Hundred Flower Movement
The Hundred Flower Movement ( Chinese 百花 運動 / 百花 运动 , Pinyin bǎihuā yùndòng ) was an event in the run-up to the Great Leap Forward in the People's Republic of China . Between 1956 and 1957, the Chinese Communist Party encouraged the people to be critical of the state's situation. When the movement threatened to get out of hand, it was repressed by the Communist Party.
Social and economic starting position until 1955/56
The first years after the end of the civil war and the proclamation of the People's Republic in October 1949 brought with it social and economic upheavals, combined with land reform and a focus on repairing the economy, curbing high inflation and repairing the most serious war damage. The invasion of Tibet in 1950 was the last military-armed conflict in the country after four decades of war. China was in a state of relative calm and tentative optimism crept into the cities.
However, beneath the surface of the successes achieved by the mid-1950s, the distortions that these developments had brought about became apparent. The cadres emerged as a new social group. It turned out that - like the civil servants in times past - they quickly created a number of privileges all over the country, which reflected their position in the social hierarchy. These privileges not only contradicted ideology, but also came at the expense of the rest of the population. With the emergence of the cadre caste came the bureaucratisation of social and economic processes. Both met with displeasure in the population, but this was not expressed publicly to a greater extent.
The intellectuals found themselves in a difficult role after a period of enthusiasm after the establishment of the state. During the war years in Yan'an in 1942, during the correction campaign , Mao gave a speech encouraging literature and art to serve politics. This view was decisive for the coming decades and severely restricted the possibilities of the intellectuals. They adapted to the party guidelines as far as possible, whereby they tested the limits of the possibilities. However, this was directly associated with personal risk. While Ding Ling received official benevolent support at this stage, others, such as writer and editor Hu Feng, were persecuted and sentenced to long terms.
In economic terms, the first five-year plan (1953–57) began to refocus the economy on building (heavy) industry. As a result, important investments in agriculture failed to materialize and the development of the agricultural sector no longer kept pace with industrial development. The party leadership saw the solution to the problem in increased collectivization of the relatively small cooperatives that had emerged in the course of the land reform. The cooperatives were enlarged significantly faster than planned and were not the economic success hoped for, as the agricultural growth rate continued to lag behind compared to developments in the industrial sector.
The movement
In a speech in April 1956 to a group of party leaders, Mao Zedong demanded: "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools compete" ( Chinese 百花齊放, 百家爭鳴 / 百花齐放, 百家争鸣 , Pinyin Bǎi huā qífàng, bǎi jiā zhēngmíng ). The Hundred Schools (meant as "many" schools) was indicative of the Warring States Period when there were many competing schools of philosophy. It was a rhetorical device often used by Mao: even though one was in a struggle against ancient and feudal thinking and the traditional traditions, according to ideological standards, one should nevertheless draw lessons from history as long as it supports the advancement of the party and the state serve.
In the speech, Mao said that the party should no longer have the monopoly of opinion, but that the people should also be free to point out the advantages and grievances of the system. Although the speech was picked up and commented on in the newspapers, but not printed in full, it hardly met with public response. Within the party leadership, however, it fueled the test of strength and the tug-of-war about the right course, both ideologically and socially and economically. Quite a few puzzled over the intentions of Mao, who at the 8th Party Congress in September 1956 even made it clear that he could retire to the second row at an unspecified time. On February 27, 1957, at a state conference with 1,800 communist and non-communist delegates, Mao gave another address on the question of the correct handling of contradictions in the people . This speech was also not published in full. Since the Volkszeitung in particular , quasi party organ, did not publish any excerpts, the speech was publicly considered not to have been given. It was only towards the end of April 1957 that it was made clear in the press that constructive critical statements were desired.
The criticism that arose now showed that the Chinese citizens were by no means as satisfied and happy as the public representation dominated by the party had wanted to believe. The expressions of displeasure indicated great dissatisfaction among the population. Soon the expressed displeasure went beyond the civil, constructive, intellectual-academic system discussion actually desired by Mao. The criticism was not only presented on the street and in newspapers, but the posters and wall newspapers later known from the Cultural Revolution also appeared. Many developments in previous years were criticized: party cadres were denounced as corrupt, arrogant and uneducated; it was criticized that the privileges granted to them gave rise to a new privileged layer; the peasants resisted the introduction of the cooperatives, which were far less popular than the sacrificial land reform a few years earlier; the workers criticized the existing wage system; Minorities spoke out about their prescribed membership in the People's Republic; Intellectuals pointed to the undemocratic electoral system, the general reprisals, the prohibition or restricted access to foreign literature, the strong reliance on the economic system of the Soviet Union and the ill-conceived and in part senseless agricultural policy.
Although no one called for the abolition of the current system, the party leadership saw the criticism, which could suddenly no longer be channeled, as an immediate threat to itself. The end of the movement came abruptly and heralded the publication of Mao's speech on February 27, 1957. However, this speech was revised before it was published. These changes clearly defined what was considered desirable in the context of the call for criticism: only that which would advance and strengthen socialism on its way was allowed. In doing so, the party regained the authority to interpret this issue.
With the proclamation of the “ anti-right movement ” ( Chinese 反右 運動 / 反右 运动 , Pinyin Fǎn Yòu Yùndòng ), the Hundred Flower Movement was violently stopped and many critics were banished to labor camps.
Backgrounds and reviews
There are different views on the background and motives of the Hundred Flower Movement, but there is agreement that it was initiated by Mao alone or as a driving force. The motives were probably a mixture of domestic political, economic and social problems, disturbing events in socialist-ruled foreign countries and also internal party disputes.
In the interpretations of events that are positive for Mao, it is assumed that he was aware of the problems of the state, but at the same time was afraid of uprisings like in Hungary . The movement's intention was to initiate a public discussion of the system of government so that the best system would emerge. He probably assumed that the socialist system would ultimately win as the only alternative. In order to carry out his plan, however, he first had to defend himself against hardliners within the party, such as Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen , who represented pure ideological doctrine and had a great influence on the party press. Only when he was able to suppress this influence did the movement gain momentum. But then it was this dynamic that Mao underestimated. The manner of the criticism, its harsh and very open form did not correspond to his ideas of an objective discussion. Here the system was clearly attacked and with it the party's power base and thus also his own. In such distress, Mao turned back to the hardliner line. The speech of February 1957 was supplemented by a few paragraphs that condemned everything that had shown up in alleged excesses of criticism of the system. The anti-right campaign was thus only a corollary of the change of course that Mao made under the pressure of events.
Another interpretation of the events assumes that it was Mao's aim from the beginning that intellectuals and members of other critical groups appear publicly and thereby be recognized in order to silence them. The uprising in Hungary convinced Mao that if intellectuals and workers were left to interpret the ideology of the state, there would be a danger to their own rule. The tactics within the party, the offer to retire to the second row, were above all a means to an end. Mao was neither on the side of the hardliners nor on the side of the progressive forces on this issue. It was a vabanque on a supposed, ideological sideshow that gave him the space to eliminate some of his opponents and secure his power. The anti-right campaign was part of the Hundred Flowers Movement from the beginning to make it clear that criticism of the system and deviations from the official line will not be tolerated in China. The Hundred Flower Movement was in fact the last riot of Chinese intellectuals until a few years after Mao's death.
See also
literature
- MacFarquhar, Roderick: The origins of the Cultural Revolution, 1) Contradictions among the people, 1956–1957. London: University by Oxford University Press, (1974)
- June Teufel Dreyer: China's Political System. Modernization and Tradition. 2nd edition, Allyn and Bacon, 1996, ISBN 0-333-66850-2 , pp. 92-94.
- Maurice Meisner: Mao Zedong. A Political and Intellectual Portrait. Polity Press, 2007, ISBN 07456-3107-X , pp. 130-139.
- Carl Riskin: China's Political Economy: The Quest for Development since 1949. Oxford University Press , 1987, ISBN 0-19-877089-8 .
- Jonathan Spence : China's Path to Modernity. Actual and exp. Output. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-30795-1 pp. 664–678.
- Jonathan Spence: Mao. Claassen, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-546-00261-X , pp. 176-185.