At the end of the Forum, on May 23, Mao came back to stress that this had been the beginning, not the end of the changes. “Intellectuals who want to serve the masses,” he said, “must go through a process in which they and the masses come to know each other well.” Mao added an ominous coda: “This process may, and certainly will, involve much pain and friction.”36 Mao’s words marked a severe change of mood in Yan’an. Not only was it much harder for people to enter the region, but it also became very difficult to leave.37 The city was cut off from the outside world not only by enemy blockade, but
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