Telling the China Story Well? The Party-State’s Legitimation Quest and Creative Policy Paradox across the Literary Apparatus

The Chinese government has poured significant resources into supporting the nation’s writers, publishers and booksellers since Xi Jinping （习近平；b.1953） became general-secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) in 2012. The initiative is ostensibly aimed at China becoming a literary superpower by 2035. At the same time, the Party-state is ever-developing a highly elaborate censorship and control apparatus that is aimed at promoting national cohesion, securitisation, political stability, social harmony, smothering any semblance of dissent, pushing favourable narratives and bolstering the CCP’s legitimacy. This presents a paradoxical scenario where the state is simultaneously stimulating and stifling its publishing industry.
Through the prism of the contemporary literature scene, this research analyses the policies and practices of the CCP, how officials approach the sector and how they manage multiple objectives, which are at times conflicting. To observe and analyse this phenomenon I developed the Creative Policy Paradox Framework (CPPF), an overarching theoretical structure to observe the governance of the creative publishing sector in China and the constant cycle of Party-state objectives, inputs and outcomes. As part of this framework, the Party Moat-Building (PMB) concept was devised to refer broadly to the self-protective actions and mechanisms of the Party-state observed in this environment. The key research questions investigated in this thesis are: Through the prism of the Creative Policy Paradox Framework and Party Moat-Building, what are ‘the uses of literature’ in Xi Jinping’s China, and what does ‘Telling the China Story Well’ mean in reality for the nation’s writers and publishers?
This research puts a spotlight on the intersection between politics, literature and business in China, and on a wider level can be viewed as a microcosm of Chinese contemporary governance, examining how the CCP manages, controls and develops one aspect of society, outlining and assessing its policies, perspectives, practices and priorities in a fluid environment.