“Anything at Variance With it Must be Revised Accordingly”: Rewriting Modern Chinese Literature During the 1950s

Abstract

In a famous address at the Yan’an Conference on Literature and Art in May 1942, Mao Zedong told China’s writers and artists that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expected no less from them than unconditional loyalty. Even at that early stage, the ground rules for the censorship to come were explicitly in place. The official main purpose of literature and art was to serve the so-called masses. During his Yan’an address, Mao said: “It would be a mistake to depart from this goal and anything at variance with it must be revised accordingly”. Within a few years, these words were applied in their most literal sense, and books were rewritten to conform to the directives of the CCP. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949 marked the beginning of a period that turned out to be more difficult than the Party’s intellectuals had anticipated. Some constituencies in China, including the CCP’s own erstwhile supporters, had underestimated the implications of a totalitarian state being consolidated in the country. During the Maoist era, many books were banned, and rigid controls were imposed on authors whose works were approved for publication. The ordeals of intellectuals who fell foul of political