100 flower campaign

• What is the quote Mao says about the 100 flowers campaign?


  ‘Let 100 flowers bloom and 100 schools of thought contend’
• What were the political reasons for Mao launching the 100 flowers campaign?


  He was worried Party members were becoming lazy

  The revolutionary spirit was dying

  He wanted intellectuals to point out mistakes and force party members to have to act on them.
• What were the economic reasons for Mao launching the 100 flowers campaign?


  Production was still very low in agriculture

  Mao wanted to catch up with the west which would require the help of intellectuals
• What were the international reasons for Mao launching the 100 flowers campaign?


  Khrushchev had made a speech critisising Stalins brutal personality, Mao felt nervous that he may be open to critisim for such behaviour
• What happened when Mao first launched the 100 flowers campaign?


  Nothino people were scared and thought it was a trap
• What was the 100 flowers campaign?


  A campaign to try and get people to speak out and criticise the party and tell them the mistakes they made.
• When did Mao re-launch the 100 flowers campaign and how did he get it to work this time?


  Feb 1957 and he admitted the mistakes the party had made and they shouldn’t have labelled intellectuals as enemies
• What were some of the criticisms of the party?

  No democracy

  No freedom of expression

  Use of violence was compared to the Nazis

  Privileged life of the party
• What is the famous quote about the hundred flowers campaign?


  ‘dissatisfied peasants can throw chairman Mao’s portrait in the toilet’
• When did Mao stop the 100 flowers campaign?


  June 1957
• What quote did Mao use about why he stopped the campaign?

  ’poisonous weeds in fragrant flowers’
• What campaign did Mao launch following the 100 flowers campaign?


  Anti-rightist campaign
• What happened in the anti-rightists campaign?

  Cadres were given a quota to label 5% in a work unit as Rightists. 500,000 entered re-education campaigns
• Why do some people think Mao launched the 100 flowers campaign?


  As a trap to wash out anti-communists

  He felt secure as a leader

  To genuinely welcome criticism and to stop beauracrats overstepping the mark