WikipediaExtracts:Hundred Flowers Campaign
Extracted from Wikipedia --
The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also known as the Hundred Flowers Movement (Chinese: 百花齊放; pinyin: Bǎihuā Qífàng) and the Double Hundred Movement (雙百方針; Shuāngbǎi Fāngzhēn), was a period from 1956 to 1957 in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, proposed to "let a hundred flowers bloom in social science and arts and let one hundred points of view be expressed in the field of science." The movement was in part a response to tensions between the CCP and Chinese intellectuals. It encouraged citizens to offer criticism and advice to the government and the party. From the Maoist perspective, the campaign was intended to serve an anti-bureaucratic purpose. The campaign was a relaxation in ideological and cultural policy, and it resulted in an increase of advice and criticism directed at the Party and its policies by those outside its rank.
As criticism increased, the Communist Party began to view it as a threat. A subsequent suppression of criticism developed into the Anti-Rightist Campaign, re-imposing Maoist orthodoxy in public expression.
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