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The 11th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles 中国文联第十一次全国代表大会 and the 10th National Congress of Chinese Writers’ Association 中国作协第十次全国代表大会 opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 14 December 2021.1 Renowned writers, actors, musicians, dancers, television hosts and other performing artists were invited to attend the meeting, listen to President Xi Jinping's speech and share their aspirations for aligning their work with public interests and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP)2 expectations.
The CCP's use of entertainment celebrities to serve its political agenda has a long history. During the 1930s, the CCP made concerted efforts to transform the commercialized movie industry and cultivate leftist script writers, directors, producers and actors in creating “anti-feudal” and “anti-imperialist” revolutionary works of art. The top movie stars, such as Ruan Lingyu 阮玲玉 and Hu Die 胡蝶, began to appear in various progressive and left-leaning movies.3 After taking over political power in 1949, the CCP continued to criticize the commercialized celebrity culture for its association with “corrupted lifestyles, loftiness, individualism, and liberalism” while transforming movie stars into “movie workers” to propagate socialist values and promote state policies.4 Meanwhile, the CCP was committed to elevating ordinary workers, peasants, soldiers and low-level cadres (e.g. Shi Chuanxiang 时传祥, Dong Cunrui 董存瑞, Lei Feng 雷锋, Jiao Yulu 焦裕禄) as socialist role models for mass emulation.5
In the post-Mao era, market-oriented reforms led to a re-emergence of commercialized celebrity culture, a sharp departure from the socialist role models. On the demand side, market-oriented reforms brought about economic prosperity, urbanization and a growing middle class eager to consume celebrity-centred fashion, films, music, TV dramas and entertainment news. On the supply side, partial commercialization6 incentivized the media to produce and promote celebrities to meet audience desires and generate profits, which helped address financial difficulties caused by reduced state subsidies. Moreover, the market opening attracted a massive inflow of celebrities from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West.7 With the growth of celebrity influence, the CCP sees certain emerging celebrity behaviours as pernicious, such as excessive individualism, extravagance, involvement in sex scandals and tax evasion. To correct these behaviours and leverage celebrity influence for its political agenda, the CCP has taken active measures to...