The Chinese Intelligentsia during the Hundred Flowers and Anti-rightist Movement

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The Chinese Intelligentsia during the Hundred Flowers and Anti-rightist Movement

After the coming to power of the CCP and the formation of the People’s Republic of China, thorough and drastic changes began to take place in China. A country which had been founded on a mixture of Confucianism and a very spiritual lifestyle, with ancestor worship and even praying to the god of a particular object, which had went through various revolutions and changings of the guard, began to follow the influence of a Red Giant.
The theories of Communism which were developed through a collaboration of Marx and Engels began to penetrate China through the Soviet influence. The sweeping changes that were introduced by Mao Zedong and his party would influence China in every aspect, and attempt to eradicate the old ways, which were consider to be corrupted and no longer represented what was right for the country as a whole.
The CCP changed the way the government was set up, changed the way foreign relations were handled, re-evaluated the economic policies of the country, and, possibly more drastically, attempted, arguably successfully, to control and change the way people thought. The anti rightist movements of the 50s and 60s attempted to do just that. These movements followed on the heels of what was known as the Hundred Flowers.
The Hundred Flowers slogan was “Let a hundred Flowers Bloom, a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend”. The movement which had started in the spring of 1956 was a movement that was began by the party to do several things. The main theme behind the movement was to welcome criticism of the party by the intellectuals of the country, and was considered a good way for the party to prove that it cared about the people, was interested, and listening to what they had to say.
According to Teiwes:

Lu (Ting-i) argued the victory of socialist transformation and a fundamental change in the political outlook of intellectuals created conditions for the Hundred Flowers. He held that free discussion and independent thinking were necessary to avoid academic stagnation and declared the imposition of narrow, doctrinaire restrictions on intellectual life the “bitter enemy” of true Marxism Leninism. (219)

Mao was under the impression that Communism was so perfect that intellectual criticism would not be hurt, but benefit the attitudes in the country. This was a major chan...

... middle of paper ...

... to keep their opinions to themselves. It would take years for them to find their voice again. Not, only did this movement silence millions, but it was also the moment for many Chinese, when the cracks in the party started to show. The man who had been revered as a god, had made a mistake, and people started to question themselves and their beliefs.
Jung Chang’s mother was one of these individuals who began to question the Communist party and its methods, however not openly. Her husband however would not question it. Their relationship is a microcosm of the country. The people who saw the fissures forming were afraid to say anything, but the blind followers of the party where afraid to listen:

One day, when she ventured some critical comments about the situation and got no response from him, she said bitterly, “You are a good Communist, but a rotten husband!” My father nodded. He said he knew. (Chang, 219)

Works Cited
Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. New York: First Anchor Books,
1992.
Fu-Sheng, Mu. The Wilting of the Hundred Flowers. New York: Frederick A. Praeger,
Inc, 1963.
Teiwes, Frederick. Politics and Purges in China. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1979.

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