sent messages to Prime Minister Lumumba or Congolese popular organizations, expressing strong support for the valiant struggle waged by the Congolese Government and people. The China Peace Committee's cable to Prime Minister Lumumba after conveying profound respects to the Congolese people, went on to note that the course of events proves ever more clearly that U.S. imperialism is plotting by every means to carry out aggression against the Congo and swallow it. This provides further proof that U.S. imperialism is the enemy of peace and the most dangerous and truculent common enemy of the Congolese people, the African peoples and the people of the whole world. All the peace-loving people of the world, the cable emphasizes, stand on the side of the Congolese people. In its cable to Prime Minister Lumumba, the Chinese Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity in the name of all Chinese people extended warm, fraternal greetings to the Congolese people. We hold, the message stresses, that the Central Government of the Congo is the sole legal Congolese government and has the full and sacred right to manage the affairs of its own country. It is our firm demand that imperialism immediately halt all its intervention and aggression in the Congo and that all imperialist forces get out of the Congo at once. Liu Chang-sheng, President of the Chinese-African People’s Friendship Association, states in his message that the Chinese people strongly protest with extreme indignation against the criminal acts of imperialism headed by the U.S. We firmly demand an immediate end to the intervention and aggression in the Republic of the Congo by U.S.-led imperialism! Congolese affairs must be left in the hands of the Congolese themselves! September 20, 1960 airports of the Congo, and halt all schemes to commit aggression against, interfere in and dismember the Congo and Africa. The Chinese Government and people are deeply convinced that so long as the Congolese people unite, the African peoples unite and the people of the whole world unite and struggle resolutely to the end against the imperialist bloc headed by U.S. imperialism and its lackeys, it is certain that the latter's schemes for aggression and intervention, for carving up and swallowing up the Congo and Africa will be thoroughly frustrated and that the Congolese and other African peoples will win total victory in their struggle for complete independence. Congolese People! The just struggle of the Congolese people, the message continues, not only has great historic significance for the defence of the national independence and preservation of territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Congo, but is a tremendous source of encouragement to the further solidarity of the African peoples as a whole in thoroughly smashing all imperialist schemes and intrigues and destroying the colonialist rule of imperialism in Africa. The 650 million Chinese people, the message points out, stand firmly on the side of the Congolese people and give full support to their just struggle! The message of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to the National Congolese Workers’ Union and all Congolese workers concludes with the words: We are convinced that the Congolese workers and people with their glorious tradition of struggle will certainly unite and persist in their struggle, and with the support of the African peoples and the people throughout the world, defeat imperialism and colonialism and win complete victory for national independence. “Renmin Ribao” Comments Te Chinese press has given close attention to developments in the Congo. On September 15, the day after the Chinese Government issued the statement on the situation in the Congo, Renmin Ribao published a leading article entitled “The Crimes of Aggression and Intervention Against the Congo Must Be Stopped Immediately!” Following are excerpts from that editorial. The situation in the Congo is becoming increasingly grave! Under manipulation of U.S. imperialism, the Urited Nations is flagrantly interfering in the internal affairs of the Congo. Thus, the Congo is faced with the serious danger of losing its national independence and becoming a U.S. colony, and peace in Africa and even the entire world is seriously threatened. Of late. U.S. imperialism in the name of the United Nations has continued to perpetraie its evil deeds in the Congo. Among its major crimes are: 1. The forcible occupation and closing down of all airfields in the Congo and banning their use by the Congolese Government and 17 === [PDF page 18] === troops. 2, Seizure of the Congolese State Broadcasting Station and forbidding the Congolese Government to make nationwide broadcast to its people. 3. Backing Congolese separatist cliques of such imperialist agents as Tshombe and others, shielding the Tshombe separatist clique’s use of the Elisabethville airfield to transport weapons and other equipment, and protecting the Belgian colonialists in supplying Tshombe’s army with large quantities of weapons and ammunition, aeroplanes and even colonialist commanding officers. 4. Allowing so-called “volunteers” led by Western colonialist officers to give support to the Kalonji traitorous clique in Kasai Province. 5. Instigating the radio station of the Tshombe clique and the secret radio stations of the other separatists to agitate for the dismemberment of the Congo. 6. Open support by U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold for illegal activities directed towards subverting the Congolese Central Government. It is quite obvious that if U.S. imperialism’s intrigue to use the United Nations for aggression against the Congo succeeds, there will never be peace in Africa. By its own actions, U.S. imperialism has once again proved that it 1s the most dangerous enemy of the African peoples. Now, the criminal acts of aggression against the Congo by the United Nations, manipulated by U.S. imperialism, have become increasingly unbridled. The “U.N. forces” are even attempting to completely disarm the Congolese troops and “take over” the Congo. On September 12, a handful of people, at U.N. instigation, went so far as to arrest Congolese Prime Minister Lumumba and detain him. But this plot against Lumumba failed. He was released by Congolese troops supporting him. This conspiracy of U.S. Imperialism further exposed its criminal intention to subvert the Congolese Central Government. U.S. imperialism’s interventionist activities in the Congo’s internal affairs have long created dissatistaction among the African peoples. The Foreign Ministers’ Conference of Independent African States held in Leopoldville passed on August 31 a resolution affirming its recognition of the Congolese Central Government as the Congo’s sole legal government. This reflected the will of the African countries and peoples to support the Congolese people, and frustrated the despicable scheme of U.S. imperialism to use the traitorous Tshombe clique to split the Congo. In the past few days, the crude attempts by U.S. imperialism to subvert the legal government of the Congo by means of the United Nations have further aroused the indignation of the masses of people in Africa and the governments of many African countries. Having seen through the scheme of the U.S. imperialists to swallow the Congo through the instrumentality of the United Nations, the peoples of the African countries are moving into action. Standing resolutely on the side of the Congolese people, they are opposing the vicious scheme of U.S. imperialism to use Congolese to fight Congolese and Africans to fight Africans. The Congolese people are waging an arduous, heroic struggle in defence of their young Republic. The Congolese Government and Parliament and the broad masses of the Congolese people have been greatly incensed by the intervention of the “U.N. forces” in the Congo’s internal affairs and their encroachment on its sovereignty; they have raised a strong protest against these crimes. As Prime 18 Cartoon by Chiang Fan For “Safekeeping” Minister Lumumba declared: “We will not tolerate the occupation by the United Nations!” This is the clear and resonant voice of the Congolese people who, in their protracted struggle for independence and freedom, never submitted to the sanguinary rule of the Belgian colonialists in the past, and will likewise never be suppressed by the “U.N. forces” under the manipulation of U.S. imperialism. On September 13, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives of the Congo again gave a vote of confidence to the Lumumba government and invested it with full powers. This is a strong rebuff by the Congolese people to the U.N. scheme to subvert the Central Government of the Congo. The Chinese people firmly support the struggle of the Government of the Republic of the Congo and the heroic Congolese pcople against imperialism, in defence of their national independence and for preserving a unified state. We appeal to the world’s people, in particular to the governments and peoples of the Asian and African countries, to take immediate action to jointly halt the criminal interference in the Congo's internal affairs by the imperialist bloc headed by the United States, and demand that the United Nations immediately turn back the Congolese radio station and airports to the Congolese Government and stop forthwith all its schemes for aggression and splitting the Congo and Africa. We are convinced that neither U.S. imperialism nor the United Nations manipulated by U.S. imperialism will be able to ride roughshod over the Congo for long. The Congolese people are sure to win independence and the African peoples are certain to become masters of their destiny. No imperialism can prevent this. Peking Review === [PDF page 19] === Statement on Alleged Violations of Indian Air Space by Chinese Aircraft No Chinese aircraft has ever intruded into Indian air space. The charges and protest by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs are completely groundless. The Chinese Government expresses deep regret at this very unfriendly act on the part of India and once again proposes that the two sides should be on guard and maintain vigilance with regard to the Flights by unidentified aircraft over the border between the two countries. Following is a translation of a statement issued by the spokesman of the Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 17, 1960.— Ed. N August 22, 1960. the Chinese Embassy in India received a note from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs protesting against alleged violations of Indian air space by aircraft coming from the Tibet region of China, On August 24, Indian Minister of National Defence Krishna Menon announced in Lok Sabha that the Indian Government had protested with the Chinese Government on so-called violations of Indian air space. Fifty-two cases of violation of air space were listed in a statement attached to the note of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. On September 16. the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a replv note to the Indian Embassy in China stating that investigations hv the Chinese Government showed that no entry of Chinese aircraft into Indian air space had occurred at all. The protest of the Indian Government was therefore rejected by the Chinese Government. The spokesman of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hereby instructed to set forth the real facts so as to ensure a correct understanding. In the early days of April 1960, the Indian Government informed the Chinese Government that aircraft had been discovered flying over the Sino-Indian border area. During his visit in India in April, Premier Chou En-lai told Prime Minister Nehru in their talks on April 25 that it had been found through investigations by the Chinese Government that these were U.S. aircraft. They took off from Bangkok, passed over Burma or China, and crossed the Sino-Indian border to penetrate deep into China’s interior to parachute secret agents of the Chiang Kai-shek clique, weapons, supplics and wireless sets, and then flew back to Bangkok, again passing over the Sino-Indian borde~. Premier Chou En-lai assured Prime Minister Nehru at the time that the Chinese Government would never allow its aircraft to fly over the border, and said that the Chinese Government had sent a note to the Burmese Government stating that should Burma discover any unidentified aircraft in its air space, it was fully entitled to take any counter-measure, either forcing them to land or shooting September 20, 1960 them down. China would do likewise should it discover such aircraft in its own air space. Premier Chou En-lai also expressed his belief at the time that India would do likewise. Thereafter, in its note of April 26 to the Indian Embassy in China. the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs again emphatically pointed out: “The Chinese Government is clearly aware that there exist at present certain forces who are bent on splitting by various means the relationship between China and its southwestern neighbours. Particularly at a time when the Prime Ministers of China and India are trying to seek a peaceful solution fo the Sino-Indian boundary question, it is most likely that these forces would try to attain their aims of disrupting the Sino-Indian relations by means of air intrusions into India or China. It is hoped that the Indian Government as well as the Chinese Government would maintain common vigilance against this.” It is worth noting that, of the 52 cases of alleged violations of Indion air space by Chinese aircraft listed in the August 22 note of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, with the exception of the three dates of May 31, June 6 and June 15 which were after Premier Chou En-lai’s visit to India, the other dates mentioned were all before Premier Chou En-lai’s visit to India in April this year. The Chinese Government is extremely surprised that, after’ such clear explanations from Premier Chou En-lai and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Prime Minister Nehru and the Indian Government, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs should continue to disregard the reality, and once again make completely groundless charg>s and protest against the Chinese Government in its note of August 22. This cannot but be considered as a very unfriendly act towards the People’s Republic of China, The Chinese Government expresses deep regret at it, In its reply note to India on September 16. the Chinese Government, proceeding from the desire to uphold friendly relations between China and India. proposed once again that in order to be on guard asainst deliberate attempts by outside forces to wreck Sino-Indian relations. the two sides should maintain vigilance with regard to the flights by unidentified aircraft over the border between the two countries and notify each other in time, so that each side may take whatever measures deemed necessary. 19 === [PDF page 20] === President Toure’s Memorable Visit by OUR CORRESPONDENT RESIDENT Sekou Toure of Guinea concluded his fiveday sojourn in China on September 15. As the first African head of state to come to China, his visit is both a memorable page in Sino-Guinean relations and a landmark in the onward sweep of the Asian and African peoples united in common struggle against imperialism. President Toure received one of the greatest welcomes ever given by the Chinese people to a foreign guest. From the moment he set foot on Chinese soil to his departure from Nanning for Viet Nam, the Guinean President and his delegation were immersed in the warm reception of the Chinese people. Half a million Peking residents took their stand on the streets to cheer and applaud the representatives of heroic Guinea as President Toure, accompanied by Chairman Liu Shao-chi and Premier Chou En-lai. and President of the Guinean National Assembly Diallo Saifoulaye, accompanied by Chairman Chu Teh and Vice-Chairman Peng Chen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, drove in open limousines from the airport to the state guest house. Jubilant crowds lined the whole length of the 40-kilometre route. That same evening, President Toure was guest of honour at a grand state banquet at the Great Hall of the People attended by more than 1.000. On the third day of his stay in Peking. over a hundred thousand representatives from all walks of life in the capital turned out at a mammoth rally to honour the Guinean guests. Chairman Mao Tse-tung of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party received President Toure and other members of the Guinean delegation. He gavea special banquet for the guests during which he toasted the health of President Toure. the liberation of all Africa and the solidarity of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the world. Receptions in other Chinese cities were equally enthusiastic. When President Toure, accompanied by Premier Chou En-lai, arrived in Shanghai, 300,000 residents turned out to welcome him despite an early rain. In Wuhan. where the Guinean delegation stopped for two hours, it was greeted by Vice-Chairman Tung Pi-wu, who had come from Peking specially for that purpose, and by local officials and people’s representatives. As word spread that the Guinean guests were passing through, the people of Wuhan poured out into the streets to cheer them. While in China, President Toure and members of his delegation took time to cover important sights and places. In Peking, they saw the Industry and Communications Exhibition and the Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Museum. They were also entertained at a con- 20 cert where Chinese artists presented both Chinese and Guinean songs and dances. In Shanghai. the guests visited a steam turbine plant and workers’ apartment houses. In a spontaneous gesture of warm friendship and high spirits, the Young Pioneers at the Shanghai Children’s Palace adorned the smiling President and his party with their red Pioneer scarves. During the stop-over in Wuhan, the Guinean President visited the Yangtse River Bridge. Strong Ties of Friendship Forged There is no doubt that President Toure’s visit has forged strong ties of friendship between the Chinese and Guinean peoples. He came to China bearing the precious gift of the friendship of Guinean people for the Chinese people, and carried back in full measure the goodwill and support of the 650 million Chinese people for their African brothers. And this militant friendship is fully embodied in the Joint Communique, the Treaty of Friendship and other documents signed between the two countries (see Peking Review, No. 37). In the words of Chairman Liu Shao-chi’s farewell to President Toure at the Peking airport, “A common struggle against imperialism has linked our two peoples together; and now we are both striving to build our motherlands. I am confident that our descendants in every generation will carry forward and amplify this friendship.” The imperialists have left no stone unturned in trying to build a great wall between China and Africa, and isolate them from each other. But as President Toure’s visit demonstrated, they have failed and will continue to fail miserably. As President Toure pointed out in the course of his visit, although the imperialists try by every means to create cleavages between Africa and Asia, the African peoples are politically mature enough to see through these imperialist manoeuvres; if there are still African nations at present unable to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China or express in a concrete manner the admiration and confidence they feel for China’s revolution, this is simply because they have been prevented from doing so by the colonialists. Noting that the warm demonstrations of welcome which the Chinese people gave to him testified to their trust in and esteem for all the African peoples, President Toure declared in his farewell speech at the Peking airport: “We shall know how to interpret these demonstrations in clear and sincere language to the African peoples; they will not only be proud of them but sincerely grateful for them; and by their concrete attitude they will also in their turn show to the Chinese people that they have the same sympathy, confidence and determination for fraternal cooperation.” Peking Review === [PDF page 21] === Report from Kiangsu From the Cities to the Rural Regions by OUR CORRESPONDENT IANGSU Province, like the rest of China, is in the midst of an unprecedented drive to support agriculture, to speed up its growth and technical transformation. A mass movement to effect this has swept every town and city in the province. Skilled men and materials are going out to the rural areas in an increasing flow. Industrial enterprises are naturally in the van of this drive as its main point of attack is to aid the modernization of agriculture, but people in every type of urban activity transport and communications departments, banks and shops, schools, universities, medical, scientific and cultural institutions— are doing their bit. Workers and technicians are going to the rural people’s communes to do specific jobs. All sorts of people are going out too to give the people’s communes a helping hand in their particular speciality or in ordinary field work during the busy farm seasons. Three Waves of Help There have been actually three waves in Kiangsu’s drive to help the rural areas. The first took place when the rural people’s communes went in for the building of water conservancy works on a big scale during last winter and spring. At that time 100,000 workers went to the work sites and improved, manufactured or repaired more than 12 million tools. This was of enormous help. It roughly doubled the efficiency of the labour force engaged in building dams, canals, dykes and so on. During the second wave, the towns directed their main efforts to producing the goods needed for spring ‘sowing and cultivation and in summer farm work. By the end of June, in six months, the province had produced agricultural capital goods to a value of 86.4 per cent of the total produced in the whole of last year. The number of mechanized farm tools produced was more than two times as much as in the whole year of 1959. The third wave of aid to the rural areas started only recently. Now the main effort is on the manufacture of tools for the autumn harvest and for cultivation and sowing. This is particularly important as the province has set itself the immediate goal of introducing semi-mechanization on a large scale in cultivating, harrowing, sowing and rice threshing. As the Kiangsu workers see it, support to agriculture means not only delivering equipment to the countryside, but providing the necessary personnel and techniques as well. Currently a move is on in many Kiangsu towns to transfer workers and management staff to the countryside. Thousands of men and women have already gone to the rural people’s communes from Nanking, Wusih, Hsuchow, Changchow, Soochow and other cities. They have September 20, 1960 taken with them a great deal of equipment for making farm machines, chemical fertilizers and farm chemicals and their primary task is to lend a hand in building countyand commune-run industrial enterprises to serve agriculture. They are helping with capital construction, installation of equipment, training skilled workers and setting up efficient management systems. By July this year, more than 8,000 city cadres and workers in Kiangsu had gone to the countryside. Most of them went to the suburban counties, but Nanking and Wusih, two of the leading industrial cities of the province, dispatched over 1,300 workers and employees to counlies north of the Yangtse. Some of these cadres and workers are taking up leading posts responsible for industry in the counties or people’s communes, other are giving technical guidance in local workshops or plants. Their experience has rapidly made itself felt in local industrial management. Overall leadership has improved; there is greater efficiency in the management of finances, production and management in general. Many methods have been evolved in Kiangsu for the training of technical cadres in the countryside. Urban factories are taking trainees into their workshops for courses of practical work and study; they send veteran workers and technicians on tours of rural districts to pass on their skills on specific jobs, or assist local factories to set up short-term training classes. Correspondence courses have also been started where there is a lack of instructors. The Hook-Up As in other areas (see “Industrial Aid to the Rural Communes: A New Way,” Teking Review, No. 29, 1960) Kiangsu this year is going in on a large scale for what is known as the “hook-up” between city factories, organizations, institutions, etc., and the rural people’s communes. This type of direct, regular link facilitates timely, longterm and comprehensive aid to agriculture and makes for firmer links cf mutual aid and support between industry and agriculture, the city and countryside. The first form of the “hook-up” in Kiangsu can be traced back to 1958, the first year of the big leap forward. At that time the provincial authorities, taking account of the advanced industrial development of southern iXiangsu compared to the rest of the province and the new needs of large-scale co-ordination between industry and agriculture, re-arranged existing administrative divisions in the province. This, on the one hand, put certain cities directly under the jurisdiction of the special administrative regions and, on the other, extended the municipal limits of large cities to take in neighbouring agricultural counties. These changes paid off by reinforcing the industrial strength of the special administrative regions, stimulating the further integration of industry and agriculture 21 === [PDF page 22] === and the cities and countryside, and getling the industrially advanced areas to help other, less favoured oes. “Hook-up” relations are now popular in Kiangsu. They exist not only between factories anu rurai piopie’s communes, but between the peopie’s communes and maiuy other bodies such as schools, colleges, hospiuis and research institutes. A lactory may “adopt’ one. or more peopic’s communes; some big plants even adopt a whae county. On thé otuer hand, there are aiso peuple s communes which get help trom several factories. Some 4,100 factories and mines and more than 3,600 other bodies now maintain “hook-up” relations wiin over 1,200 rural peoples communes. ‘lhis enavies the latter to get a wide variety of aid. ‘The Nanking Motor Vehicle Works has helped Lishui County build a larm machinery plant. Besides supplying materials and equipment, 1 also transferred a whole group of management and technical personnel to heip run the new plant. It helped select the site of the new plant, build it and train new workers for it. Now, the Lishui County plant has six workshops, capable of making a dozen or so types of farm and indusirial machines. The Qingieng Cotton Yarn Miil, Wusih, illustrates another way in which aid is channelled to the rural areas. ‘The various departments of this factory offer aid to their opposite numbers in the rural people’s commune which the Qingtfeng has “adopted.” ‘The machine repair workshop of the mill is helping the people’s commune build a farm machine plant and a foundry; the accounting section is giving it tips on how to perfect its financial systems and work; the welfare section concenirates its help on running community dining-rooms and nurseries, while the mills clinic has taken over the training of medical personnel for the people’s commune and treats members who are seriously ill. Network of Farm Machinery Plaats in the elfort to build up the basic strength of the people’s communes, a matter of first-rate importance is the creation of a network of rural workshops able to manu/acture and repair farm machines and tools. At the present time, about three-fourths of the rural people’s communes in Kiangsu already have farm machine workshops. These vary in size and the plan is to build on this basis in the next few years co-ordinated networks of workshops \o serve as rural engineering bases. This ‘will have many advantages. ‘he technical transformation of agriculiure aims to adapt to the Chinese farmer’s traditionally iniensive and meticulous methods of cultivation, to the complex natural conditions of the various regions of China, to the needs of multi-cropping and diversified farm activities. It must, therefore, follow the principles of simultaneously developing indigenous and modern methods and integrating the operations of large, small and mediumsized enterprises. The possession of rural engineering bases specially adapted to serving farm needs makes it possible to get greater, faster, better and more economical results in pressing forward with this programme. As these networks grow at the moment, the emphasis is on the manufacture of improved and semi-mechanized farm tools and their production in comprehensive sets. The production’ of complete sets of farm machines suited to ‘local needs will be developed on this basis. Finally it is expected that im addition to manufacturing farm tools and 22 inachines these rural engineering bases will be able to ussume the main responsiviiliy lor repairing tiem, lt is already clear that the engineering works tun vy lie counties and Lhe people's communes are going vo piay un increasingiy significant role in solving current rural snoriages o1 iabour, which arise from extension oO: Lue sown urea, More imvensive and meticuious culuuvation, the vapid progress of capital construction and development oF a more diversified rural economy. It is estimated that in Wusih County the large-scale manulacture and use of imiproved, semi-mecnanized iarm tools and 4 certain Number ol farm machines aione will add more than 20 million labour days this year. ‘The expansion of these local enginecring and raw material industries in Kiangsu is spurring the growth ol other county- and commune-run indusiries. The S5oochow Special Administrative Region, Making use of its swrong industrial base, has set up in its rural people’s communes 169 plants to turn out chemical ferulizers and insecucides and 184 iactories for processing fodder. ‘The resuil is that in the first four months oi this year, this Legion produced 11 times as much chemical fertilizer by iuvdern and indigenous methods as in the same period last year. Industrial development in Kiangsu’s counties and rural peopie s communes is bringing aboul a more rational diswWibuuon of urban and rural industries; it helps the progressive wanstormation of the cities in the direction of elununating the differences between cily and countryside. When local industry is more or less universally able to make and repair farm machines, industrial enterprises in the big and medium-sized cities will be able to concenuaie their efiorts on strengthening their weak links and develop the production of high-grade, precision and other modern goods. Mutual Inspiration The mutual co-operation and support between towns and countryside in Kiangsu has not only promoted the growth of rurai and urban production but has social effects of the utmost significance. Frequent contacts and co- Operaucn have enormously strengthened mutual undersianaing and.{friendship between urban and rural populauons. ‘Luwnspeopie understand more clearly the role of agriculture in the development of the national economy. ‘they see ior themselves the advantages of the rural peopie’s commune system, the latest advances in the technical wansiormation of agriculture, and the peasants’ great achievements in transforming the countryside. With this greater awareness they see the technical transformation of agriculture as their common task with the peasanis. On the other hand, the peasants have also learnt a lot from the workers—working-class discipline and collective spirit, the communist style of bold thinking, doing and creating. They are coming to see the tremendous potentialities of an industry armed with modern techniques and this enhances their confidence in their great effort to modernize China's agriculture. Kiangsu Province has mapped out detailed plans to get agricultural mechanization going. It is working to fulfil the National Programme for Agricultural Development, 1956-67, ahead of schedule. The mass movement to aid agriculture is playing a big role in bringing this about. Peking Review === [PDF page 23] === CINEMA **Nieh Erl The newly released Nieh Erh, produced by the Shanghai Haiyen Film Studio, is the story of the brilliant young life ef China’s first great proletarian composer. Nieh Erh, born in 1912, died in 1935, yet, in the short five or six years of his adult creative life, he composed more than 30 songs which are sung to this day. Most of them were criginally composed for films; this helped to get them rapidly to a large audience. They were instantly accepted by the millions and attempts of the reactionary Kuomintang regime to ban them simply gave them greater publicity. They were sung by revolutionaries, by workers, students, peasant guerrillas, the revolutionary armies, by the people all over the country. Nieh Erh became the most influential revolutionary musician in China. His March of the Volunteers leapt to instant popularity as soon as it was composed. A militant call to resist imperialist aggression, it became the battle hymn of the Chinese people throughout the war against the Japanese invaders and later in the War of Liberation, Ten years ago, on October 1, 1949, the first five-starred red flag was hoisted at Tien An Men to the strains of the March. It was proclaimed New China’s aational anthem. The new colour film of Nieh Erh’s life, winner of the prize for biographical films at the 12th International Film Festival at Karlovy Vary, takes us back to Shanghai some 30 years ago. Nieh Erh, still in his teens, arrives in the cosmopolitan city full of curiosity and hope. As he walks down the gang plank carrying big and small bundles and his huqin (a stringed instrument), his employer, a weedy little capitalist, adds two big hams to his load. As a hired hand fer a selfish, exacting employer, he hasn’t much time for himself. While the morning mist still hangs ever the city, we see him again, doing his morning drill with the top half of his body projecting out of his garret skylight. He doesn’t enjoy this “luxury” long: a raucous veice calls him to deliver goods for his master. On the street he is pull- September 20, 1960 ing a cart like a beast of burden when all of a sudden the street before him becomes a disturbed arena. A demonstration commemorating the Communist August 1 Uprising is on. He climbs on top of his cart to watch. When the crowd is dispersed by the police and he is ready to move on, he finds that the revolutionary speaker of just a moment ago is. beside him pulling the cart. Quickly he gives the man his own shoulder pads and thus hides him from the wildly searching police.... These are the first few scenes we see on the screen. They are swift moving and incisive. They hold our attention and like a good composition, state the theme in a way that impels ene te ask how will it develop: how dees this cart puller become a composer? However hard his life, he continues to practise his music which he learnt from a carpenter when he was a middle school student in Kunming, Yunnan. A business depression hits Shanghai and cur hero is laid off with his pay for his half year of hard labour — 12 dollars. He runs with this to a second hand stall and spends it all on a violin, quite reconciled “to live on music and water.” Poverty soon sends him te a pawn shop to pledge his coat. The food he buys with his last two cents he shares with a little beggar who is even more helpless than he. The Shanghai milieu of the day is vividly portrayed. Finally he finds ancther job. as a violinist in a song and dance troupe. He builds up warm human contacts as he always does wherever he finds himself, but he is disgusted at the decadent and vulgar trash offered as entertainment to the public. In this dilemma he accidentally meets his schoolday friend Cheng Lei-tien. She upbraids him for forgetting his youthful ideals. Nieh Erh “wants to be a real musician.” But as to what is real music, he is not at all too clear, nor does he know where to find it. Chao Yan as Nieh Erh He tries an orthodox ccnservatory of music, but is repelled by the ivory tower attitude he finds there. He is at a loss where to turn to when the Communist Party points the road out to him. His friend Cheng turns up and takes him to perform for a group of workers. Here he meets his acquaintance of the demonstration and is very warmly received. In several incidents and episodes we see how his life and work begin to be integrated with the workers’ struggle. His romantic spirit begins to take on a revolutionary content. These were the years when the Japanese invaders overran China’s nertheast and were trying to swallow up the whole of China. The Kuomintang, instead cf fighting the enemy, compromises and retreats, turning all its spite on the patriots who demand action to save the country. Nieh Erh sees his friends shot down by Kuomintang bullets and disappear in police vans. The struggle in the cultural field is also acute. Decadent music is deliberately promoted to divert people's attention from reality. Nieh Erh comes to see that the people are in vital need of a new type of music and that real music is revolutionary music. He breaks with the song and dance company and goes north where he joins up with revolutionary artists in Peking. The authority bans a play while it is being staged because it contains the words: “The Northeast is Ours!” Nieh Erh cannot restrain his indignation. He goes on stage and plays the Internationale on his violin. The cast takes up the chant. Arm in 23 === [PDF page 24] === arm, the audience forms a wall protecting them from the police. He sees more clearly the strength of the masses and the role of music. He makes firm friends among members of the Communist Party. At the suggestion of the Party he returns to Shanghai. Here Cheng, just arrived from a revolutionary base, tells him of the cultural activities in the liberated areas led by the Party. This opens his eyes still further —a revolutionary musician must draw his inspiration from the struggle of the people, linking his work closely with that struggle. From then on his artistic path is clear. He draws on the rich sources of the pecple’s art and song which he has always loved dearly since he was a child. He expresses their sorrows, their hopes and always their revolutionary optimism. He throws himself into the thick of the fight and writes music that the people can use as a weapon. Ceaselessly he perfects his art and increases its expressive power. We see a gradually maturing Nieh Erh as man and artist. In 1933 he joins the Party. The film does an excellent job ef weaving Nieh Erh’s music into the thread of the story of his life and the general background of his times. They form an integral part of the drama. We hear the Down-Trodden Sing- Song Girl as he composes it on board a ship on the Yangtse. Song of the Stevedores is presented at a stage performance. The Graduation Song gives an opening to introduce many other of his songs. His songs penetrate everywhere. Even in the living room of an ultra-reactionary Kuomintang official Chien, his Song of a Newspaper Boy is heard, sung by Chien’s young daughter. There is a struggle of songs. Chien wants a film producer to replace Nieh Erh’s Girl in an Out-of-the-Wey Village with The Happy Peasants, a false, sentimental song. When Nieh Erh’s piece is played anyway, the reactionaries resort to brute force. They wreck the Studio, ransack bookstores selling his music and records. But the Sona of the Road-Builders blares out of a Icudspeaker in answer, calling on the people to fight back against the traitorous Kuomintang government. Patriotic demonstrations are shot down. Nieh Erh’s comrades are thrown into prison. The white terror is at its height. It is then that Nieh Erh composes the 24 song of the people’s aspirations and will, The March of the Volunteers: “Arise, all ye who refuse to be slaves! With our flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall!” The film ends with the pecple, inspired by this immortal March, passing triumphantly through Tien An Men Square. While the general outlines of the story are historically correct, the actual incidents depicted are, of course, sometimes fictional. There was no real life Cheng, the girl. for instance, Yet the whole is dramatically authentic and carries cenviction. The writers of the scenario, Yu Ling, Meng Po and Cheng Chun-li (who is also the director), and the veteran film actor Chao Tan who plays the title role, were Nieh Erh’s close friends when he lived in Shanghai. Their profound understanding of the thought and feelings of Nieh Erh contribute a great deal to this successful screen portrayal of China’s great proletarian composer, ART ‘orkers’® Art Exhibitions Two workers’ art exhibitions which opened in August in Peking and Shanghai, demonstrate that art has indeed struck deep roots among the masses of workers. Selections in both exhibits were made from among thousands of entries. They include traditional Chinese paintings, oil paintings, cartoons, posters, water colours, graphic arts, sketches and scissor-cuts. Among the more than 200 works shown at the Peking exhibition in the Working People’s Palace of Culture, the oil painting Chairman Mao Comes to the Railway Station by two Peking railway workers, created lively interest among the spectators. So did the scissor-cut Long Live the People’s Commune, a collective work by railway workers, resembling a gay genre painting with its more than one hundred figures busy at work or play in an urban people’s commune. A cartoon, The Canoe on the Sea of Japan, is a biting satire on the discredited Kishi and Co, showing that disreputable crew surrounded and tossed about by the seething Japanese people. The author of this caricature is Yuan Chih-chung, a talented young building worker who took up cartooning only two years ago. Like their Peking counterparts, the worker artists of Shanghai also display keen interest in contemporary themes. Subjects of the 190 art works on exhibit range from the Shanghai workers’ struggle against the imperialists to economic construction in the big leap forward, rural and urban _ people’s communes, outstanding events and personages in the technical innovations movement and the city’s industrial development. Veteran Worker Teaching Apprentice, an oil painting favourably commented upon by many viewers, is the work of an aluminium ware plant lathe turner Tung Lien-pao. It pictures an excited girl apprentice handling a lathe by herself for the first time while her tutor and other workers look on with expressions of proud satisfaction. The author who, at the age of 13, had himself been an apprentice in the old China said that he had poured his deepest feelings into this painting. Recalling the bitterness of learning a trade in the old days he explained that he never failed to be moved by the new conditions of today’s apprentices. Nine woodcuts on display were by 36-year-old Wu Chin-ming, a worker in the Shanghai Power Equipment Plant soon after liberation. When his first weodcut was sent to Laodongbao (Labour Journal), the newspaper's editorial board put him in touch with several woodcut artists. In 1954, his Pile Driving won a first prize at the first national workers’ art exhibition. Happy Labour and four other paintings by 28-year-old Lu Yi-fei portray new themes with traditional Chinese painting techniques. Executed in bright colours and fluent lines, they catch the spirit and manner of his subjects conveying to the spectator a strikingly life-like feeling. Amateur arts groups in Peking now have 8,000 members. Since 1956, the Werking People’s Palace of Culture has offered short-term classes in sketching, cartoon drawing, oil and traditional Chinese painting. Wellknown artists lecture and sometimes even go directly to the factories to help develop amateur art activities there. Such activities have also received great encouragement in Shanghai where there are today more than 4.000 amateur artists among the city’s workers. Peking Review === [PDF page 25] === CHINESE PRESS OPINION U.S. Slander Exposed: American Criminals in China Denouncing the recent statement on the American criminals held in China and the 1955 Sino-U.S. agreement on the return home of civilians, made by U.S. State Department Press Officer Joseph Reap on September 9, Renmin Ribao’s Commentator writes (September 15) that the gambit of “thief crying stop thief!” and the making of deliberately false accusations are the favourite tricks employed by U.S. imperialism in attempts to cover up its evil acts. The Reap statement is only the latest example of such U. S. ruses. Reap alleged that the American criminals were “unjustifiably held in prison,” and accused the Chinese Government of disregarding its “solemn pledge made five years ago.” Commentator characterizes this as “truly a masterpiece of falsehood.” Commentator writes that there are some American criminals in China, all of whom have committed grave crimes, endangering China’s state security. The Chinese Government was fully justified in arresting them, handing them over to the law and having sentences passed on them according to China’s judicial procedure. The days when the imperialists could ... To Spite His Face In an attempt to put economic pressure on the Cuban of Cuban sugar. U.S. rose to a new record high level. “Won't this make those The Cost of Being Second Rate Eisenhower totting up what Washington’s abortive “positions of strength” policy adds up to, admits that US. aggressive activities, which he euphemistically calls “security” measures, are taking 10 per cent of the gross national product, compared to 1 per cent in 1930, absorbing the energies of, over onethird of all U.S. scientists and engineers, half its research funds and directly employing no less than 5 million people. September 20, 1960 THE PASSING SHOW revolutionary government, Washington slashed 700,000 tons off imports Since then the price of refined sugar in the U.S. has risen to the highest levels in forty years. For the fifth consecutive month the cost of living in the commit crimes with impunity in China have gone beyond recall. By asking China to release these criminals, the U.S. Government is seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs and the Chinese people will not tolerate it, Commentator emphasizes. In 1955, China and the U.S. reached an agreement on the return of vivilians of both sides to their respective countries, Commentator notes. Nat urally this agreement does not apply to American criminals in China. It is plain common sense that civilians and criminals cannot be confused. The American criminals in China can return to their country, but only after they have served their sentences or are released ahead of time begause of good conduct and have thus had their ordinary civilian status restored to them. Among the 40 American criminals held in China on the eve of the Sino-U.S. talks, 35 have returned to the U.S. after their release (19 of them were released ahead of time). One expressed the wish to stay in China after his release. and the Chinese Government satisfied his request. Thus, of the original 40 American criminals, only four -re still serving their sentences in China. With one more arrested in 1958. that makes five Cubans mad!” U.S. Marching Tune by Fang Cheng altogether. As for the return of ordinary U.S. civilians from China to their own country, this has never been subject to any obstruction. On the contrary, they have been given various kinds of help by the Chinese Government. This proves that the Chinese side has fully observed the 1955 Sino- U.S. agreement on the return home of civilians. It is precisely the U.S. itself which has violated that agreement, Commentator points out. The U.S. in the past openly prohibited certain Chinese students in the U.S. from returning to China. Although the ban is now nominally lifted, the U.S. is, in fact, still using various means to obstruct Chinese in the U.S. from returning to their homeland. Special agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration Office question Chinese residents who express the desire to return to their home country, try to force them by threats to give up the idea. detain them, or abduct them when they are on their way home, or even send them forcibly to lunatic asylums. At the beginning of the Sino-U.S. ambassadorial talks, the Chinese side took the initiative in handing over a full list of Americans in China and asked the U.S. side to sunnlv likewise a complete list of Chinese residents in the U.S. However, up to now. the U.S. side has failed to do so. This alone suffices to show that the Chinese side has sincerely adhered to the bilateral agreement on the return home of civilians, while the U.S. Government has done its utmost to wreck it. Commentator points out. 25 === [PDF page 26] === CHINA AND THE WORLD G.D.R. Leaders Greeted A joint congratulatory message has been sent by Chinese government leaders to Comrade Walter Ulbricht and other leaders of the German Democratic Republic on their election as Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the G.D.R. State Council. Signed by Chairman Liu Shao-chi and Vice- Chairmen Soong Ching Ling and Tung Pi-wu of the People’s Republic of China, it extended best wishes to the G.D.R. for fresh successes in socialist construction, the struggle for the reunification of Germany, the defence cf European and world peace and the consolidation and growth of fraternal China-G.D.R. friendship. In the Socialist World Elsewhere in the socialist world, several Chinese art troupes, sports and other delegations are on tour, cementing new ties of fraternal friendship. In the Soviet Union, a Chinese national song and dance treupe has been performing to audiences in Petrezavodsk, capital of the Karelian Autonomous Republic, and in Leningrad, Tallinn and Riga. Performances in Moscow, Vilnius and other cities are also scheduled. Also in the Soviet Unien is a 30member men and women’s Chinese basketball team of the Chinese Locomotive Sports Association and the Coal Miners’ Sports Association. In Rumania. a 40-member Chinese puppet show troupe is attending the Second International Puppet Show Festival in Bucharest. “A Chinese women’s delegation is visiting Hungary. Also on tour there are the popular Chungking Acrobatic Troupe and a Chinese model aircraft operators’ team. A large number of visitors have come to China from the fraternal countries too. Among them are a Rumanian table tennis team of men and women players, who have been competing with Chinese table tennis cham- 26 pions in several cities, and a group of young Polish tourists led by Altman Yuzef, head of the State Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Polish Socialist Youth Union. Around the World with Chinese Arts Film season in London. In the recent successful Chinese film season in London, close to a dozen Chinese features and documentaries were shown within a fortnight. Prominent British public figures, film critics, connoisseurs and many overseas Chinese were among the 9,000 viewers. Many praised the theme as well as the artistic level of The Storm, which records one of the early struggles of the Chinese working class against imperialist-backed reactionaries. Of Lads and Lasses in Our Village, someoné wrote in the visitors’ book that “it is one of the most delightful yet memorable films I have seen. The characters seem like one’s friends and I left the cinema still wanting to continue knowing them.” Others lauded The Tenth Anniversary of New China—a documentary on China’s achievements since liberation. Circus Life too scored a great hit with the audience. Noted American Negro singer Paul Robeson, who attended the inauguration, paid high tribute to the Chinese films which, he said, unlike these of the United States, reflect the feelings of the people. Calligraphy exhibition in Tokyo. Japanese calligraphers and art lovers in general showed great interest in an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy recently held in Tokyo. There was reneral praise for the high artistic level of the 63 masterpieces on display. including those of present-day calligravhers like Kuo Mo-io and Lao Sheh. Osaka. Fukuoka and Sapporo will later play host to the exhibition. Song and dance ensemble in Cairo. The Chinese Szechuan Provincial Song and Dance Ensemble has been attracting huge threngs in Cairo, Ismailia and Alexandria. Enthusiastic audiences applauded and_ cheered every number in its repertoire, and each performance became a_ lively demonstration, of the Arab people's friendship for the Chinese people. Earlier, the ensemble had registered a hit in Beirut, where it gave a special performance en route from Damascus to Cairo. Art exhibition in Ceylon. An exhibition of Chinese arts and crafts has just been concluded in Colombo, Ceylon. The items on display, including pottery, porcelain, lacquer, woven and braided articles, attracted intense interest. Chinese painting in Ecuador. An exhibition of famous Chinese paintings was recently held in Loja; it will also be shown in other parts of Ecuador. Popular Chinese Pavilion In Damascus Over a 25-day period ending on September 10, more than 800,000 people visited the Chinese pavilion in Damascus. They came not only from the Syrian and Egyptian regions of the U.A.R., but from Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Most impressive to the Arab visitors was the exhibition's reflection of China’s high speed. socialist construction. Lavish in their praise for China’s big leap forward and the Chinese people’s peaceful labour, they examined the exhibits at close range and with great interest, some coming to the pavilion as many as seven times. One Arab guest noted in the visitors’ book, “China’s progress in one decade exceeded that which took some European countries several centuries.” Hailing China’s peaceful foreign policy, another wrote: “I highly value the efforts of the People’s Republic of China in safeguarding world peace and aiding those peoples and governments badly in need of help.” The Chinese pavilion was one of the fair’s most popular sites. Thousands flocked to its kiosk during the day to buy souvenirs while every evening Chinese films drew packed hcuses in the open air theatre. BRIEFS Chinese Ambassador Huang Hua recently presented several gifts frcm Chairman Liu Shao-chi to Ghanian President Kwame Nkrumah. A shipment of 5,000 tons of Chinese rice has recently arrived in Conakry. It is part of the 10,000-ton rice gift from the Chinese Government to the Guinean Government. Peking Review === [PDF page 27] === A Chinese moslem pilgrim delegation headed by Iminov has been visiting Yemen. A Chinese journalists’ delegation has concluded a trip to Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil. Friends from the Four Seas Hardly a day passes that does not witness incoming aeroplanes and trains bringing foreign delegates and delegations to our country. Here is an incomplete list of the more recent ones. From Japan: the Japanese Modern Drama Company, Delegation of the Japanese Teachers’ Union, Delegation of Japanese Port and Harbour Workers, Delegation of the Japanese General Federation of Private Railway Workers’ Unions, Delegation of Japanese Democratic Youth, and Deiegation of Japanese National Association of Commercial and Industrial Organizations. From Other Asian Countries: Delegation of Indonesian People’s Cultural League, Delegation of Indonesian Women’s Movement, Delegation of the Federation of Communist and Progressive Youth Leagues of Ceylon. From Africa: Ekwalla Robert, Secretary of the Kamerun General Confederation of Labour and General Secretary of the Commercial Workers’ Trade Union, and Ndooh Isaac, leading member of the Kamerun Building Workers’ Trade Union and Chairman of the Kamerun Committee for the Defence of Unemployed Workers; Delegation of the Federation of Educatienists of Black Africa; and Tunisian Students’ Delegation. From Latin America: A group of lawyers from Brazil, Venezuela and Peru; Cuban journalists Pelegrin Torras of Noticias de Hoy and Luis Pavon ot Verdo Olivo; Delegation of Cuban Hotel Workers’ Union; Brazilian Medical and Architects’ Delegations; Haitian Cultural Delegation; and student delegates from Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Puerto Rico and El Salvador. From Europe: West German peace champions Walter Diehl, member of World Peace Council, and Kurt Bewersdorff, member of the Executive Board of the Action Committee Against Atomic Armament; Danish Cultural Delegation; Austrian Cultural Delegation and Delegation of the British Boiler Makers’ Union. From Australia and Canada: Australian Peace Delegation, Australian trade unionists R.J. Pauline and W.R. Boussen; Delegation of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers’ Union of Canada. CORRECTION. In issue No. 37, September 14, 1960, the date ‘“‘September 7” in the third line, third paragraph from the bottom, right hand column, page 30, should read “September 6. WHAT’S ON IN PEKING — Highlights of Current Entertainment, Exhibitions, etc. — Programmes are subject to change. Where times are not Usted consult theatre or daily press. PEKING OPERA 4 THE WILD BOAR FOREST An episode from Water Margin, Lu Chih-shen, the “tattooed monk” saves Lin Chung from assassination. Produced by the Fourth Troupe of the Peking Opera Company of Peking. Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m. Chang An Theatre AWU TSE TIEN The story of the concubine of a Tang emperor, who later became the first woman ruler of China. Produced by the Fourth Troupe of the Peking Opera Company of Peking. Sept. 22, 7:30 p.m. Chang An Theatre 4 AUTUMN RIVER A scene from the Jade Hairpin in which the nun, in great haste to catch up with her beloved, meets an old ferryman who likes to do things in his own unhurried way. Produced by the Chinese Opera School. Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. Xi Si Workers’ Club PINGJU OPERA 4& MOLTEN STEEL An opera produced by the China Pingju Opera Theatre. The theme revolves around the campaign for technical innovations and technical revolution among the workers of the Shihchingshan Iron and Steel Works. Sept. 20-25, 7:30 p.m. Da Zhong Theatre __KUNQU OPERA & SCHOOL MASTER TUNGKUO An opera based on a Chinese folk tale, produced by the North Kunqu Opera Theatre. Kindhearted old Tungkuo belicves that. even wolves have a better side to their nature, and if kindly treated will be harmless tu man. He saves the life of a hunted wolf. But as seon as the danger is over, the wolf turns on his benefactor. Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. Xi Dan Theatre The visiting Japanese modern drama company led by Tomoyoshi Murayama has arrived in Peking and will give several performances, Sept. 24-28, 7:30 p.m. Shoudu Theatre September 20, 1960 THEATRE 4 DETAINED BY FLOOD Flood has destroyed a section of a railway'’s roadbed and a train is marooned on high ground. The Communist Party group on it organizes its passengers and staff to overcome their difficulties. Produced by the Experimental Theatre of the Central Drama School. Sept. 22-25, 7:30 p.m. Shiyan Theatre 4 A SINGLE SPARK STARTS A PRAIRIE tiRE A piay produced by the Peking People’s Art ‘theatre describing the rise and spread of the peusant uprising in Fukien revvance in 1yZs. Sepi.2zu-2o, 4:40 p.m. Cultural Palace of wanonaities 4& TAMING DRAGONS AND TIGERS A bidy avuut the wp ieap torward in Cuina's countrysiae, lroaguced by the China Youth Art Theatre. It desecrives how villagers brave dangers to get raw materials for wer furnaces in the ivwt drive tur steel. Sept. 20 & 21, 7:30 p.m. China Youth Ari ‘“nheatre 4 A SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS Goldoni's kamiOus Cullieuy Produced i Cluuuese by tue BApCUNeIMaL ANeaire UL ne Celicdl vrauia Scuvwi, Sept. 26-26, 7:30 p.m. Shiyan Theatre FILMS 4& AN EPIC UF HEROES A teiiwure film based on We movuig real ule story of how peopie Ss puucemen und cudres risked their lives lighung a fire at «4 paper mill, and how the nauon rallied to succuur the injured heroes. Produced by the Chuchiang Filin Studio, Sept. 21-26, Xin Jie Kou, Peking Exhibition Centre Cinema, Shoudu Cinema, Da Hua, Jiao Dao Kou, Ertong, Zhongyang, Guang An Men, Peking Workers’ Club 4 ORPHAN OF THE STREETS The life story of San Mao — a street waif of the old society — and his adventures trying to make iu t film produced by che Ne Ae aniviaton Film Studio. Sept. 21-23, Guang An Men, Zhongyang, Peking Workers’ Club Sept. 24-26, Xin Jie Kou, Peking Exhibition Centre Cinema, Shoudu Cinema GRAIN A feature film produced by the Sontag Film Studio. A north China village is determined to protect its bumper wheat crop from the invading Japanese army. With the help of the Communist-led Eighth Route Army, the villagers outwit the Japanese and local traitors and safely deliver their grain to a neighbouring anti-Japanese base. Sept. 24-26, Theatre & THE STORM A feature film portraying the great “February 7” railway workers Shoudu Theatre, Peking strike in 1923. Produced by the Peking Film Studio. Sept. 2426, Shengli, Xi Dan Workers’ Club & THE GIRL FROM KIEV The life, work and love of a Soviet girl. A Soviet colour film dubbed in Chinese. Sept. 21-23, Xin Zhong Guo, Guang He Theatre EXHIBITIONS | a& “"XHIBITION OF THE ART WORKS OF THe TUNHUANG MURALS About 300 colour gouache copies of the Tunhuang Murals from Northern Wei (386-534) to Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). Open daily (except Mon.) from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. At Palace Museum & HUNAN FOLK ARTS EXHIBITION Includes pottery, porcelain, paper-cuts, needleworks, etc. from tIiunan Province. Open daily from 7:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. At Summer Palace & ART EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF THREE DISTINGUISHED FIGURES OF WORLD CULTURE: VELASQUEZ, HOKUSAI AND THE WMTH CENTURY RUSSIAN PAINTER RYUBLYOV’ Reproductions of Paintings, woodcuts and murals. Open daily from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. At Gallery of Artists’ Union 27 === [PDF page 28] === MADE IN CHINA Many Varieties —-Wide Range of Shapes and Sizes Goblets » Tumblers « Bowls « Flasks « Ash-trays Vases e Tea-sets e Wine-sets e¢ Dinner-sets Red « Orange « Green « Blue Sky Blue « Crystal Clear CHINA NATIONAL SUNDRIES EXPORT CORPORATION ( Shanghai Branch ) 128 Hu Chiu Road, Shanghai, China Cable Address: “SUNDRY” Shanghai