Literature of reform and root-seeking

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a renewed effort in the pursuit of modernization in China. In his speech, “Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts and Unite as One in Looking to the Future,” delivered before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CCP, Deng Xiaoping, who recently returned to the leadership position, called upon the country to exert itself for the realization of China’s “Four Modernizations” in industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology. Thereafter, while upholding the four cardinal principles in ideology and political life, ¹ economic construction by means of reform and opening ² became CCP’s central task. In his “Speech Greeting the Fourth Congress of Chinese Writers and Artists” on October 30, 1979, Deng made it clear that the reform efforts should be extended to Chinese literature and art as well.