“Poison grass needs to be weeded out. People on
the right party must be ‘fixed.’ Failure to do so will
result in grave mistakes. This must be done bit, by
bit, kill off the enemy one by one.”
-Mao
“Intellectuals are beginning to . . . change
their mood from cautious to open . . . One
day punishment will come down on their
heads . . . You must stiffen your scalps and let
them attack! . . . Let all those ox devils and
snake demons . . . curse us for a few months.
I am casting a long line to bait big fish”
-Mao
"Let Flowers of Many Kinds Blossom,
Diverse Schools of Thought Contend!“
-Mao
"Intellectuals are often ignorant and
have little or experience in practical
matters"
-Mao
Thesis: Mao’s Hundred Flowers
Campaign and Thought Reform failed
to create any reforms for China as it
was thought to be a devious way of
flushing out the opposition rather than
a genuine attempt to find out what the
people thought.
Thesis Rational
• Thesis: Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign and Thought Reform failed to create any reforms for
China as it was thought to be a devious way of flushing out the opposition rather than a genuine
attempt to find out what the people thought.
• The Thought Reform was meant to change peoples thoughts in order to help develop a
communist country where everything was shared and all people were equal.
• It is important to Mao that all people followed his Communist ways of leadership had no thoughts
of being superior to him. To make sure of this the Hundred Flowers Campaign was created in
order to find out the Chinese thoughts on Mao himself and communism.
• The Hundred Flowers Campaign was a time of debate and reflection on how the government was
being run and allowed all citizens to freely express their views on Mao and the communist
government.
• Mao presented this as a genuine way to find out the peoples thoughts but in the end it was a
scam to manipulate the people who didn’t express a liking for Communism which tended to
consists of all of the Intellectuals or highly educated.
• For those who expressed a negative attitude toward Communism, they would be humanized for
their thoughts and be punished for their disagreement with the government by sending them to
labor camps or spend time working with peasants to be re-educated.
Key
• The political cartoon in the top left corner represents the 500,000 intellectuals who were forced
to work in labor camps or were sent to be re-educated due to their expressions against Mao’s
communist leadership during the Hundred Flowers Campaign.
• The political cartoon in the bottom left represents how Mao told the people that they could
share their opinions on the way that the Communists ran China, but instead of accepting their
criticism as instructive, he punished them and took down anyone that was against the
Communists. The cartoon shows how Mao said “Let a thousand flowers blossom” but then, in
the cartoon, the Communists tore down the flowers. This negatively affected the Chinese
people because they were told that they had the freedom to say anything about the
government, but when they did they were punished because they were viewed as “AntiCommunist”. Many people believe that Mao encouraged people to share what they thought of
the Chinese government in order to expose the intellectuals that were against Communism and
take them down.
• The political cartoon in the top right represents how the Hundred Flower Campaign looked like
a good new start to China, hearing from people about what they think about the new
government ideas. However the whole campaign was just to manipulate the upper class and reeducate them into learning the communist ways. The Hundred Flowers Campaign was the start
to a whole new army of young people and the greatest amount of nationalism in China’s
history. The political cartoon’s main idea is how Mao was secretly creating a huge army and
would want to become a superpower of loyal citizens and nuclear threat.
Key
• The political cartoon in the bottom right demonstrates how Mao treated the people that
listened to him and shared how they felt about the Chinese, by punishing them. Mao told the
people that they could say anything that they wanted about the government as a way of
constructive criticism, but when some of the people did as he said and shared how they felt
about the Communist government he responded by punishing them and putting them in camps
in order to “reeducate” them. This is shown in the cartoon because he said “Let a hundred
flowers blossom” meaning for the people to speak up, and when the flowers did grow, he
ultimately killed the flowers and silenced the people.
• The political cartoon in the middle represents how in the Thought Reform Mao and the
communist government wanted to hear from the people about how they liked and felt
about the new communist way of life. However, if someone spoke up against the
communist they would imprison them and send them to labor camps to teach them
the communist ways. Many of the intellectuals where the ones to speak up against the
government. This led to about 500,000 people being punished and “re-educated.” This
created a fear factor in the Chinese people making them not want to speak up against
the communist leaders because they knew that they would be severely punished. The
hundred flower campaign allowed Mao to get rid of any opponents and begin the raise
of The Red Guard and the communist’s enthusiasts.
Key
• The quote in yellow is a good example of Mao displaying his favoritism over the peasants than
the intellectuals of society. Mao always thought the foundation of society was the working class
people or the peasants, and thought they were the most important in order to make
improvement on society. In this specific statement Mao is saying that the intellectuals do not
know anything about real life situations because they believe that they are above everybody
else in society and do not understand what it is like to overcome adversity like the peasants
have. Also, in order to make a better society Mao is saying to get rid of the intellectuals because
they pose a threat and are considered the opponent, and in order for Mao’s plan to follow
through then the intellectuals must be destroyed.
• This statement by Mao actually will do nothing but hurt China’s growth and improvement. The
intellectuals are the people of society that received high education and actually excel at making
reasonable and smart real life decisions. Without the intellectuals the government would soon
collapse, and this statement by Mao is just another example about how the Hundred Flowers
Campaign was not a true attempt at improving society, but seeing the opposition and bringing
them to an end so he could still reign.
Key
• The quote in black is Mao stating the he will wait for the response of the people on the
campaign and then he will take further action based on the response. Again, just another sign
that Mao is just trying to annihilate the opposition, more than he is trying to improve China as a
whole. Mao is simply waiting to see true communists that are supporting him vs. the people
who are against the idea of communism and are trying to show that the idea is absurd. Mao
takes cruel action against the anti- communists and will try to kill them or do anything to strike
fear into them and prove that communism is the only way of life that will work in China.
• Mao is really deterring the growth of China by creating hostility between people with different
opinions on the type of government and economy that should exist in China. Mao threatening
to use acts of violence as a way to support his vision of China is going to do nothing except hurt
China. Mao was just waiting for people to reveal their true opinions, so he could first identify
his opponents, and then over power them with ease and eliminate them so all the people that
would exist would be communist supporters. Which in his mind would lead to a better China
with no disagreement, when in reality would lead to much hostility and anger and violence all
throughout China.
Key
• In the red quote, Mao Zedong is making a connection, comparing the educated intellectuals in
China to the poison grass weeds. Mao Zedong was a vicious ruler. He was one of the most
brutal dictators that ever ruled China, yet he is continued to be celebrated throughout the
Chinese culture as some amazing, life changing leader. What Mao’s plan was to achieve country
domination was to get ahold of the young learning Chinese youth and bring them under his
power so that he can train them all to obey all of his beliefs and laws no matter how brutal they
actually were. The youth accepted these laws and went along to learn what awfulness he was
teaching to them. The older intellectuals were taken out of their natural teaching niche and
were scolded by Mao and his followers publically embarrassed them in front of tons of people.
The youth also took part in this because that is what they were taught to do. In this quote he
refers to the weeds as the intellectual people because they are enriched with the knowledge
that the youth is yet still to learn. The teachers could not teach the youth the good in life
because Mao took them to teach them his awful ways. He takes the smart people who actually
know what’s right and wrong out of their culture and trains the youth the bad ways. This was a
negative effect in China because it turned all of the citizens of China into naïve people.
Key
• The green quote demonstrates the true anger of Mao and his knowing that the intellectuals can
take down his empire if he doesn’t dispose of them properly. The intellectuals know that what
Mao is doing is corrupt and wrong. If they choose to spread this to other countries publically,
then he fears that the countries will try to step in and take over his empire. He says that they
must be punished because they aren’t cautious, they are open about their opinions. The
punishment that that he ends up assigning them are the public humiliation and brutality in
front of tons of Chinese citizens.
Created by: Maggie Renehan, Erica Kittermam, Mitchell Bates, Matt Dunkin, Matt Porreca