Hu Jintao remembers Mao's 1942 speech

BEIJING, May 23 (UPI) -- The 70th anniversary of a pivotal speech on art and literature by Mao Zedong was celebrated by a symposium in Beijing Wednesday.

President Hu Jintao, Communist Party of China general secretary, called Mao's 1942 speech in Yan'an "a creative combination of the basic principles of Marxism and the practices of Chinese revolutionary art and literature," adding generations of artists were inspired by the speech to create works providing "strong spiritual strength" for change.

Mao's address was attended by writers and artists from all over China, and more than 40,000 students broke through blockades to hear it, the Chinese government news agency Xinhua said Wednesday.