Hundred Flowers Campaign

Hundred Flowers Campaign
Simplified Chinese百花齐放
Traditional Chinese百花齊放
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinBǎihuā Qífàng
Wade–GilesPai3-hua1 Ch'i2-fang4

The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement (Chinese: 百花齐放) and the Double Hundred Movement (双百方针), was a period from 1956 to 1957 in the People's Republic of China during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, proposed to "let one hundred flowers bloom in social science and arts and let one hundred points of view be expressed in the field of science."[1][2] It was a campaign that allowed citizens to offer criticism and advice to the government and the party;[3] hence it was intended to serve an antibureaucratic purpose, at least on the Maoists' part.[4] The campaign resulted in a groundswell of criticism aimed at the Party and its policies by those outside its rank and represented a brief period of relaxation in ideological and cultural control.[5]

The movement was in part a response to tensions between the CCP and Chinese intellectuals.[6] Mao had realized that the CCP's control over intellectual life was stifling potentially useful new ideas. He was also worried about the emergence of new party elites who could threaten his position.[3] He sought to use the movement to restrain the new forces within the party. However, criticism quickly grew out of hand and posed a threat to the communist regime. The liberation was short-lived. Afterwards, a crackdown continued through 1957 and 1959, developing into an Anti-Rightist Campaign against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology. Citizens were rounded up in waves by the hundreds of thousands, publicly criticized during struggle sessions, and condemned to prison camps for re-education through labor or execution.[7] The ideological crackdown re-imposed Maoist orthodoxy in public expression, and catalyzed the Anti-Rightist Movement.

  1. ^ MacFarquhar, Roderick. 1960. The Hundred Flowers. pp. 3
  2. ^ "新中国档案:"百花齐放、百家争鸣"方针的提出". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  3. ^ a b Fofa (2023-03-02). China a century of revolution, part 2 (1949-1976). Retrieved 2024-06-02 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ Maurice J., Meisner (1986). "Mao's China and after : a history of the People's Republic". Internet Archive. p. 169.
  5. ^ Daniel, Leese (2011). Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China's Cultural Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 55.
  6. ^ Burns, John P. (March 1996). "Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform. By Kenneth Lieberthal [New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. xxvi + 498 pp. $30.00. ISBN 0–393–96714–X.]". The China Quarterly. 145: 189–190. doi:10.1017/s0305741000044192. ISSN 0305-7410.
  7. ^ Short, Philip (2000). Mao: A Life. Macmillan. pp. 457–471. ISBN 978-0-8050-6638-8.