After 1949, the Party carried out a contradictory policy toward the intellectuals: On the one hand, it indoctrinated them in Marxism- Leninism-Maoism, which was imposed comprehensively and intensively than Confucianism had been on the traditional literati. On the other hand, it tried to stimulate the intellectuals to be productive in their professions. Like Stalin, the political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party looked to writers and artists to transform "the human soul" according to the Party's dictates. The Party's first effort to mobilize intellectuals to its cause began in Shanghai in the mid-i93os, primarily among the writers. Before the Party came to power and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, virtually every turn in the political climate and often major political moves were signaled by vehement debates and polemics in the literary realm. Hsiao Chűn was one of the few intellectuals to speak out against the violence that accompanied the land reform of the late 1940s.