Inheriting the Red Gene to Build the Chinese Nation’s Shared Spiritual Homeland

Red resources are the testimony to the glorious struggle of the Communist Party of China and the most precious spiritual wealth. The cultural construction of state-owned enterprises is not only an internal need for their own development but also a key force for inheriting the red gene, promoting fine traditional Chinese culture, consolidating the national spirit, and building a shared spiritual homeland. Taking the cultural construction practice of Baotou Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Baosteel”) as an example, this article explores how state-owned enterprises can build the Chinese nation’s shared spiritual homeland by inheriting the red gene.

红色资源是中国共产党辉煌奋斗历程的见证，是最宝贵的精神财富。国有企业文化建设不仅是自身发展的内在需求，更是传承红色基因、弘扬中华优秀传统文化、凝聚民族精神、构筑共有精神家园的关键力量。本文以包头钢铁（集团）有限责任公司（以下简称“包钢”）的文化建设实践为例，探讨国有企业如何通过传承红色基因构筑中华民族共有精神家园。

From Historical Memory to Red Resources

从历史记忆到红色资源

Red resources condense their value through the sedimentation of historical time, and the red gene they contain needs to be presented through historical memory and narrative. Halbwachs pointed out that historical memory “can only be indirectly stimulated when people gather together, through reading or listening to accounts, or on occasions of commemorative activities and festivals, to collectively recall the deeds and achievements of members of a long-separated group.” [1]1 Maurice Halbwachs, *On Collective Memory*, cited here as a reference to the social framework of memory. Since their birth, state-owned enterprises have been closely linked to the fate of the Party and the state; their history of development is itself a history of advancing together with the state and breathing with the nation under the leadership of the Party. Baosteel was established in 1954 as the first large-scale iron and steel enterprise built by New China in an ethnic region. Shortly after its founding, the People’s Daily issued the call “Baosteel for the whole country, the whole country for Baosteel,” sparking a wave of support for Baosteel from people of all ethnic groups across the country.

红色资源在历史的时间沉淀中凝结其价值，所包含的红色基因需要借助历史记忆与叙事来呈现。哈布瓦赫指出，历史记忆“只有通过阅读或听人讲述，或者在纪念活动和节日的场合中，人们聚在一块，共同回忆长期分离的群体成员的事迹和成就时，这种记忆才能被间接地激发出来”。国有企业自诞生之日起，就与党和国家的命运紧密相连，其发展史本身就是在党的领导下与国家共奋进、与民族同呼吸的历史。包钢成立于1954年，是新中国在民族地区建设的第一个大型钢铁企业。成立之初，《人民日报》发出了“包钢为全国，全国为包钢”的号召，掀起了全国各地各族人民支援包钢的热潮。

The Baosteel case demonstrates the multi-layered transformation process from enterprise historical memory to red resources. First is individual experience—the firsthand accounts of hardship, entrepreneurship, and ethnic unity by early builders, forming a vivid oral history and bodily memory; “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” was initially an individual memory of the enterprise’s construction history, with personal bodily feelings during construction generating a strong sense of identification and pride in the enterprise. Second is artistic representation—through reportage literature, songs, film and television works, scattered individual stories are elevated into an infectious public narrative. Third is enterprise internalization—the enterprise solidifies the public narrative into internal rituals, ceremonies, and educational training content by compiling factory histories, building exhibition halls, and holding commemorative events. Fourth is national narrative—by being explicitly designated as a “historical tale of fine quality” and “red resource,” “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” acquires new political significance and contemporary connotations, achieving a leap from enterprise historical memory to national spiritual wealth.

包钢的案例展示了企业历史记忆到红色资源多层次的转化过程。首先是个体经验即早期建设者亲历的艰苦创业与民族团结场景，形成鲜活的口述史与身体记忆；“齐心协力建包钢”最初是个体对包钢建设历史的记忆，个人在建设中的身体感受并由此形成了对企业强烈的认同感与自豪感。其次是文艺再现，通过报告文学、歌曲、影视等作品，将分散的个体故事升华为具有感染力的公共叙事。再次是企业内化，企业通过编撰厂史、建设展馆、举办纪念活动，将公共叙事固化为企业内部的典章仪式与教育培训内容。最后是国家叙事。通过被明确为“历史佳话”和“红色资源”，“齐心协力建包钢”获得了新的政治意义和时代内涵，实现了从企业历史记忆到国家精神财富的跃升。

Thus, “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” moves from the bodily narrative of individual builders, through historical re-presentation in literary and artistic works, to being constructed as the collective memory of all Baosteel employees, and finally, through recognition by the national discourse system, becomes a historical tale of fine quality in the construction and development history of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and a red resource in Party history learning and education.

由此，“齐心协力建包钢”从建设者个体的身体叙事，在文艺作品的历史再现后被建构为全体包钢职工的集体记忆，最终通过国家话语系统的认定成为内蒙古自治区建设发展史上的历史佳话与党史学习教育中的红色资源。

From Red Resources to Enterprise Cultural Identification

从红色资源到企业文化认同

Red resources are the carriers through which the red gene is inherited. The collective memory with this as its core not only carries historical experience, values, and emotional identification—being an important force for maintaining social unity and promoting historical progress—but is also the spiritual driving force for building the Chinese nation’s shared spiritual homeland. The history of “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” is a vivid illustration of the “red root” and “patriotic gene” inherent in state-owned enterprises from their very beginning.

红色资源是红色基因得以传承的载体，以此为内核的集体记忆，既承载着历史经验、价值观念和情感认同，是维系社会团结、推动历史进步的重要力量，更是建设中华民族共有精神家园的精神动力。“齐心协力建包钢”的历史，正是国有企业与生俱来的“红色根脉”和“报国基因”的生动例证。

Only when individual memory is linked to the fate of the community can collective cultural memory and identification be formed. The oral accounts and memories of veteran employees who participated in building Baosteel present a mechanism for constructing the collective memory of “dedication and arduous struggle,” forming a shared historical memory of people of all ethnic groups working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel. The process of this shared historical memory being continuously transmitted and narrated among social members is also a process that prompts people to understand, reflect on, and identify with it in a more three-dimensional way. Centering on the core resource of “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel,” Baosteel has constructed a three-dimensional action matrix of “physical space + digital media + brand activities” and integrated it with the development of the times. Baosteel integrates the red gene of “dedication and overcoming difficulties” with the development concepts of the New Era such as “innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing,” reinterpreting the connotation of “working together with one heart and one mind.” From the past “mass campaign of manpower and material resources,” it has been elevated to a modern collaboration model of “industry-university-research joint tackling of key problems,” “upstream-downstream industrial chain linkage,” and “symbiotic co-prosperity between enterprise and locality,” making red resources no longer a static commemoration but an endogenous driving force for the enterprise’s strategic transformation and fulfillment of social responsibilities. The red gene is also passed down from generation to generation through social interaction, thus becoming a shared spiritual culture among members and a nutrient and source for building the Chinese nation’s shared spiritual homeland. “Dedication and arduous struggle” has become an endogenous force in Baosteel’s employee culture. Through continuous repetition and narration in media, literary and artistic works, and museum exhibitions, and passed down from generation to generation by every Baosteel employee, the historical memory of people of all ethnic groups working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel is endowed with meaning. It is ultimately widely accepted and identified with by Baosteel employees, becoming a source of emotional belonging and identification for employees and a precious asset for the enterprise’s cultural construction.

个体的记忆与共同体的命运产生关联，才能形成集体的文化记忆与认同。参与建设包钢的老职工的口述与记忆呈现了“奉献、艰苦奋斗”的集体记忆建构机制，形成了各族人民齐心协力建包钢的共同历史记忆。这种共同的历史记忆在社会成员间不断传递、叙述的过程，也是促使人们更加立体地理解、思考并认同的过程。包钢围绕“齐心协力建包钢”这一核心资源，构建了“实体空间+数字媒体+品牌活动”的立体行动矩阵，并将其与时代发展相融合。包钢将“奉献、攻坚克难”的红色基因，与新时代的“创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享”等发展理念相融合，重新诠释了“齐心协力”的内涵。从过去“人力物力的大会战”升华为今天“产学研协同攻关”“产业链上下游联动”“企业与地方共生共荣”的现代协作模式，使得红色资源不再是静态的纪念，而是驱动企业战略转型、履行社会责任的内生动力。红色基因也在社会交往互动中代代相传，从而使其成为成员共享的精神文化，成为构筑中华民族共有精神家园的养料与源泉。“奉献、艰苦奋斗”成为包钢职工文化的内生力量，通过媒体、文艺作品以及博物馆展陈中的不断重复与叙述，又由每一位包钢职工代代传承，由此各族人民齐心协力建包钢的历史记忆被赋予了意义，最终被包钢职工广泛接受和认同，成为职工情感归属与认同感的来源，成为企业文化建设的宝贵财富。

State-Owned Enterprise Culture Builds the Chinese Nation’s Shared Spiritual Homeland

国有企业文化构筑中华民族共有精神家园

After “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” was refined by the state into a historical tale of fine quality and a red resource, it became deeply embedded in the enterprise’s development as an imprint. In the process of being continuously re-created, it consolidates consensus among enterprise employees, stimulates identification, and strengthens the consciousness of the Chinese nation as a community.

在“齐心协力建包钢”被国家提炼为一段历史佳话、一种红色资源后，作为一种印记深嵌于企业发展中，在被不断再创造的过程中凝聚企业职工共识，激发认同，强化中华民族共同体意识。

First, it provides a practical field for the “community.” Baosteel’s development over more than seventy years is precisely such a microcosmic “community” practice where multi-ethnic employees interact, exchange, integrate, and jointly create and share development achievements, providing a solid social foundation for the “shared” attribute of enterprise culture. Second, it promotes ethnic unity and cultural identification. The course of Baosteel’s construction is itself an epic of ethnic unity. The history of “the whole country supporting Baosteel” transcends the boundaries of region and ethnicity, closely intertwining national identification, ethnic identification, and enterprise identification. Today, Baosteel’s cultural construction continues to play a role in consolidating regional consensus and promoting social harmony. The spirit of struggle, dedication, and unity carried by its red resources has become a shared spiritual symbol for the industrial front of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and even the whole country, strengthening the emotional bond of “the Chinese nation as one family.” Finally, it achieves the “grounding” and “elevation” of building the Chinese nation’s shared spiritual homeland. Centering on historical red resources, Baosteel’s practice continuously strengthens and recreates enterprise culture, internalizing the spiritual core reflected in the initial “working together with one heart and one mind to build Baosteel” into enterprise culture. Amid changes in national strategy, the demands of the times, and social progress, it continuously optimizes and improves the enterprise culture system, gradually transforming historical memory into an ideological resource, integrating it into today’s enterprise cultural construction, grounding historical memory in practice, and allowing the red gene to be passed down from generation to generation.

首先，提供“共同体”的实践场域。包钢七十余年的发展，正是这样一个多民族职工交往交流交融、共同创造和分享发展成果的微型“共同体”实践，为企业文化的“共有共享”属性提供了坚实的社会基础。其次，促进民族团结与文化认同。包钢建设的历程，本身就是一部民族团结的史诗。“全国支援包钢”的历史，超越了地域与族群的界限，将国家认同、民族认同与企业认同紧密交织。今天，包钢的文化建设持续发挥着凝聚区域共识、促进社会和谐的作用。其红色资源所承载的奋斗、奉献、团结精神，已成为内蒙古自治区乃至全国工业战线共享的精神符号，强化了“中华民族一家亲”的情感联结。最后，实现了构筑中华民族共有精神家园的“落地”与“升华”。包钢实践围绕着历史红色资源，不断强化与再创造企业文化，将建设之初“齐心协力建包钢”反映的精神内核内化为企业文化，在国家战略、时代要求、社会进步的变化中，不断优化完善企业文化体系建设，逐步将历史记忆转化为一种思想资源，融入今天的企业文化建设，让历史记忆落在实践之中，让红色基因代代传承。

(The author is a lecturer at the School of History and Tourism Culture, Inner Mongolia University)

（作者系内蒙古大学历史与旅游文化学院讲师）