From battlefield to stage: a study of He Longs leadership practice of the combat drama troupe (19371945)

The Combat Drama Troupe was a military cultural troupe personally founded and led by He Long, and served as an important practical vehicle for the Chinese Communist Partys cultural work during the revolutionary-war period. In the spring of 1937, He Long formally established the Combat Drama Troupe of the Red Armys Second Front Army. During the period of full-scale resistance, the troupe was reorganized as the Combat Drama Troupe of the Political Department of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, thereby opening a new chapter of serving the resistance. He Longs leadership of the troupe combined comprehensiveness with strategic vision and covered several dimensions, specifically: defining the troupes creative direction, recruiting a wide range of artistic talent, attending to troupe members daily lives, and promoting the establishment of a combat Pingju troupe. As an early model of CCP leadership in cultural affairs, He Longs practice of leading the Combat Drama Troupe vividly illustrates the deeper logic behind the CCPs guidance of artistic development: maintaining a people-centered creative orientation, consciously upholding a national stance, and ensuring that literature and art consistently resonated with the themes of the era. This historical experience offers an important reference for the development of cultural work in new historical contexts.