ABSTRACT
By the 1980s, many of the customary traditions associated with the holiday had been stripped away, leaving its primary importance as simply the longest national holiday of the year and when most all Chinese were granted a three-day holiday. Particularly, during the first years of Deng Xiaoping’ leadership, with less emphasis on political campaigns, an increasingly large number of families were able to celebrate the Spring Festival together. On March 30, 1979, Deng Xiaoping outlined the Four Cardinal Principles: keeping to the socialist road, upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship (dictatorship of the proletariat), upholding leadership by the Communist Party, and upholding Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. A leading reformer under Deng Xiaoping and seen by many as his anointed heir, but his support for the student demonstrations in 1989 caused him to be stripped of all titles and spend the last 15 years of his life under house arrest, until his death in 2005.
