100 Flowers Campaign Source Essay PDF

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100 flowers campaign source essay - How far could the historian make use of Source 1 and 2 together to investigate the changing nature of the Hundred Flowers campaign?...

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How far could the historian make use of Source 1 and 2 together to investigate the changing nature of the Hundred Flowers campaign? The 100 Flowers campaign was launched by Mao in April 1956. The reasons behind the policy and whether the outcome after was planned or not is still unknown, but nevertheless, it led to the purge of over half a million intellectuals. The two sources are useful in showing the nature of the Hundred Flowers campaign and how that nature drastically differed within the space of under two months. They provide different views from two intellectuals who both supported the campaign, and how the campaign changed from being encouraged to criticise the Communist Party, to being persecuted for their criticisms. The sources provide views which both agree and differ with each other. Using these two sources, a historian would be able to examine how the nature of the Hundred Flowers campaign changed within two months. This is enabled due to the differing circumstances in which each source which was recorded. For example, source 1 was from a university debate which was spoken by a communist revolutionary, Lin Xiling, who had become critical of the Communist Party. Whereas source 2 was from an officially published statement by Fei Xiotang, who was a prominent academic and a leading member of an official political group and is being forced to renounce his past political activities. Although this means the source may not be fully trustworthy, it is evident what the CCP wanted during this time period. Also, although both sources lack evidence as how the campaign began in April 1956, where Mao called on the delegates to ‘let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred school of thoughts contend’, meaning he opened up the Party to criticisms from intellectuals, the first source does imply the effect of Mao’s speech. Source 1 states that ‘there has been a loosening up’, inferring a rather positive overview after Mao made his speech and the beginning nature of the campaign was optimistic. However, the source soon moves on to say, ‘there are signs of reining in the hundred flowers movement in order to keep people quiet’, showing that there were very early signs of the reversal of the campaign, which two months later is shown in source 2, is exactly what occurred. This is useful information because it shows the rough time for when the intellectuals began to

become wary of the possibility that the campaign could be reversed. Also, the speaker in source 1 expresses she was aware of the risk of going to prison if she spoke out, showing the intellectuals are already no longer feeling encouraged to voice their opinions, meaning the nature of the campaign had changed. However, it is useful for the historian to see that the intellectuals did not immediately retreat because the speaker goes on to say that their objective was ‘crystal clear’ and that objective was to ‘establish genuine socialism’. This shows that despite warnings, intellectuals were still optimistic and continued to speak out in hope to better the Party. The content of sources 1 and 2 are very different, mainly due to the change in time period. Source 1 begins by saying ‘I am very excited’, showing that those who would be affected by the campaign genuinely believed it was a beneficial was of sharing their thoughts and criticisms of the Party. This is supported because it is known that after some initial hesitation, thousands of intellectuals voiced their complaints to Mao and the CCP. Source 2 differs drastically as the source begins with ‘I admit my guilt’, showing that within two months, the attitudes of the CCP and the nature of the campaign had changed dramatically, so much so that instead of being encouraged to speak out, intellectuals were being penalised for doing so, and being forced to renounce their past political activities. This is the clear contrast to source 1 as it states ‘there has been a loosening up here’ as in fact source 2 shows the complete opposite. At some points, both sources do agree with each other, which is important because it shows the historian that the reversal of the campaign was predicted relatively early. In source 1, it says ‘there are signs of reining in the hundred flowers movement in order to keep people quiet’. This was proved to be true as Mao launched the anti-rightist campaign in July 1957, calling a halt to the debate and said the ‘poisonous weeds’ had grown up between the ‘flagrant flowers.’ This led to all intellectuals who criticised the Party being liable to punishments for ‘opposing socialist culture.’ This meant that over half a million people entered the ‘re-education camps’ and many being labelled as a rightist. Ding Ling, an intellectual who spoke out against the Party, was exiled to a desolate part of North China and her writing was banned. This is also seen by source 2, where people were forced to apologise for their ’wrong doings’ or they were executed. This is significant because even those who supported the

campaign and were willing to share their opinions were wary of the consequences and that the nature of the campaign was about to change. Also the fact that source 1 shows the possibility of going to jail which is explicitly supported by source 2 in which the writer was most likely publicly humiliated in a struggle meeting, a form of torture used by the CCP where victims are forced to admit to their crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until they confess and branded a rightist. However, there are some limitations to both sources, mainly to do with reliability. Firstly, the writer in source 1 is a critic of the party and is therefore likely to be bias and persuasive. This means she may have differing views and opinions. Similarly, source 2 lacks reliability because the writer is recalling what he did in 1950, however this is before the campaign had begun. This means that we cannot know for certain that he is being punished for the consequences of the campaign, it may be that he had spoken out before the campaign started, which is why he is being forced to renounce his past. Also, source 2 was not published free-willingly, only due to an act of force, made by the CCP. Therefore, he is most likely going to say what he believes the CCP wants him to say, not what he truly believes. To conclude, sources 1 and 2 would be useful for a historian to investigate the changing nature of the Hundred Flowers campaign due to the different views and content of each source. It shows how the intellectual’s mindsets about the campaign and began by being encouraged to criticise the Party but ended up being purged as a result of it. Although the first source may have a persuasive nature, it does still convey the initial opinions whilst the campaign was at its peak. Despite the sources lacking information before May 1957, they are written before and after the major turning point in the campaign, when Mao reversed it and launched the anti-rightist campaign....