Chinese Intellectuals As Oxens

China was better off in some aspects under the Nationalists than under the Communists. One such area was in the proliferation of the mass media.

According to Jasper Becker in his book The Chinese, before the establishment of the Republic in 1911, China had only 7 newspapers. But by 1935, there were 910 newspapers, and over 900 periodicals, as well as independent publishing houses, film studios and radio stations.

It was also during this period that the greatest works by China's most famous 20th century writers - Ba Jin (巴金, pictured), Shen Congwen (沈从文), Lao She (老舍), Lu Xun (鲁迅), Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书) - were written.

Yet, as Becker noted, "little of comparative worth has appeared since 1949."

Hardly surprising, given that Mao Zedong (毛泽东) had made it clear that "there is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above the classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature, and art ... are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine."

Mao went on to add that the only role of intellectuals was to be "oxen for the proletariat and the masses, bending their backs to their tasks until their dying days."