The Value Orientation of Constructing the Cultural Form of Chinese-Path Modernization

The cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, as the condensation and sublimation of the practice of Chinese-path modernization in ideas and concepts, is a new culture formed through the Second Integration. [1]1 The Second Integration (第二个结合) refers to the combination of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s excellent traditional culture, as distinct from the first integration of Marxism with the concrete realities of the Chinese revolution and construction. It was formally articulated by Xi Jinping in 2021. To construct the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, it is necessary to grasp the value orientation, clarify the value objective, and answer the fundamental question of whom the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization represents, whom it serves, and on whom it relies.

中国式现代化的文化形态，作为中国式现代化实践在思想观念上的凝练和升华，是经由“第二个结合”而形成的新文化。构建中国式现代化文化形态，必须把准价值导向，明确价值旨归，回答好中国式现代化文化形态代表谁、为了谁、依靠谁的根本问题。

I

一

The cultural form of Chinese-path modernization is a national, scientific, and popular culture developed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, guided by Marxism, and rooted in the great practice of Chinese-path modernization. People-centeredness is the fundamental characteristic of the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, and it originates from three aspects.

中国式现代化文化形态，是在中国共产党领导下，以马克思主义为指导，植根中国式现代化伟大实践而发展起来的，民族的、科学的、大众的文化。人民性是中国式现代化文化形态的根本特性，它源自三个方面。

First, it originates from the essential attribute of people-centeredness in Marxism. Marxism is a theoretical doctrine for the liberation of humanity. For the first time, it explores the path of human freedom and liberation from the standpoint of the people, pointing the way with scientific theory toward the ultimate establishment of an ideal society without oppression, without exploitation, where everyone is equal and everyone is free. People-centeredness is the essential attribute of Marxism and the most fundamental theoretical trait that distinguishes it from other theoretical doctrines. The cultural form of Chinese-path modernization adheres to Marxism as its guiding ideology and theoretical compass, runs through the Marxist worldview and methodology, and therefore inevitably upholds the value orientation of people-centeredness and embodies the theoretical trait of people-centeredness in Marxism.

一是源于马克思主义人民性的本质属性。马克思主义是为人类求解放的理论学说，它第一次站在人民的立场探求人类自由解放的道路，以科学的理论为最终建立一个没有压迫、没有剥削、人人平等、人人自由的理想社会指明了方向。人民性是马克思主义的本质属性，是它区别于别的理论学说最根本的理论特质。中国式现代化文化形态，坚持以马克思主义为指导思想和理论指南，贯穿马克思主义的世界观和方法论，必然坚持人民性的价值导向，体现马克思主义人民性的理论特质。

Second, it originates from the value stance of putting the people first held by the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party of China is the party of the people, a party that serves the people. Serving the people wholeheartedly is the Party’s fundamental purpose, and being people-centered is the Party’s governing philosophy. In the view of Communists, the country is the people, and the people are the country; to secure the country and guard the country is to guard the hearts of the people. When the Communist Party governs and exercises power, it must serve the people, handle affairs for the people, and do the people’s business well. In advancing Chinese-path modernization and achieving cultural prosperity and development, it is naturally necessary to run people-centeredness through the entire process and promote the prosperity and development of a cultural form that adheres to the people’s standpoint and upholds putting the people first.

二是源于中国共产党人民至上的价值立场。中国共产党是人民的党，是为人民服务的党。全心全意为人民服务是党的根本宗旨，以人民为中心是党的执政理念。在共产党人看来，江山就是人民，人民就是江山，打江山、守江山，守的都是人民的心。共产党当家、执政，就是要为人民服务，为老百姓办事，把老百姓的事情办好。推进中国式现代化建设，实现文化的繁荣和发展，自然也要把人民性贯穿其中，推动坚守人民立场、崇尚人民至上的文化形态的繁荣和发展。

Third, it originates from the fundamental orientation of serving the people in advanced socialist culture. Advanced socialist culture, as a culture that is oriented toward modernization, toward the world, and toward the future, is a national, scientific, and popular culture. An important manifestation of its advanced nature lies in the fact that, unlike cultures of other historical forms, it is not a culture serving a minority but a culture originating from the people, serving the people, created by the people, enjoyed by the people, and is the people’s own culture. People-centeredness is an important marker of the advanced nature of advanced socialist culture, and serving the people is its distinct value orientation.

三是源于社会主义先进文化服务人民的根本导向。社会主义先进文化，作为面向现代化、面向世界、面向未来的，民族的科学的大众的文化。其先进性的一个重要体现就在于它不同于历史上其他形态的文化，不是为少数人服务的文化，而是源自人民、服务人民，为人民所创造、为人民所享有，是人民群众自己的文化。人民性是社会主义先进文化先进性的重要表征，服务人民是其鲜明的价值导向。

II

二

To construct the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization and adhere to the orientation of people-centeredness, it is necessary to implement and concretize the requirements of serving the people and acting for the people, which are specifically embodied in multiple aspects such as meeting the people’s spiritual and cultural needs, enriching their spiritual world, strengthening their spiritual power, and realizing the realm of comprehensive development.

构建中国式现代化文化形态，坚持人民性导向，需要把服务人民、为了人民的要求落细、落实，具体体现在人民精神文化需求的满足、精神世界的丰富、精神力量的增强、全面发展境界的实现等多个方面。

First, meet the people’s spiritual and cultural needs. Chinese-path modernization is a modernization in which material civilization and cultural-ethical progress are coordinated. Material abundance and spiritual enrichment are the fundamental requirements of socialist modernization. In advancing Chinese-path modernization, it is necessary not only to develop the economy, increase social material wealth, and meet the people’s growing material needs, but also to do a good job in cultural development, increase society’s spiritual and cultural wealth, and meet the people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs. This requires consistently adhering to a people-centered approach in cultural development, focusing on meeting the people’s diverse, multi-level, and multifaceted spiritual and cultural needs, and enhancing the people’s sense of cultural gain and happiness.

一要满足人民的精神文化需求。中国式现代化是物质文明和精神文明相协调的现代化。物质富足、精神富有是社会主义现代化的根本要求。推进中国式现代化建设，不仅要发展经济，增加社会物质财富，满足人民日益增长的物质需要，也要抓好文化建设，增加社会的精神文化财富，满足人民日益增长的精神文化需求。这就需要在文化建设中始终坚持以人民为中心，着眼满足人民群众多样化、多层次、多方面的精神文化需求，增强人民群众文化获得感、幸福感。

Second, enrich the people’s spiritual world. Enriching the people’s spiritual world is one of the essential requirements of Chinese-path modernization, a higher pursuit of the people beyond material abundance, and concerns individual happiness, social cohesion, and national rejuvenation. Comparatively speaking, meeting the people’s spiritual and cultural needs focuses more on emphasizing the great significance of cultural development from the individual level, while enriching the people’s spiritual world places greater emphasis on highlighting the social and collective function of cultural development. By strengthening cultural development, through developing cultural undertakings and cultural industries, the people can enjoy richer, more convenient, and higher-quality cultural supply, have access to higher-level and higher-standard cultural services, making the people’s spiritual world more abundant and their spiritual life more colorful.

二要丰富人民的精神世界。丰富人民精神世界是中国式现代化的本质要求之一，是人民在物质富足之上的更高追求，关乎个体幸福、社会凝聚力与民族复兴。相较而言，满足人民的精神文化需求，更多侧重于从个体层面强调文化建设的重大意义，而丰富人民的精神世界，则更突出和强调文化建设的社会群体功能。加强文化建设，通过发展文化事业和文化产业，让人民群众享有更丰富、更便捷、更优质的文化供给，拥有更高层次、更高水准的文化服务，使人民的精神世界更加充盈，精神生活更加丰富多彩。

Third, strengthen the people’s spiritual power. When the people have faith, the nation has hope, and the country has strength. When culture thrives, the country thrives; when culture is strong, the nation is strong. The reason for saying this is that culture has the function of cultivating the mind and nurturing sentiment, and cultural development is crucial for cultivating the whole nation’s vigorous and uplifting spiritual temperament and strengthening the people’s spiritual power. To advance cultural development, it is necessary to cast the soul with advanced thought, shape the form with core values, nourish with excellent culture, empower with cultural supply, and gather strength with practical guidance, so that the people possess firm ideals, convictions, and cultural confidence, cultivate an uplifting spiritual state and immense spiritual power, provide a solid ideological guarantee and rich moral nourishment for building a strong country, and thereby aggregate the spiritual power to realize the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.

三要壮大人民的精神力量。人民有信仰，民族有希望，国家有力量。文化兴则国家兴，文化强则民族强。之所以这样讲，在于文化具有养心志、育情操的作用，文化建设对于涵养全民族昂扬奋发的精神气质、壮大人民的精神力量，至关重要。推进文化建设，要以先进思想铸魂、以核心价值塑形、以优秀文化滋养、以文化供给赋能、以实践引领聚力，让人民拥有坚定的理想信念和文化自信，涵育昂扬的精神状态和磅礴的精神力量，为强国建设提供坚强的思想保证和丰厚的道德滋养，从而聚合起实现强国建设、民族复兴伟业的精神力量。

Fourth, promote the comprehensive development of people. The reason for vigorously developing advanced socialist culture, strengthening education in ideals and convictions, and inheriting Chinese civilization while continuously enriching the material foundation of modernization and consolidating the material conditions for the people’s happy life in advancing Chinese-path modernization is to realize the free and comprehensive development of people while promoting the comprehensive enrichment of things. The essence of modernization is the modernization of people. Chinese-path modernization is, in the final analysis, the modernization of people. It is necessary to combine investment in things with investment in people, promote the comprehensive development of people in ideological and moral qualities, scientific and cultural qualities, and physical and mental qualities, drive the all-round improvement of people’s thought, qualities, abilities, and character, and ultimately realize the free and comprehensive development of people.

四要促进人的全面发展。推进中国式现代化建设，之所以要在不断厚植现代化的物质基础，不断夯实人民幸福生活的物质条件的同时，大力发展社会主义先进文化、加强理想信念教育、传承中华文明，就是要在促进物的全面丰富的同时，实现人自由而全面的发展。现代化的本质是人的现代化。中国式现代化归根结底是人的现代化，必须坚持投资于物与投资于人相结合，促进人在思想道德、科学文化、身心素养等方面的全面发展，推动人的思想、素养、能力、品格全方位提升，最终实现人自由而全面的发展。

III

三

To construct the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, it is necessary to adhere to relying on the people and mobilizing the people in cultural development, fundamentally acting for the people and caring for humanity, and clearly embodying and upholding the orientation of people-centeredness.

构建中国式现代化文化形态，要坚持文化建设紧紧依靠人民、发动人民，从根本上为了人民、关怀人类，旗帜鲜明地体现并坚守人民性导向。

First, rely on the people to stimulate cultural innovation and creativity. The people are the creators of history and also the masters of history. The masses of the people contain the source of wisdom and inexhaustible driving force for creating history and innovating culture. To construct the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, on the one hand, it is necessary to adhere to the fundamental principle of relying on the people and acting for the people in cultural prosperity and development. Not only should the people’s life and practice be regarded as the inexhaustible source of wisdom for cultural development, but the rich fruits of cultural development should also be fed back to the people, nourishing the people’s cultural life, conforming to the people’s wishes, and reflecting the people’s concerns. Closely unite and rely on the masses of the people, deeply tap the rich wisdom contained in the masses of the people, and fully mobilize the people’s cultural innovation vitality. On the other hand, it is also necessary to stay close to the reality of the people’s cultural life, promote the digital empowerment and information transformation of cultural development, and transform the advantages of the Chinese nation’s cultural resources into advantages for cultural development. Deepen the reform of the cultural system and mechanism, improve the management system and production and operation mechanisms, adhere to the people-centered creative orientation, enrich cultural supply, optimize cultural services, activate the people’s cultural creative potential, and make cultural development full of vitality.

一要依靠人民激发文化创新创造活力。人民是历史的创造者，也是历史的主人，人民群众中蕴含着创造历史、创新文化的智慧源泉和不竭动力。构建中国式现代化文化形态，一方面，要坚持文化繁荣发展依靠人民、为了人民的根本原则，不仅将人民的生活与实践作为文化发展取之不尽、用之不竭的智慧源泉，而且把文化发展的丰富成果反馈于人民，反哺人民的文化生活，顺应人民意愿、反映人民关切。紧紧团结和依靠人民群众，深入挖掘人民群众中蕴含的丰富智慧，充分调动人民群众的文化创新活力。另一方面，也要贴近人民文化生活实际，推进文化建设数字化赋能、信息化转型，把中华民族的文化资源优势转化为文化发展优势。深化文化体制机制改革，完善管理体制和生产经营机制，坚持以人民为中心的创作导向，丰富文化供给，优化文化服务，激活人民群众的文化创造潜能，让文化发展充满生机活力。

Second, we must insist that cultural construction focus on people and be grounded in people. Culture is always the culture of people as subjects, and cultural construction must always keep people in view, both focusing on people and being grounded in people. So-called focusing on people emphasizes that the prosperity and development of culture must first solve the problem of “for whom.” Cultural construction undoubtedly must take the elevation of the people’s ideological realm, mental state, and cultural cultivation as its fundamental focus, striving to meet the people’s spiritual and cultural needs, enrich the people’s spiritual world, and strengthen the people’s spiritual strength. So-called being grounded in people emphasizes that judging the quality and level of cultural construction must embody the people’s yardstick, taking whether cultural construction has enhanced the people’s sense of cultural gain and happiness, and whether it has promoted the comprehensive development of people themselves, as important criteria for evaluation. The focus and the grounding point, in a certain sense, are also the starting point and the end point of cultural construction. Emphasizing that cultural construction focuses on people and is grounded in people is to emphasize that the people-oriented orientation must be carried through the entire process of cultural construction, manifested in all aspects of cultural prosperity and development, and that the people’s happiness in life and the people’s spiritual abundance must always be placed in the most important position.

二要坚持文化建设着眼于人、落脚于人。文化在任何时候都是作为主体的人的文化，文化建设在任何时候都必须做到目中有人，既着眼于人，又落脚于人。所谓着眼于人，是强调文化的繁荣与发展首先要解决好“为了谁”的问题。文化建设无疑要把人民的思想境界、精神状态、文化修养的提升作为根本着眼点，着力于满足人民的精神文化需求，丰富人民的精神世界，壮大人民的精神力量。所谓落脚于人，是强调评判文化建设质量的优劣、水平的高低要体现人民的尺度，要把文化建设是否增强了人民群众的文化获得感和幸福感，是否促进了人自身的全面发展，作为重要的评判标尺。着眼点、落脚点在一定意义上，也是文化建设的起始点和归宿点，强调文化建设着眼于人、落脚于人，是强调要把人民性导向贯穿文化建设的始终，体现在文化繁荣和发展的各个方面，要始终把人民的生活幸福、人民的精神丰盈摆在最重要的位置。

Third, we must embrace the world and strive to construct a new form of human civilization. Chinese-path modernization not only shares common features with the modernization of other countries but also has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions, opening up a unique path for humanity to achieve modernization and creating a new form of human civilization that transcends the Western modernization civilization model. To construct the cultural form of Chinese-path modernization, we must also examine cultural construction from the strategic height of the development of human civilization, both adhering to cultural subjectivity, taking root in the fertile cultural soil of Chinese civilization, promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture, bringing forth the new on the basis of carrying forward the Chinese cultural lineage, and prospering and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for the New Era; and integrating the essence of human civilization, actively absorbing and drawing on all outstanding achievements of human civilization, forging a new path of civilization characterized by peaceful development, inclusiveness and mutual learning, common prosperity, symbiosis of civilizations, and care for humanity, constructing a new form of human civilization, and making new contributions to enriching the garden of human civilization.

三要胸怀天下着力构建人类文明新形态。中国式现代化，既有各国现代化的共同特征，更有基于自己国情的中国特色，开辟了人类实现现代化的独特道路，创造了超越西方现代化文明模式的人类文明新形态。构建中国式现代化文化形态，还要站在人类文明发展的战略高度审视文化建设，既坚守文化主体性，扎根中华文明的文化沃土，推动中华优秀传统文化的创造性转化、创新性发展，在赓续中华文脉的基础上推陈出新，繁荣发展新时代中国特色社会主义文化；又融通人类文明精华，积极吸收借鉴人类一切优秀文明成果，走出一条和平发展、包容互鉴、共同富裕、文明共生、关怀人类的文明新路，构建人类文明新形态，为丰富人类文明的百花园作出新的贡献。

(Author: Bai Xianliang, Researcher at the Chongqing Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Vice President of Southwest University)

（作者：白显良，系重庆市中国特色社会主义理论体系研究中心研究员、西南大学副校长）