This thesis is an attempt to examine interpretations of the
May-June Hundred Flowers Movement in China in 1957 through
the examination of a principal participant among businessmen:
Chang Nai-ch'i.
The Hundred Flowers Movement is comprised of a series of violent
outbursts and extreme statements. The May-June Hundred Flowers
Movement was the last act in what might be termed China's
Hundred Flowers Period, a period of intellectual liberation
concurrent with the "Liberalization" in the Soviet Union.
China, like many other socialist states, is a closed society
from which information is often difficult to gather. The
criticism, as printed in Chinese newspapers and journals, provides
detailed information on factional struggles and organizational
difficulties found within the Chinese government. The criticism,
though often bountiful in number, is short, emotional and takes
the form of a vignette. The existence of a source of official
criticisms against Chang Nai-ch'i allows for the examination
of the actions of a leading Hundred Flowers participant both
prior to, and during the Movement.
The method used to examine, compile and evaluate criticisms
of Chang Nai-ch'i is the frequency chart in which quantitative
examination is made of various critics' statements, and the
duration of these statements. Through the use of this technique,
over forty criticisms of Chang Nai-ch'i found in two Chinese
language businessmen's journals are ordered, placed into chronological
sequence and evaluated. These criticisms are then
examined against existing information, and in particular, Chinese
journal and newspaper accounts to examine their significance
and validity.
The thesis is divided into three chapters examining three chronological
groups of criticisms. The first chapter examines
criticisms referring to Chang's past (1927-1951), the second
examines criticisms of events immediately prior to the Hundred
Flowers Movement (1952-1956) and the third examines criticisms
pertaining directly to the Hundred Flowers Movement.
Existing interpretations of the Hundred Flowers Movement stress
the spontaneity of the Movement, the importance of factional
differences within the Chinese leadership, and the importance
of the emergence of "disturbances" beyond the expectations of
the Chinese leadership. An examination of the criticisms of
Chang Nai-Ch'i suggests that the Hundred Flowers Movement was
not in any sense spontaneous, and that the "disturbances"
which led to an about-face by the Chinese leadership, may have
been a product of weaknesses within the Chinese political process,
weaknesses that were both factional and historical in nature. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41952 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Smith, John M |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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