The Blooming of a ‘Hundred Flowers’ and the Literature of the ‘Wounded Generation’

This chapter examines the relationship between Literature of the ‘Wounded Generation’ and politics in contemporary China. It explores the contradiction in the context of the history of the 'hundred flowers' policy since the mid-1950s. The fact that Zhou Enlai name was exploited to lend authority to the cultural policy of the leadership should not be taken to imply that assertions about Zhou's attempts in the early-1960s to revitalise the 'hundred flowers' were fabrications or exaggerations. As the mantle of Mao Zedong’s began to be cast away, the new leaders found it increasingly necessary to identify themselves with Zhou. Zhou, it was claimed, had spared no pains to resuscitate the defunct policy of 'letting a hundred flowers bloom' in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward. To this end, he had convened a series of meetings with writers and artists in the years 1961-1962.