In the early years of the People’s Republic of China (RPC), to strengthen the thought reform of the entire population, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursued a literary and artistic policy that emphasized politics but ignored the objective law of artistic creation, leading to an unprecedented decline in literary and artistic creation. Nevertheless, this policy was strongly supported by many literary and artistic cadres back then, including Cai Chusheng, the subject examined in this article.

Before 1949, Cai Chusheng had already been a well-known director who produced many excellent films and owned unique insights and high attainments in artistic creation. As a matter of common sense, an artist like him should not easily recognized the then literary and artistic policy, but the reality is opposite.

Cai Chusheng’s recognition of the literary and artistic policy can also be regarded as his recognition of and adaption to the thought reform as an artist. What factors, then, affected Cai Chusheng’s thought and motivated him to recognize and support the literary and artistic policy? Answering this question is significant for understanding and exploring the transformation of intellectual thinking during the early years of the PRC from multiple perspectives. This article examines each of the five aspects of values, work experience, information environment, living condition, and family relations to analyze how they affected the formation and solidification of Tai Chusheng’s thought.

Regarding the thought reform in the early years of the PRC, many studies focus on the persecution of and crackdown on intellectuals. They regard that the reason why intellectuals lost the ability of independent and critical thinking was mainly due to political oppression and the enclosed social environment brought about by the thought reform. Therefore, many intellectuals’ recognition and acceptance of socialist thought is a passive result. While recognizing this view, the author argues that there were many types of intellectuals back then, and due to their divergent values, work environments, and life situations, except for political repression mentioned above, many other factors play a role in the process of their thought transformation.