The greatest characteristic of Mao Zedong‘s cultural thought could be that it was in the public nature centered around the people. Mao Zedong presented the culture that would educate farmers, laborers and soldiers and would be consumed by them as a true culture that would replace the old culture. As such, the public character in cultural contents that Mao Zedong‘s cultural thought presented is characteristic of the Chinese Communist revolution that he successfully led. In particular, recognizing the peasants as the subject of the revolution and accomplishing the task of the Communist revolution as the national revolution through the peasants was a unique characteristic of China‘s proletarian revolution that was a departure from the orthodox doctrines of Marxism and Leninism. The thought of people's culture, established and developed by Mao Zedong in Yan‘an period, was very specific and clear, and the people or crowds he meant was the widespread existence of peasants, workers and soldiers, and the contents of the cultural policy were the construction of culture for farmers and workers and soldiers, or cultural popularization. Mao Zedong thought that China‘s revolution was actually a peasant revolution, and that New Democracy politics was what gave real peasants power. Thus, the new democracy was peasant revolutionism, and the people‘s culture was to advocate peasant culture.

마오쩌둥 문화사상의 가장 큰 특징은 인민을 중심으로 하는 대중성에 있다고 할 수 있었다. 마오쩌둥의 문화사상에서 드러나는 문화 주체와 내용에 있어서의 인민성 또는 대중성은 그가 성공적으로 이끌었던 중국 공산혁명의 성격을 나타내어 주는 특징이기도 하다. 특히 혁명의 주체로서 농민을 자각하고 농민을 통한 민족혁명으로써 공산혁명의 임무를 완수해 낸 것은 마르크스·레닌주의의 정통적 교의에서 벗어난 것으로서 중국 프롤레타리아 혁명의 독특한 성격으로 자리매김할 수 있었다. 옌안 시기 마오쩌둥이 정립하고 발전한 민중문화관은 매우 구체적이고 명확한 것으로 그가 의미한 인민 또는 군중은 곧 광범위하게 존재하는 농민과 노동자 및 병사를 의미하는 것이었고 문화 정책의 내용은 곧 농민과 노동자 및 병사를 위한 문화의 건설, 즉 문화 대중화였다.