10 - The Party and the intellectuals: phase two

Summary

THE DENIGRATION OF INTELLECTUAL ENDEAVOR IN THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

The suppression of specific intellectuals in the Anti-Rightist campaign turned into anti-intellectualism in general in the Great Leap Forward (GLF). The leadership's hope of using the intellectuals as key figures in China's modernization had been dashed when both intellectuals and students criticized the Party in the Hundred Flowers. After a decade of indoctrination and ideological remolding campaigns, intellectuals still questioned Party policies. The leadership's disillusion with the intellectuals was reflected in Propaganda Director Lu Ting-i's statements in the GLF period. Whereas in the Hundred Flowers he had used Mao's slogan to encourage intellectuals with Western learning to participate actively in the nation building, effort, in a Kuang-ming Daily article of 13 March 1958 he rejected Western learning as “poisonous weeds”: “There is bankruptcy in bourgeois philosophy, science, social sciences, literature and arts. The only value in studying them is that we can learn to recognize them as ‘poisonous weeds’ and by weeding, use them as fertilizer.”

Even though the intellectuals in the GLF were less direct objects of attack than in the Anti-Rightist Campaign, their relative position in Chinese society deteriorated further. In contrast to the Hundred Flowers period, the GLF emphasized political reliability rather than professional skill. A new slogan was advanced, calling on people in all walks of life, including intellectuals, to be “Red and expert,” with the emphasis on “Red” As the movement gained momentum, the emphasis shifted almost wholly to redness. Intelligence was equated with political commitment and was no longer regarded as the monopoly of the few, and this change presaged the Cultural Revolution.