Let All Sources of Cultural Innovation and Creativity Flow Freely

Cultural prosperity is an important hallmark of Chinese-path modernization. Stimulating the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation and allowing all sources of cultural innovation and creativity to flow freely are inherent requirements for building a socialist cultural power and developing socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for the New Era. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC was held in July 2025, focusing on comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization. set the development goal of “a marked improvement in the level of social civility” for the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan [2]2 The 15th Five-Year Plan refers to China’s national economic and social development plan for the period 2026–2030. and explicitly called for “stimulating the cultural innovation and creativity of the entire nation to flourish and develop socialist culture.” Standing at a new historical starting point, we must focus on deepening the reform of cultural systems and mechanisms, enhancing the capacity for original cultural creation, fostering a sound cultural ecosystem, and strengthening the empowerment of digital and intelligent technologies. This will effectively mobilize the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of all parties involved in cultural construction, providing an inexhaustible driving force for solidly advancing the building of a culturally strong country.

文化繁荣兴盛是中国式现代化的重要标志。激发全民族文化创新创造活力，让一切文化创新创造源泉充分涌流，是建设社会主义文化强国、发展新时代中国特色社会主义文化的应有之义。党的二十届四中全会提出“十五五”时期“社会文明程度明显提升”的发展目标，明确“激发全民族文化创新创造活力，繁荣发展社会主义文化”的要求。站在新的历史起点上，必须聚焦深化文化体制机制改革、提升文化原创能力、营造良好文化生态、加强数智技术赋能等方面，有效调动各方面参与文化建设的积极性、主动性、创造性，为扎实推进文化强国建设提供不竭动力。

Deepening the Reform of Cultural Systems and Mechanisms

深化文化体制机制改革

Cultural systems and mechanisms involve the organizational structure of cultural construction and the basic processes of cultural production. Deepening the reform of cultural systems and mechanisms, with stimulating cultural innovation and creativity as the central link, aims to clarify the relationships among the various subjects of cultural construction, define the principles and requirements for each link of cultural production, and provide institutional guarantees for cultural innovation and creativity.

文化体制机制涉及文化建设组织结构和文化生产基本流程。深化文化体制机制改革，把激发文化创新创造活力作为中心环节，旨在厘清文化建设各主体之间关系，明确文化生产各环节的原则要求，为文化创新创造提供制度保障。

Focus on improving the cultural management system. Deepening the reform of cultural systems and mechanisms must adhere to the fundamental direction of serving the people and serving socialism, promoting the flourishing development of both cultural undertakings and the cultural industry. It must uphold the Party’s leadership over culture to ensure the correct direction of cultural innovation and creativity. We must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping’s cultural thought, and effectively integrate learning, thinking, and practice with knowledge, belief, and action. We should formulate relevant policies and regulations to promote cultural innovation and creativity, advance the coordinated improvement of the cultural management system and the transformation of government functions, establish and improve cross-departmental coordination mechanisms, and facilitate the deep integration of culture with the economy, science and technology, education, and other fields. We must improve the cultural market supervision system, strengthen both ongoing and ex-post supervision, enhance the transparency and credibility of supervision, and create a clean and upright market environment for cultural innovation and creativity. We should scientifically formulate specific methods for assessing the social benefits of cultural enterprises and institutions, making concrete institutional arrangements for prioritizing social benefits while achieving the unity of social and economic benefits.

着力完善文化管理体制。深化文化体制机制改革，必须坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务的根本方向，推动文化事业和文化产业繁荣发展。必须坚持党的文化领导权，保证文化创新创造的正确方向。坚持以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为指导，深入学习贯彻习近平文化思想，切实做到学思用贯通、知信行统一。制定促进文化创新创造相关政策法规，推进文化管理体制完善与政府职能变革协同配套，建立健全跨部门协调机制，助推文化与经济、科技、教育等深度融合。完善文化市场监管体系，加强事中事后监管，提升监管透明度和公信力，为文化创新创造营造风清气正的市场环境。科学制定考核文化企事业单位社会效益的专门办法，对把社会效益放在首位、实现社会效益和经济效益相统一作出具体的制度安排。

Focus on improving cultural production and operation mechanisms. We should improve the cultural industry system, promote the transformation and upgrading of state-owned cultural enterprises; encourage, support, and guide the development of non-public cultural enterprises, and protect the property rights and entrepreneurial rights and interests of private cultural enterprises in accordance with the law. We must optimize the allocation of cultural industry resources, improve the basic systems of the cultural market system, strengthen the construction of the cultural market credit system, enhance the quality of cultural market services, and increase the vitality of the cultural market. We should improve cultural economic policies, strengthen innovation-driven development, and promote the sustained and healthy development of the cultural industry. We must build a high-standard cultural market system, accelerate the construction of a unified, open, efficient, orderly, and competitive cultural market, and promote the flow of cultural resources nationwide. We should strengthen the construction of cultural product and factor markets, leverage the advantages of China’s super-large market and its domestic demand potential, and orderly develop factor markets for cultural property rights, copyrights, and talent.

着力完善文化生产经营机制。健全文化产业体系，推动国有文化企业转型升级；鼓励、支持、引导非公有制文化企业发展，依法保护民营文化企业产权和企业家权益。优化文化产业资源配置，健全文化市场体系基础制度，加强文化市场信用体系建设，提升文化市场服务质量，增强文化市场活力。完善文化经济政策，强化创新驱动，促进文化产业持续健康发展。建设高标准文化市场体系，加快构建统一开放、高效规范、竞争有序的文化市场，促进文化资源在全国范围内流动。加强文化产品和要素市场建设，发挥我国超大规模市场优势和内需潜力，有序发展文化产权、版权、人才等要素市场。

Enhancing the Capacity for Original Cultural Creation

提升文化原创能力

The capacity for original cultural creation is a core element in measuring a nation’s ability and level of cultural innovation and creativity. The 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization has nurtured fine traditional Chinese culture. Contemporary China is undergoing the most extensive and profound social transformation in its history and is advancing Chinese-path modernization—a grand and unique practical innovation in human history. These provide valuable historical resources and open up vast practical space for breaking through fixed patterns of thought, expanding cultural experiences, and endowing cultural products with unique aesthetic qualities.

文化原创能力是衡量一个民族文化创新创造能力和水平的核心要素。中华民族五千多年文明历史孕育了中华优秀传统文化，当代中国正经历着我国历史上最为广泛而深刻的社会变革，正在推进中国式现代化这一人类历史上宏大而独特的实践创新，这些为突破思维定式、拓展文化体验、赋予文化产品独特审美，提供了宝贵历史资源、开辟了广阔现实空间。

Excavate and inherit fine traditional Chinese culture. Fine traditional Chinese culture, with its long history and profound depth, is the crystallization of the wisdom and essence of Chinese civilization. Guided by Marxism, we must comprehensively excavate the treasure trove of China’s 5,000-year civilization, integrate the essence of Marxist thought with the cream of fine traditional Chinese culture, and connect it with the common values that the people use daily without conscious awareness. This will enable the most basic cultural genes of the Chinese nation to adapt to contemporary China, coordinate with modern society, and integrate with actual culture. We should focus on the modern interpretation and elucidation of traditional culture, explore new forms of cultural expression and channels of dissemination, and create original cultural products that both manifest Chinese spirit and conform to contemporary aesthetics. Based on taking root in the native soil and deeply embedding in the era, we must work hard to expand themes, content, forms, and techniques, promote the combination of concepts and methods, the fusion of content and form, and the interplay of various artistic and technical elements, making original works more splendid, captivating, and engaging.

挖掘传承中华优秀传统文化。中华优秀传统文化源远流长、博大精深，是中华文明的智慧结晶和精华所在。要以马克思主义为指导对中华五千多年文明宝库进行全面挖掘，把马克思主义思想精髓同中华优秀传统文化精华贯通起来、同人民群众日用而不觉的共同价值观念融通起来，使中华民族最基本的文化基因同当代中国相适应、同现代社会相协调、同现实文化相融通。注重对传统文化的现代解读与阐释，探索新的文化表达形式与传播途径，创造出既彰显中华气韵又符合当代审美的原创性文化产品。以扎根本土、深植时代为基础，在拓展题材、内容、形式、手法上下功夫，推动观念和手段相结合、内容和形式相融合、各种艺术要素和技术要素相辉映，让原创作品更加精彩纷呈、引人入胜。

Improve the working mechanisms for serving, guiding, and organizing the production of literary and artistic creations. Through policy support, financial assistance, and other means, guide literary and artistic workers to focus on social reality and reflect the spirit of the times, producing original masterpieces with both artistic value and social impact. Improve cross-sectoral and cross-industry cultural promotion and collaboration mechanisms, perfect integrated media communication channels, promote the exchange and collision of different artistic styles and creative concepts, and stimulate more original inspiration and sparks. Increase support for exemplary and leading original fine works, strengthen the construction of online cultural creation and production platforms, and promote the multi-level development of original online works. Raise the level of industrialization, formulate and implement key thematic planning for the creation of films, TV dramas, and documentaries, and establish a rolling, sustainable mechanism for creation and production. Leverage the role of intellectual property intermediary organizations and industry protection associations to advance the copyright protection of original cultural works.

改进文艺创作生产服务、引导、组织工作机制。通过政策支持、资金扶持等方式，引导文艺工作者聚焦社会现实、反映时代精神，推出兼具艺术价值与社会影响力的原创佳作。健全跨领域、跨行业文化推广协作机制，完善融媒体传播渠道，促进不同艺术风格和创作理念的交流碰撞，激发更多原创灵感与火花。加大对具有示范性、引领性作用原创精品的扶持力度，加强网络文化创作生产平台建设，推动网络原创作品的多层次开发。提高工业化水平，制定实施电影、电视剧、纪录片创作重点选题规划，建立滚动式、可持续的创作生产机制。发挥知识产权中介组织和行业保护协会等作用，推进原创文化作品的版权保护。

Fostering a Sound Cultural Ecosystem

营造良好文化生态

To promote the continuous burst of vitality in cultural innovation and creativity and vigorously flourish cultural undertakings, it is essential to protect and mobilize the enthusiasm of cultural workers, form a social trend that encourages bold innovation, daring innovation, and inclusive innovation, and foster a sound cultural ecosystem that supports cultural innovation and creativity.

推动文化创新创造活力持续迸发，大力繁荣文化事业，必须保护好、调动好文化工作者积极性，形成鼓励大胆创新、勇于创新、包容创新的风尚，营造支持文化创新创造的良好文化生态。

Uphold fundamental principles and break new ground; cultivate an innovation culture. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: “Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground are dialectically unified. Only by upholding fundamental principles can we ensure that innovation always advances in the right direction; only by continuous innovation can we better uphold fundamental principles.” [3]3 This is a quotation from Xi Jinping’s speech at a symposium on cultural heritage and cultural work. To advance cultural innovation under the premise of upholding fundamental principles and to uphold fundamental principles under the traction of cultural innovation, we must firmly establish a Marxist view of literature and art, consciously use Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to guide creation, and work hard to enhance the ideological depth, artistic quality, and spiritual connotation of works. Adhere to the Two Integrations [4]4 The Two Integrations refers to the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities and with the best of fine traditional Chinese culture., be adept at extracting essence and absorbing energy from the treasure house of Chinese culture, be adept at refining themes and drawing inspiration from the practice of the New Era, focus on the themes of the times, use artistic works to display the features of the era, and reflect the magnificent practice. Actively and proactively learn from and draw upon all outstanding achievements of human civilization to broaden the pattern of innovation culture in the New Era. Effectively enhance the sense of responsibility and mission, accelerate the transformation of mindsets, ways of thinking, modes of behavior, and working methods that do not meet the requirements of innovation-driven development, tap into innovation potential, maintain innovation focus, and foster a sound ecosystem that produces fine works, cultivates talent, and generates benefits.

坚持守正创新，培育创新文化。习近平总书记强调：“守正和创新是辩证统一的，只有守正才能保证创新始终沿着正确方向前进，只有持续创新才能更好地守正。”在守正前提下推进文化创新、在文化创新牵引下坚持守正，必须牢固树立马克思主义文艺观，自觉运用马克思主义立场、观点、方法指导创作，在提升作品思想深度、艺术质量、精神内涵上下功夫。坚持“两个结合”，善于从中华文化宝库中萃取精华、汲取能量，善于从新时代实践中提炼选题、汲取灵感，聚焦时代主题，用艺术作品展现时代风貌，反映壮阔实践。积极主动学习借鉴人类一切优秀文明成果，开阔新时代创新文化的格局。切实提高责任感使命感，加快转变不适应创新发展要求的思想观念、思维方式、行为方式和工作方法，挖掘创新潜能、保持创新定力，营造出精品、出人才、出效益的良好生态。

Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. Implement the Party’s line, principles, and policies on literature and art, adhere to the policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, and continuously develop socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for the New Era that possesses strong ideological leadership, spiritual cohesion, value appeal, and international influence. Promote academic democracy, encourage equal, healthy, lively, and fully reasoned academic contention, form a fine academic atmosphere that advocates excellence, rigorous scholarship, emphasis on integrity, and a sense of responsibility, and create a clean, mutually learning, and positive academic ecosystem. Promote literary and artistic democracy, and encourage cultural innovation and creativity in concepts, content, styles, and schools. Attach importance to and strengthen the work of literary and art criticism, give play to the role of literary and art criticism in praising the good and criticizing the bad, and in purifying the turbid and promoting the clear, and create an atmosphere of literary and art criticism that dares to seek truth from facts, dares to express opinions, and dares to take a clear stand. Guide literary and artistic workers to take root among the people and in life, consciously breathe the same breath, share the same fate, and be heart-to-heart with the people, comprehend the essence of life and grasp the depth of life among the people, and draw nourishment from the people’s great practice and rich and colorful life.

坚持百花齐放、百家争鸣。贯彻落实党的文艺路线方针政策，坚持百花齐放、百家争鸣的方针，不断发展具有强大思想引领力、精神凝聚力、价值感召力、国际影响力的新时代中国特色社会主义文化。发扬学术民主，鼓励开展平等、健康、活泼和充分说理的学术争鸣，形成崇尚精品、严谨治学、注重诚信、讲求责任的优良学风，营造风清气正、互学互鉴、积极向上的学术生态。发扬文艺民主，促进观念、内容、风格、流派等方面的文化创新创造。重视和加强文艺评论工作，发挥文艺批评褒优贬劣、激浊扬清的作用，营造敢于实事求是、敢于表明态度、敢于表明立场的文艺批评氛围。引导文艺工作者扎根人民、扎根生活，自觉与人民同呼吸、共命运、心连心，在人民中体悟生活本质、吃透生活底蕴，从人民的伟大实践和丰富多彩的生活中汲取营养。

Strengthening the Empowerment of Digital and Intelligent Technologies

加强数智技术赋能

To stimulate the vitality of cultural innovation and creation, it is essential to fully leverage the advantages of information technology, promote the digital-intelligent empowerment and information-based transformation of cultural development, and transform cultural resource advantages into cultural development advantages.

激发文化创新创造活力，必须充分发挥信息技术优势，推动文化建设数智化赋能、信息化转型，把文化资源优势转化为文化发展优势。

Explore effective mechanisms for the integration of culture and technology. At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is unfolding, and new information technologies are developing rapidly, profoundly changing the modes of cultural creation, production, dissemination, and consumption. It is necessary to advance the integration of culture and technology, scientifically formulate development plans, improve the policy support system, and build cross-departmental coordination mechanisms. Explore the construction of a national cultural resource database and a cultural creative material database, strengthen infrastructure construction such as computing power and corpora, enhance data processing capabilities, and provide technical support for the integration of culture and technology. Create platforms for the integration of culture and technology that combine online and offline elements, and cultivate more high-quality cultural industry parks and demonstration bases for the integration of culture and technology. Encourage cultural enterprises to increase investment in research and development, deeply understand the needs of the cultural industry, enhance independent innovation capabilities, and develop cultural and technological products that better meet market demands. Improve governance capabilities in the cultural field under the conditions of informatization, strengthen the construction and management of online content, and vigorously promote and practice the core socialist values.

探索文化和科技融合的有效机制。当前，新一轮科技革命和产业变革方兴未艾，新的信息技术迅猛发展，深刻改变文化创作生产和传播消费方式。必须推进文化和科技融合，科学编制发展规划，健全政策支持体系，构建跨部门协调机制。探索构建全国文化资源数据库和文化创意素材数据库，加强算力、语料库等基础设施建设，提升数据处理能力，为文化和科技融合提供技术支撑。打造线上线下相结合的文化和科技融合平台，培育更多优质文化产业园、文化和科技融合示范基地。鼓励文化企业加大研发投入力度，深入了解文化产业需求，提升自主创新能力，开发更加符合市场需求的文化科技产品。提升信息化条件下文化领域治理能力，加强网络内容建设和管理，大力弘扬和践行社会主义核心价值观。

Accelerate the development of new types of cultural business forms. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must follow the development trends of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, accelerate the development of new types of cultural business forms, transform and upgrade traditional cultural business forms, and improve quality, efficiency, and core competitiveness.” [5]5 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Symposium on the Construction of a Cultural Power,” October 15, 2020. It is necessary to accelerate the development of new cultural business forms such as digital publishing, digital broadcasting, digital art, digital printing, digital creativity, digital animation, digital entertainment, and high-definition video, transform and upgrade traditional cultural business forms, and promote structural adjustment and optimization and upgrading. Use technologies such as artificial intelligence and holographic projection to build interactive spaces, create intelligent scenes and immersive spaces, enrich and expand the presentation forms, display scenarios, and dissemination scope of cultural relics and cultural heritage, and explore the humanistic spirit, value concepts, and moral norms contained within them. Promote the deep integration of culture with fields such as tourism, education, and healthcare, form more new growth points for the cultural industry, and build a high-level, full-chain, multi-functional modern cultural industry system.

加快发展新型文化业态。习近平总书记指出：“要顺应数字产业化和产业数字化发展趋势，加快发展新型文化业态，改造提升传统文化业态，提高质量效益和核心竞争力。”要加快发展数字出版、数字演播、数字艺术、数字印刷、数字创意、数字动漫、数字娱乐、高新视频等新型文化业态，改造提升传统文化业态，促进结构调整和优化升级。借助人工智能、全息投影等技术构建互动空间，打造智能化场景和沉浸式空间，丰富和拓展文物和文化遗产的呈现形式、展示场景、传播范围，发掘蕴藏其中的人文精神、价值理念、道德规范。推动文化与旅游、教育、医疗等领域深度融合，形成更多新的文化产业增长点，构建高水平、全链条、多功能的现代文化产业体系。

(The author is a specially-appointed researcher of the Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Vice Dean of the Institute for Party History and Party Building at Tsinghua University)

（作者系北京市习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员、清华大学中共党史党建研究院副院长）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧