Let a hundred flowers blossom

Grandpa Jang reminisces about the Hundred Flowers movement to his grand-daughter Mei-Zhen.

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Jang: Let a hundred flowers blossom. That’s what Zhou Enlai said.

Mei-Zhen: Meaning?

Jang: That the government needed criticism by the people. Especially by the intellectuals. Came from a poem, “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let there be a hundred schools of thought.”

Mei-Zhen: Can’t imagine the communist party allowing that.

Jang: It was to establish a new culture, and secondarily to promote socialism. Mao ass

umed that people would naturally come up with new socialist ideas. Initially people didn’t say much, so Mao said, come on, criticize, and then in June and July 1957 millions of letters poured in. Criticizing the government. He assumed they’d come up with new ideas. They come up with criticism.

Mei-Zhen: Never assume anything.

Jang: So that’s when the clamp-down started. Freedom, followed by suppression. It’s a Chinese pattern.

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