A Three-Dimensional Perspective on the Flourishing Development of New Mass Literature and Art

In the long river of the evolution of human civilization, literature and art have always been important vehicles reflecting the spirit of the times and shaping cultural identity. Entering the digital age, a form of literature and art named “new mass literature and art” is reshaping our cultural landscape with unprecedented scale and vitality. Compared with the “literature of the common people” of the May Fourth period and the “people’s literature and art” of the Yan’an period, new mass literature and art under internet conditions both continues the spiritual lineage of the popularization of literature and art and forms a unique developmental logic in dimensions such as political guidance, technological empowerment, and emotional resonance.

在人类文明演进的历史长河中，文艺始终是映照时代精神、塑造文化认同的重要载体。进入数字时代，一种被命名为“新大众文艺”的文艺形态正以前所未有的规模与活力重塑着我们的文化景观。与五四时期的“平民文学”、延安时期的“人民文艺”相比，互联网条件下的新大众文艺既延续了文艺大众化的精神脉络，又在政治引领、技术赋能、情感共鸣等维度形成了独特的发展逻辑。

Political Guidance: The Continuous Stimulation of the People’s Creativity

政治引领：人民创造力的持续激发

From the Marxist view of literature and art to the people-centered creative orientation in the New Era, the institutional mechanisms of Chinese literature and art have always explored how to stimulate the people’s literary and artistic creativity and incorporate it into the framework of national cultural governance.

从马克思主义文艺观到新时代以人民为中心的创作导向，中国文艺的制度机制始终在探索如何激发大众的文艺创造力，并将其纳入国家文化治理的框架之中。

Viewed from the historical trajectory, since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, along with the development of modern printing and publishing technologies, the wave of popularization of literature and art has allowed more and more ordinary people to enter the world of “text.” In the debates over “revolutionary literature” in the 1920s and 1930s, left-wing intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai put forward the idea of “proletarian literature” serving the workers, peasants, and soldiers. [1]1 Qu Qiubai (1899–1935) was a leading figure of the early Chinese Communist Party and a prominent left-wing intellectual and writer. “Proletarian literature” (普罗文学) was a transliteration of the Russian term for proletarian literature, promoted during the revolutionary literature movement of the late 1920s and 1930s. In 1942, Comrade Mao Zedong systematically elucidated the orientation of “literature and art serving the workers, peasants, and soldiers” at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, promoting literary and artistic creation “bearing the fragrance of the soil” with a stronger breath of the “producer.” [2]2 The Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art (May 1942) was a conference convened by Mao Zedong in the CCP’s wartime base in Yan’an. Mao’s talks there established the principle that literature and art must serve the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and be subordinate to the Party’s revolutionary tasks. Thereafter, a large number of folk arts and popular arts closely related to the people’s production and life, including clapper talk, chorus, yangge opera, and printmaking, surged in and shaped the rich expressions of “people’s literature and art.” These forms of literature and art not only met the people’s aesthetic needs and reshaped their emotional world but also awakened a cultural impetus of self-strengthening, vigor, and enterprise, greatly enhancing the people’s general identification with the Party and the state, and promoting the flourishing development of socialist literature and art.

从历史脉络看，五四新文化运动以来，伴随现代印刷、出版技术的发展，文艺大众化的浪潮让越来越多普通民众进入“文字”世界。在20世纪二三十年代的“革命文学”论争中，瞿秋白等左翼知识分子提出了文艺应为工农大众服务的“普罗文学”。1942年，毛泽东同志在延安文艺座谈会上系统阐明了“文艺为工农兵服务”的方向，以更为浓烈的“生产者”气息推动“带着泥土芬芳”的文艺创作。此后，大量与民众生产生活高度相关的民间艺术、通俗艺术，包括快板、大合唱、秧歌剧、版画等，涌入并型塑了“人民文艺”的丰富表达。这些文艺形态不仅契合民众审美需求、重塑其情感世界，而且唤醒了自强刚健、奋发有为的文化动力，极大增强了民众对党和国家的普遍认同，推动了社会主义文艺繁荣发展。

Since reform and opening up, centering on the overall plan of taking economic construction as the central task, the reform of the systems and mechanisms in the cultural field has advanced steadily, providing a solid institutional guarantee for the liberation and development of the productive forces of literature and art. Along with the continuous release of the productive forces of literature and art, various factors of literary and artistic production have been effectively integrated, a standardized and scaled system for the dissemination of literature and art has been constructed, and it has gradually moved toward a path of marketization and industrialization. In 2000, the concept of “cultural industry” was written into a central document for the first time. In 2002, the 16th National Congress of the CPC clarified the relationship between “cultural undertakings” and “cultural industries.” In 2011, the “Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Deepening the Reform of the Cultural System and Promoting the Great Development and Flourishing of Socialist Culture,” adopted at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC, put forward the goal of building a socialist cultural power, further stimulating the vitality of China’s cultural innovation and creation. [3]3 The Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC was held in October 2011. Its central theme was cultural reform and development, and it adopted the decision cited here, which set the goal of building a socialist cultural power by 2020.

改革开放以来，围绕以经济建设为中心的总体部署，文化领域体制机制改革稳步推进，为文艺生产力的解放与发展提供了坚实的制度保障。伴随文艺生产力的不断释放，各类文艺生产要素得到有效整合，规范化、规模化的文艺传播体系得以建构，并逐步迈向市场化、产业化的发展道路。2000年，“文化产业”概念首次被写入中央文件。2002年，党的十六大厘清了“文化事业”和“文化产业”的关系。2011年，党的十七届六中全会通过的《中共中央关于深化文化体制改革推动社会主义文化大发展大繁荣若干重大问题的决定》，提出了建设社会主义文化强国的目标，进一步激发了我国文化创新创造活力。

Entering the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for the flourishing development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries, empowering economic and social development through culture, and emphasized “adhering to the people-centered creative orientation,” promoting the transformation of the masses from passive recipients into active participants and creators. In this process, the historical narrative of “people’s literature and art” has once again been clearly expressed: literature and art are not only objects of aesthetic appreciation but also an important means of shaping the people’s subjectivity and upholding the Party’s cultural leadership. In new mass literature and art, the masses participate in the production and dissemination of literature and art on an unprecedented scale and depth; this is precisely the echo and deepening of “people’s literature and art” in the digital age. Today, our Party has written “flourishing new mass literature and art under internet conditions” into the proposal for the 15th Five-Year Plan, reflecting the foresight of top-level design and marking the elevation of new mass literature and art from a spontaneous cultural phenomenon to an important component of the national cultural strategy. [4]4 The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) is the next national medium-term development plan. The proposal for the plan was drafted by the Party Central Committee in 2025. The phrase “flourishing new mass literature and art under internet conditions” appears in the proposal as a policy direction.

进入新时代，习近平总书记多次提出要繁荣发展文化事业和文化产业，以文化赋能经济社会发展，并强调“坚持以人民为中心的创作导向”，推动人民群众从被动的接受者转变为积极的参与者、创造者。在这一过程中，“人民文艺”的历史叙事再一次得以清晰表达：文艺不仅是审美的对象，更是塑造人民主体性、坚持党的文化领导权的重要途径。在新大众文艺中，人民大众以前所未有的规模和深度参与文学艺术的生产传播，这正是“人民文艺”在数字时代的回响与深化。而今，我们党将“繁荣互联网条件下新大众文艺”写入“十五五”规划建议，体现了顶层设计的前瞻性，标志着新大众文艺从自发性文化现象上升为国家文化战略的重要组成部分。

Technological Empowerment: Morphological Transformation under the Media Revolution

技术赋能：媒介革命下的形态变革

Technology is the driving force behind the rise of new mass literature and art. As Marx stated: “Gunpowder, the compass, the printing press… become the means for the revival of science, the most powerful levers for creating the necessary preconditions for spiritual development.” The rapidly iterating digital technologies of today are reshaping the literary and artistic ecology with the same force, driving the emergence of a wave of mass creation.

技术是新大众文艺兴起的驱动力。正如马克思所言：“火药、指南针、印刷术……变成科学复兴的手段，变成对精神发展创造必要前提的最强大的杠杆。”当下快速迭代的数字技术，正以同样的力量重塑文艺生态，推动着一场全民创作浪潮的涌现。

First, digital media have broken down the professional barriers of literary and artistic production. Traditional literary and artistic production relied on specific material carriers (such as paper and stage) and specialized skill training, while the popularization of the internet and the penetration of smart terminals have shifted literary and artistic creation from “specialization” to “ubiquity.” Platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Bilibili, and Douyin have become low-threshold spaces for ordinary people to express themselves and participate in literary and artistic creation. The rise of generative artificial intelligence has further lowered the technical threshold for creation; ordinary people, without long-term artistic training, can use AI tools for literary writing, image generation, and even video production. This technological empowerment has transformed literature and art from “the flash of genius” into “the practice of the masses,” and even into a more general practice of human-machine collaboration.

首先，数字媒介打破了文艺生产的专业壁垒。传统文艺生产依赖特定的物质载体（如纸张、舞台）与专业化的技能训练，而互联网的普及与智能终端的下沉，使文艺创作从“专业化”走向“泛在化”。微信、微博、B站、抖音等平台成为普通人表达自我、参与文艺创作的低门槛空间。生成式人工智能的兴起更进一步降低了创作的技术门槛，普通人无需经过长期艺术训练，便可借助人工智能工具进行文学写作、图像生成甚至视频制作。这一技术赋能，使文艺从“天才的灵光”转变为“大众的实践”，甚至变成一种更普泛的人机协同实践。

Second, media convergence has given rise to the cross-border expansion of literary and artistic forms. New mass literature and art is no longer limited to traditional categories such as literature, fine arts, and drama, but exhibits a high degree of cross-mediality and integration. The domestic game “Black Myth: Wukong” and the animated film “Ne Zha 2” have elevated entertainment forms from niche circles into literary and artistic phenomena with broad influence; short videos, micro-dramas, and stand-up comedy, with their intuitive and easily transmissible characteristics, have become the new normal of contemporary literary and artistic life. These new forms not only expand the extension of literature and art but also reconstruct the narrative logic and aesthetic standards of literature and art—moving from “text-centeredness” to “experience-centeredness,” from “contemplative aesthetics” to “participatory aesthetics.” This interactive and symbiotic mode of communication enhances the vitality and influence of literary and artistic works, promoting the sustained flourishing of new mass literature and art.

其次，媒介融合催生了文艺形态的跨界拓展。新大众文艺不再局限于传统的文学、美术、戏剧等门类，而是呈现出高度的跨媒介性与融合性。国产游戏《黑神话：悟空》、动画电影《哪吒之魔童闹海》将小众圈层的娱乐形式提升为具有广泛影响力的文艺现象；短视频、微短剧、脱口秀等则以直观、易传播等特性，成为当代文艺生活的新常态。这些新形态不仅拓展了文艺的外延，也重构了文艺的叙事逻辑与审美标准——从“文本中心”走向“体验中心”，从“静观审美”走向“参与式审美”，这种互动共生的传播模式，增强了文艺作品的生命力与影响力，推动新大众文艺持续繁荣。

Finally, algorithmic recommendation and traffic mechanisms have reshaped the mechanisms of literary and artistic dissemination and reception. In the traditional literary and artistic ecology, the dissemination of works relied on the screening by professional criticism, publishing institutions, and authoritative media; under internet conditions, algorithms have become the “gatekeepers,” and traffic has become the key indicator for measuring a work’s influence. Audiences are no longer passive recipients but can participate in dissemination through real-time interactions such as bullet comments, secondary creations, and plot voting. What is worth being vigilant about is that this mechanism both gives a large number of amateur authors the opportunity to “be seen” and may also lead to “algorithmic monopoly” and “traffic monopoly” on platforms, causing content homogenization and aesthetic shallowness, and may even distort the values of literary and artistic works, weakening the spiritual guidance and consensus-building responsibility that literature and art should bear. To this end, ethical supervision and effective governance of platform algorithms should be strengthened.

最后，算法推荐与流量机制重塑了文艺传播与接受机制。在传统文艺生态中，作品的传播依赖于专业批评、出版机构与权威媒体的筛选；而在互联网条件下，算法成为“守门人”，流量成为衡量作品影响力的关键指标。受众不再是被动接收者，而能够通过弹幕评论、二次创作、剧情投票等即时互动参与传播。值得警惕的是，这一机制既赋予大量素人作者“被看见”的机会，也可能导致平台的“算法垄断”与“流量垄断”，引发内容同质化与审美浅薄化，更可能扭曲文艺作品的价值观，弱化文艺应有的精神引领与共识担当。为此，应加强对平台算法的伦理监管与有效治理。

Emotional Resonance: The Return of “Experience” and the Reconstruction of Identity

情感共鸣：“经验”复归与认同再造

Emotion constitutes the core field where meaning is generated in new mass literature and art. In other words, the most moving power of new mass literature and art lies in its ability to truly return literature and art to daily life, making it a carrier of the masses’ emotional expression and cultural identity.

情感构成了新大众文艺意义生成的核心场域。换言之，新大众文艺最动人的力量，在于它使文艺真正回归日常生活，成为大众情感表达和文化认同的载体。

In literary and artistic forms such as amateur writing, short videos, and stand-up comedy, the author’s personal experience, professional identity, and life experience directly constitute the work itself. The reason these works can evoke widespread resonance is that they vividly, concretely, and without excessive embellishment present the texture of the lives of countless obscured individuals in both urban and rural life. These touching “first-hand experiences” have a dual character: on the one hand, they display the unique life history of the writer, presenting the rough but real traces of life of modern individuals; on the other hand, they acquire a public nature by touching on universal issues ranging from rural revitalization to urban development, from individual struggle to social development. While viewing the “life experiences” of others, readers step out of their own “life experiences,” forming an internal emotional resonance and an external social connection with each other.

在素人写作、短视频、脱口秀等文艺形态中，作者的个人经历、职业身份、生命体验直接构成了作品本身。这些作品之所以能引发广泛共鸣，是因其将城市与乡村生活中无数被隐没者的生命肌理鲜活、具体、未经充分修饰地呈现出来。这些触动人心的“第一手经验”具有双重特性：一方面展现了写作者独特的生命史，呈现了现代个体粗糙却真实的生命痕迹；另一方面又因触及从乡村振兴到城市发展、从个人奋斗到社会发展等普遍性议题而具备了公共性。读者在观看他人“生命经验”的同时，从自身的“生命经验”中走了出来，彼此之间形成一种内在的情感共鸣与外在的社会连接。

Furthermore, new mass literature and art have activated the code of cultural innovation and creation through the integration of contemporary experience and cultural memory. A large number of communicators of the "imagery" [5]5 "Imagery" (意象, yixiang) refers to a key concept in traditional Chinese aesthetics, where concrete objects are used to convey abstract emotions or ideas, creating a fusion of subjective feeling and objective scene. of fine traditional Chinese culture, represented by "Li Ziqi" [6]6 Li Ziqi is a Chinese internet celebrity known for her videos depicting a pastoral, traditional lifestyle, often featuring cooking, handicrafts, and rural life, which have gained a massive global following., owe their success not only to their display of a "return to simplicity" [7]7 "Return to simplicity" (返璞归真, fanpu guizhen) is a Chinese idiom meaning to return to a state of natural simplicity and truth, shedding artificiality and complexity. way of life, but also to their transformation of the spiritual core of traditional culture into cultural symbols that contemporary youth can perceive and empathize with. Their works break boundaries, boldly innovate, and skillfully transform traditional cultural memory into vivid contemporary experience, thereby awakening the shared cultural nostalgia of people in the era of economic globalization. This cultural spirit, which adheres to the Chinese cultural stance, transcends time and space, goes beyond national borders, and possesses eternal charm and contemporary value, constitutes an important symbol of China's cultural soft power today, achieving an effective alignment between local expression and global aesthetics.

此外，新大众文艺还通过当代经验与文化记忆的融合激活了文化创新创造的密码。以“李子柒”为代表的一大批中华优秀传统文化的“意象”传播者，其成功不仅在于展现了一种“返璞归真”的生活方式，更在于他们将传统文化的精神内核转化为当代青年可感知、可共情的文化符号。他们的作品打破边界、大胆创新，巧妙地将传统文化记忆转化为鲜活的当代经验，进而唤醒了经济全球化时代人们共有的文化乡愁。这种坚守中华文化立场，跨越时空、超越国界、富有永恒魅力和当代价值的文化精神，构成今天中国文化软实力的重要象征，实现了本土表达与全球审美的有效对接。

In an era where artificial intelligence increasingly permeates literary and artistic production, literary and artistic creation has shown explosive growth. Although artificial intelligence can mass-produce texts that are grammatically correct, structurally neat, and even similar in style, it is difficult for it to replace the breath and heartbeat that originate from flesh-and-blood bodies, and it cannot provide an effective supply of "experience" in the true sense. This is because the "experience" generated through the collision and coupling of the "embodied" [8]8 "Embodied" (具身, jushen) refers to the phenomenological concept that cognition and experience are fundamentally shaped by the body's physical interactions with the world, as opposed to being purely mental or abstract. self with the surrounding world, ultimately producing an experience with warmth and pain, is something artificial intelligence cannot touch. In this regard, in this surging wave of new mass literature and art, the uniqueness and scarcity of "embodied experience" have been illuminated as never before. Those new mass literary and artistic works that can embody the "experience" of historical development and social emotions, and in the process produce creations akin to "the cuckoo crying blood" [9]9 "The cuckoo crying blood" (望帝啼血, wangdi tixue) is a classical Chinese allusion to the legendary King Wang of Shu, who after death transformed into a cuckoo bird that cried until it bled, symbolizing deep sorrow, unyielding devotion, and the passionate expression of emotion., will bring unique humanistic care and truly realize the "modernization of people" rather than the "modernization of things."

在人工智能日益渗透文艺生产的今天，文艺创作呈现出爆发性增长。尽管人工智能可以批量生产出语法正确、结构工整甚至风格相近的文本，却难以替代那源于血肉之躯的呼吸和心跳，无法提供真正意义上的有效“经验”补给。因为以“具身”与周遭世界碰撞、耦合并最终生成带着体温与痛感的“经验”是人工智能无法触及的。就此而言，在这场波涛汹涌的新大众文艺浪潮中，“具身经验”的独特性和稀缺性被空前照亮。那些能够具身“体验”历史发展与社会情绪，并在其中产生类似“望帝啼血”之创作的新大众文艺作品，将带来独特的人文关怀，真正实现“人之现代化”而非“物之现代化”。

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Literary and artistic works are not the product of mysterious inspiration; their artistry, ideology, and value orientation are always reflected through the grasp of history, the era, society, life, characters, and all other aspects by writers and artists." New mass literature and art are precisely a way for our era to observe and express the world. They allow millions of ordinary people to become "storytellers," enabling their experiences to be seen, heard, and remembered. In this sense, new mass literature and art represent a form of literary and artistic innovation that manifests the Chinese spirit, the ethos of the times, and the power of the people, and will surely contribute unique Chinese wisdom to human civilization.

习近平总书记指出：“文艺作品不是神秘灵感的产物，它的艺术性、思想性、价值取向总是通过文学家、艺术家对历史、时代、社会、生活、人物等方方面面的把握来体现。”新大众文艺正是我们这个时代观察世界、表达世界的一种方式。它让千千万万的普通人成为“讲故事的人”，让他们的经验被看见、被倾听、被记忆。在这个意义上，新大众文艺是一种彰显中国精神、时代气象和人民力量的文艺形态革新，必将为人类文明贡献独特的中国智慧。

(Author: Lin Yahua, Researcher at the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC [National Academy of Governance], and Professor at the Department of Literature, History and Philosophy)

（作者：林雅华，系中共中央党校〔国家行政学院〕习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心研究员、文史教研部教授）