Sources - 100 Flowers Campaign

Source 1. One Hundred Flowers. Alpha History

'Despite Mao’s assurances, the first months of the Hundred Flowers campaign yielded only a gentle wave of public criticism and comment, most of it on minor issues. There was little significant criticism of Mao, the government or the CCP. This began to change in late spring 1957 after Mao all but demanded suggestions and criticism from his people. Leading academics took the bold step of speaking critically about government policies. This uncorked the genie and unleashed a torrent of public comment. Millions of letters began pouring into government offices, venting criticisms about everything from the lateness of public transport to Mao’s personal conduct. As in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, some of the strongest criticism came from China’s university students in Beijing.

 Questions

1. Explain why you think that the initial criticism was limited.

2. Use evidence from the source to show the catalyst for people to speak more openly.

3. Use examples to outline the criticisms after Mao encouraged people to be more open.

Source 2. Mao encourages reform. Mao's personal physician Li Zhisui

The campaign was "a gamble, based on a calculation that genuine counterrevolutionaries were few, that rebels like Hu Feng had been permanently intimidated into silence, and that other intellectuals would follow Mao's lead, speaking out only against the people and practices Mao himself most wanted to subject to reform."

 Question 

1. Why does Li Zhisui think that Mao was confident to allow criticism of the CCP?

Source 3. The Anti- Rightist campaign. Asian History

'After only five weeks the government had second thoughts about the Hundred Flowers Movements and the concept of freedom of expression. They then launched the Anti-Rightist campaign. This movement lasted from 1957 to 1959, it consisted of campaigns to purge alleged rightists within the Communist Party both in China and abroad. The term "rightists" was largely used to refer to intellectuals accused of favouring capitalism over collectivisation.

Questions 

1. Use examples from the source to describe the purpose of the Anti-Rightist campaigns.

Source 4. Silencing intellectuals. Anti-Rightist posters at Beijing University. Unknown origin.

In Source 4 students and academics at Beijing University are reading Anti Rightist propaganda

and lists of critics of communism.

 Question

1. Describe what is happening in this photo

2. How would these public displays have influenced public discussions of the Communist party?

Source 5. Mao the untold story. Chang. J. 2005

‘The campaign was, from the start, a ruse intended to expose rightists and counter-revolutionaries, Mao Zedong persecuted those whose views were different from the party's. It was an orchestrated campaign to flush out dissidents by encouraging them to show themselves as critical of the regime, and then subsequently banish, imprison or execute them. Mao remarked at the time that he had "enticed the snakes out of their caves."

Questions.

1. Use evidence form the source to explain the purpose of Mao’s 100 Flowers campaign?

2. How does Source 5 conflict with Source 2?

Source 6. Revolution, Reintegration, and Crisis in Communist China. Cohen. J. 1968

‘The campaign destroyed the formal legal system that had been under development in China, condemning the country to two decades in which every citizen was vulnerable to persecution by those in power and denied legal protection of their basic rights. The purge, which lasted into the early 1960s, also played a part in the rural famine which killed upwards of 30 million between 1958 and 1961, as many of the experts who might have spotted early warning signs of disaster were in labour camps, and officials still in position had learned how criticism would be received.’

Questions.

1. Use evidence form the source to describe the impact of the campaign on basic rights?

2. How did the purge of academics and intellectuals contribute to the famine in 1958-60.