Heterodox Currents in China’s Cultural Revolution: A Case Study of Guangzhou by Heng Ge A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Heng Ge 2012 Heterodox Currents in China’s Cultural Revolution: A Case Study of Guangzhou Heng Ge Master of Arts Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This thesis aims to explore heterodox ideological currents that developed in the Cultural Revolution, focusing on the background and writings of the “August 5” activists and the Li Yizhe group in Guangzhou. While the Cultural Revolution produced catastrophic consequences in many regards, this thesis intends to show that there are still ways in which young participants exercised their independent thinking and developed novel political ideas that significantly diverged from the official ideology. Beginning with an overview of the development of the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou, I study the analyses of the “August 5” activists and the Li Yizhe group as well as examine how their heterodox views about China’s social and political system were inspired by their participation in the movement. ii Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................1 The Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou ...........................................................................4 Emergence of Heterodox Voices—The “August 5 Theory” .........................................11 The Foshan Conference .........................................................................................12 Voices from the Opposition ...................................................................................14 “Stillness before a Fierce Combat” .......................................................................16 “Guangzhou Must Undergo More Turmoil” .........................................................20 The End: Suppression and Demobilization ............................................................23 Socialism, Democracy, and Legality—The Li Yizhe Manifesto ...................................26 The Group and Its Members ..................................................................................28 The Manifesto ........................................................................................................31 The Fate of the Li Yizhe Group .............................................................................43 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................47 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................50 iii 1 Introduction In 1981, fifteen years after the eruption of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership officially declared this period to be a “catastrophe,” one that had led the nation to chaos. The Red Guard rebels, once enthusiastically devoted to the movement, were now described as the “lost generation.” These young rebels had been called to attack, criticize, and struggle, in the name of proletarian revolution, against the party’s élites and institutions. As described by Anita Chan in her book Children of Mao, they were the “political activists” who sincerely believed that China could be made into a prosperous and politically pure society through widespread commitment on the part of the masses.1 But after less than three years of tumult, many of the young rebels already had become disillusioned with the power struggles among the élites and turned politically inactive. There were, however, a number of Chinese youth who persisted with their critical attack of the party leaders and political system, and they held firm in their belief that the battle was worth fighting. The Cultural Revolution, to which these activists were devoted, vastly broadened their intellectual and political horizons, teaching them that dissent is possible. Although couched in language burdened by the cult of Mao, their writings were often thought-provoking and moved beyond the official ideology of the CCP. A common characteristic among authors of these “heterodox” writings is that they were often veteran rebels who had been activists in the Cultural Revolution. They were 1 Anita Chan, Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation (London: Macmillan, 1985), 6. 2 among those who most enthusiastically responded to Mao’s call “to rebel against authority” and who were suppressed severely by the Party authorities during the subsequent factional struggle and demobilization campaigns. In 1967–1968, for example, rebel groups such as the Shengwulian in Hunan, the “Bei, Jue, Yang” in Wuhan, the Anti-Restoration Society in Shanghai, and the Bohai Battle Regiment in Shandong all produced critical analyses of China’s political system and suffered similar fate. These groups and their writings were regarded as “heterodox” by many of their contemporaries and often were labeled “reactionary” by the Party authorities. As elsewhere in China, some young rebels in Guangzhou attempted to exercise their independent thinking, and they developed novel interpretations of the meaning of the Cultural Revolution—and in ways that significantly diverged from the official ideology. The so-called “August 5 Theory” (ba wu lilun) and “On Socialist Democracy and the Legal System”—the big-character poster produced by the Li Yizhe group in 1974, were among the heterodox currents of thought which emerged in the city. This paper will examine their writings as they derived from the development of the Cultural Revolution. I intend to show that even though many consequences of the Cultural Revolution could with good reason be characterized as catastrophic, there are still ways in which young participants exercised their individual thinking and developed independent political and social analyses. In the first section, I will describe the development of the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou, and in particular, the rebels’ participation in and response to the movement. The second section will introduce the background of the “August 5 Theory” and examine the writings of “August 5” activists. While focusing on two representative works of the 3 episode, “Stillness before a Fierce Combat” and “Guangzhou Must Undergo More Turmoil,” in this section I try to show how the “August 5 Theory” was developed and to explain why it was both “heterodox” and at the same time also significant to the main current of Guangzhou’s rebel movement. Then, in the third section, and in discussions of the Li Yizhe’s “On Socialist Democracy and the Legal System,” I will try to sketch out the distinctive features of their writings and to evaluate their perspectives. The section will center on the activities of key members of the Li Yizhe group and on the development of their manifesto. I will examine the exposition of the writers’ political analyses as well as their demand for democracy and legality. In doing so, I hope to provide a better understanding of the political and ideological differentiations that emerged in the Cultural Revolution. 4 The Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou The students’ involvement in the Cultural Revolution in Guangzhou started in August 1966, as Mao received tens of thousands Red Guards at Tiananmen Square. Inspired by the movement in Beijing, Guangzhou’s students began to form their own Red Guard organizations. When the students from Beijing on “exchange of experience” missions (chuanlian) arrived in Guangzhou, the local students were encouraged and began to leave the city to network with the Red Guards in other provinces. The chuanlian movement broke regional boundaries, and reinforced the communication and mutual understandings among people from different areas. A far-reaching implication was that the experience allowed young students to obtain a better understanding about the characteristics of the CCP, and provoked doubts that would later undermine their faith in the Chinese Communist regime.2 From this moment and onward, instead of an activism performed under institutional pressures, political participation now was left to one’s own choice. This shift, according to Anita Chan, was accompanied by changes in the young people’s conception of themselves, of the party and, later, even of Mao.3 By October 1966, students from different backgrounds took the opportunity to join or establish their own Red Guard organizations. The groups were of different sizes, ranging from as small as a couple of members to large groups consisting of thousand of members. Many student leaders sought to strengthen their organization by expanding and 2 Hai Feng, Guangzhou Diqu Wenge Licheng Shulüe [An Account of the Cultural Revolution in the Canton Area] (Xianggang: Youlian Yanjiusuo, 1971), 51. 3 Chan, Children of Mao, 125. 5 consolidating internally and externally, eventually forming inter-school coalitions.4 The most active organizations included: Zhongshan University August 31, South China Engineering Institute Red Flag, Zhongshan University Red Flag, and Guangzhou Medical College Red Flag.5 These organizations were to become the core of the Red Flag faction, a rebel coalition that would be formed later in Guangzhou. As the Guangzhou’s movement proceeded, conflicts among rebel and conservative groups started to emerge. The first major incident in the development