Chinese Literature

Introducing

“PEOPLE'S LITERATURE”

People’s Literature, the monthly organ of the Chinese Writers’ Union, was - ! 5g five years old last October.

When the All-China Association of Literary Workers, the predecessor of what is now the Chinese Writers’ Union, was founded in 1949, it decided to publish this magazine to provide writers with a forum and an outlet for their creative activities. People’s Interature reached the hands of its readers for the first time on October 25, 1949, barely a month after the People’s Republic of China had been proclaimed.

The policy and tasks of the magazine are based on the programme of the Chinese Writers’ Union. They are in keeping with the militant traditions of the revolutionary realist literature born after the May Fourth Movement in 1919, and with the literary guidance given in 1942 by Mao Tse-tung in his Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art.

In its very first issue People’s Literature carried the facsimile of a message in Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s own handwriting: “For more and better literary works in future!” This not only showed how much concern the leader of our people shows for literature, but also indicated the aim of the magazine—to fight for the development and enrichment of literary creation.

People’s Literature has won the support of writers throughout the country and has published many of their best works. Many of China’s

best-known writers and poets have at one time or another served with

distinction on its editorial board. The present editor and assistant editor are the critic Shao Chuan-lin, and the short-story writer Yen Wen-ching.

The magazine is not merely enthusiastically read by a host of readers: they also show their abiding interest and support by frequent comments and criticisms on contents and presentation.

Because People’s Literature enjoys the full support of writers and their organization, and broad masses of readers; because it has, in its five years’ existence, carried out its tasks with success, it has been able to play a lively part in promoting a people’s literature, and become an indispensable stimulus to our literary endeavours.

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