A hundred flowers : how literature shaped Maoism / Dayton Lekner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lekner, Dayton, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in the history of the People's Republic of China.

Cambridge studies in the history of the People's Republic of China

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Xu, Chengmiao.

Communism and literature--China--History--20th century.

Communism and literature.

China--History--Hundred Flowers Campaign, 1956.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 268 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour), digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

Drawing on archival, published, and literary sources, Dayton Lekner tells the story of the Hundred Flowers campaign through the words and lives of its writers. He argues that literary practice and circulation were major forces in the shaping of Maoism and in the creation of the contemporary Chinese state.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Series page

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Flower Power

Introduction: Buds

The Flower

The Field: Approaches to Maoism

The Terrain: The Hundred Flowers and Anti-Rightist Campaigns

The Apple and the Onion

The Book: How Writers Wrote the State

What This Book Is Not About

The Root Structure

A Note on Sources

Flowers

1 Who Wrote the Campaign?

Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom

Germination

Text to Material Culture: The Flowers Transplanted

Peony Envy: Su Jinsan, Mao Zedong, and the Expansion of a Policy

2 Mao Zedong, Guo Moruo, and Sino-Soviet Propagation

Chairman Plough: Mao Enters the Garden

Fertile Fields: A Loosened Media-Sphere and the Art of Playing with Flowers

Reigniting the Literary Canon

3 Springtime for Mao: Ai Qing, Zhou Shoujuan, and the Writing of a Season

Springtime for Mao

A Picture of Spring

4 Community Gardens: Movement and Meaning among the Flora

The Meaning of Flowers

Reading and Writing the Campaign

Two Writers, One Flower: Mao Zedong and Xu Chengmiao

Weeds

5 Grass: Biodiversity and Reactions to the Hundred Flowers

Xu Takes a Dive: The Sharper Side of Flowers

Biodiversity: Plural Reactions to the Hundred Flowers

6 Thorns: Botanical Imagery as Critique

Private Gardens: Individual Expressions of Discontent

Campus Flora

7 Early Spring: Fei Xiaotong's Seasonal Dispute

"Early Spring": A Minor Fall in the Major Lift

Responding to the Chill

Going Viral: Fei's Metaphor as Meta-topic

Fei's Metaphor Connects Private Gardens

The Limits of Movement: Jian Bozan Gets a Visit, Guo Xiaochuan Identifies a Rightist, and Fei Explains His Chill

Justifying the Chill

Springtime and Its Discontents

Weather.

8 Amateur Meteorology: The Two Rivers of Sichuan and an Absence of Rain

Liu Shahe Learns His First Lesson

Liu Shahe and "Pieces on Plants"

Stars Is Born: An Errant Journal with Orthodox Roots

Stars Is Porn: Local Reactions to the Journal

9 Late Spring: Center-Provincial Climatology and Attempts to Change the Weather

Mao and "Pieces on Plants"

A Dappled Light Reaches Sichuan: The Effect of Mao's Words in Chengdu

Splices of Plants: Empathetic Poetry

The Rivers' Final Parting

Learning Literary Lessons

Seeds

10 What Gets Left Behind: History, Memory, and Image

From Networks to Cliques: The Anti-Rightist Campaign Begins

Literature and History

A Literary Field without Weeds

The Way Forward: Nature Put to Work

Guo Captures the Flowers

Removing the Chill from Spring

Super-Nature: The Great Leap and an Inversion of the Correlative Tradition

11 Who Gets Left Behind: Wu Mi and the Split Life of a Poet

Finding Space Within: Wu Mi's Split Persona

Survivors, Imagery, Memory

Conclusion: Campaign, Literary, and Historical Time

Flowers and Dreams

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on January 6, 2026).

ISBN:

1-009-60051-6

1-009-60050-8

1-009-60048-6