Dear Fellow Students and Comrades,

We are all pupils of Chairman Mao. We have spent six days studying together Chairman Mao’s brilliant work Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art. We have studied it extremely conscientiously; we have truly been studying it respectfully and earnestly.

What we have learnt has been turned into the “Message of Salute to Chairman Mao” and the “Call to All Revolutionary and Progressive Writers of Asia, Africa and the World.” These may be considered as our “graduation” theses, and our closing session tonight a “graduation” ceremony.

We are very happy to have here with us leading comrades of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and of the Cultural Revolution Group directly under the Party’s Central Committee, and leading comrades in other departments concerned. Comrades Chou En-lai, Chen Po-ta, Kang Sheng, Hsieh Fu-chih, Chiang Ching, Hsiao Hua, Yang Cheng-wu, Wang Li, Kuan Feng, Chi Pen-yu, Mu Hsin, Yeh Chun, Wang Tung-hsing and other comrades, attending our graduation ceremony although they all must be busy doing many things. What is more, Comrade Chi Pen-yu has given us a very enlightening report. All this is a great encouragement to us. and we must extend our heartfelt thanks to them.

Meanwhile, we must also congratulate one another on the great success we have achieved in this seminar of studying Chairman Mao’s works.

Comrades and fellow students,

We have concluded our seminar, but we have not come to the end of our study. After learning, it is imperative- to apply what we have learnt, to put it into practice. There is no limit to learning; it will go on throughout our lives.

Chairman Mao teaches us: “If we have a correct theory hut merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into practice, then that theory, however good, is of no significance.”
Chairman Mao also says, “Reading is learning, but applying is also learning and the more important kind of learning at that. … It is often not a matter of first leaning and then doing, but of doing and then learning, for doing is itself learning.”

It is one of the important features of the great thought of Mao Tse-tung to lay stress on practice and on the unity between words and deeds. Chairman Mao himself is a practitioner of this great thought. It is through constant practice and fighting that Chairman Mao has vigorously advanced the Chinese and world revolution and has developed Marxism-Leninism to the present completely new stage.

We must therefore learn from Chairman Mao’s spirit of putting things into practice if we want to be his good pupils. This spirit can be called the “Shao-shan Spirit,” the “Yenan Spirit,” the “Spirit of the Long March,” and the “Spirit of the Chingkang Mountains.” We must put this spirit into practice, popularize it and penetratingly grasp it. We must be men of action and must not be empty talkers. We must promptly put into practice what we have learnt, and urgently learn when we have to practise. Only in so doing can we learn and apply creatively.
We have already mentioned these ideas in our “Message of Salute” and the “Call.” The main purpose of raising this point again is to urge myself to go on. I am an old pupil of Chairman Mao’s. But I am poor in both learning and in applying his works; not creative in learning, still less creative in applying. I hope that you, my fellow students, will always give me help and advice so that I may be able to catch up with you to advance continuously.

Comrades and fellow students,

During the six days of study and discussion, more than 30 fellow students have said all there was to say. There is nothing else I can add. All in all, our seminar is the first international meeting of its kind in popularizing Mao Tse-tung’s thought, and it is a successful meeting at that. It is something for us to remember. I wrote a poem last night to express my deep feelings. Allow me to read out this sketchy poem and dedicate it to Comrade Chiang Ching, and also to the other comrades and fellow students present here.

Over 80 of Chairman Mao’s pupils from 34 countries on six continents,
Hold aloft the infinitely brilliant torch illuminating our way –
Chairman Mao’s “Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art”
Lighting up the inner-most thoughts of us all,
Lighting up the road forward for revolutionary Afro-Asian literature and art.
We must wholeheartedly act according to Chairman Mao’s directives,
Serve the workers, peasants and soldiers throughout our lives
And transform the subjective and objective world.
Strike down U.S. imperialism, Soviet revisionism, and all reactionaries,
And reverse the reversal of the history of mankind.
Never shall we be unworthy of the great red epoch of Mao Tse-tung.

Dear Comrade Chiang Ching, you are the fine example for us to follow,
You are good at creatively studying and applying the invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung.
Fearlessly, you charge forward on the literary and art front,
Thus, the heroic image of the workers, peasants and soldiers now dominates the Chinese stage;
And we must do the same for the stage the world over!
China’s yesterday is the today of many Afro-Asian countries,
And China’s today will be their tomorrow.
We will fight for the complete emancipation of the oppressed nations and peoples,
We will fly the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought over all the Afro-Asian countries,
And over the six continents and the four seas.

Chairman Mao’s brilliant works are our spiritual food for ever.
We must become as noble as Norman Bethune, with utter devotion to others but no thought of self,
We want to be present-day Foolish Old Men and throw the three big mountains: imperialism, revisionism and reaction into the sea!
Oh, Chairman Mao, you are the very red sun shining most brightly in our hearts,
A long life to you, a long, long life, a long, long life to you!

Comrades and fellow students! I have recited my poem. Our seminar has now come to a successful conclusion. Let us work together to make a still greater success of the Third Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference which will be held in Peking in November!

Long live the solidarity of the revolutionary Afro-Asian writers and peoples!

Long live the great solidarity of the revolutionary writers and peoples all over the world!

Long live the complete emancipation of the oppressed nations and peoples all over the world!

Long live the victory of the great proletarian cultural revolution!

Long live the infinitely brilliant thought of Mao Tse-tung!

Long live the great epoch of Mao Tse-tung! Long live our great teacher Chairman Mao! A long life, a long, long life to him!