Cultural Reviews ing a great deal of material over the course can only find the right words when I think of of several years, he edited what he’d gath- that merciful and just God who is so far ered into a documentary called, “In Search away, and yet so close . As a Christian, In Search of the Soul of the Soul of Lin Zhao,” which revisits Lin my life belongs to my God. In order to per- of Lin Zhao Zhao’s short and tragic life. sist on my path, the path of a servant of Lin Zhao was born in 1932 in the south- God, this young person has paid a heavy BY JIN ZHONG ern city of Suzhou to a family that was physical and psychological price.” In April deeply concerned with China’s affairs. As a 1968, Lin Zhao was executed in secret. A new independent Chinese documentary secondary school student, she joined her She was 35 years old. relates the story of Lin Zhao, a political mother as a participant in the Communist Lin Zhao was rehabilitated in 1981. Of prisoner executed 35 years ago. The tragic underground movement. In 1954, her bril- the 800-odd Peking University students tale of “China’s Joan of Arc” is inspiring liant academic performance gained her who had been labeled rightists, she was reflection and self-examination among acceptance into Peking University’s Depart- the only one who chose to die rather than Chinese intellectuals. ment of Classical Chinese. In 1957, after to admit her error, and who left behind the she expressed disagreement with Mao vestiges and legacy of her protest. But only To execute a prisoner and then charge her Zedong’s anti-rightist movement, she her- a very small portion of her writings has ever family five fen for the bullet—that is the self was labeled a rightist and a “class been made public; the vast majority shocking aspect of Lin Zhao’s story. An offi- enemy,” but she refused to recant. In remains sealed by the authorities (with a cial Xinhua News Agency report on Lin 1960, she was arrested on charges of stated time limit of 50 years). From the por- Zhao’s wrongful death in 1981 noted, “This counterrevolution for publishing an under- tions of essays revealed in Hu Jie’s docu- is an amazing story that makes one’s hair ground magazine, and was imprisoned in mentary, it can be seen that Lin Zhao was stand on end.” But over the past 20-odd Shanghai’s Tilanqiao Prison. In prison she highly knowledgeable and critical of Mao years, Lin Zhao has disappeared from pub- continued to protest, and wrote many Zedong’s dictatorial rule, especially over lic view; the official media have not been essays criticizing the Chinese Communist the deception of China’s youth; she voiced allowed to report further on the case, and Party. When she failed to respond to correc- particular indignation over how China’s this heroic fighter seemed to have sunk to tion, her hands were handcuffed behind her youth was defrauded in 1957. She wrote, the bottom of the lake of history. back for 180 days. She was given no “The cunning villains used our innocence, Five years ago, Hu Jie, a 40-year old reprieve, even during menstruation. Accord- naivety and honesty; they incited and independent filmmaker raised in a military ing to her younger sister, Mao Zedong him- steered our virtue, purity and fervent tem- household, was deeply disturbed upon self went to the prison to interrogate Lin peraments. When we realized the actual learning of the case of Lin Zhao, a Peking Zhao, but she still refused to yield. absurdity of the situation and began to University student who was named a “right- In 1962, the authorities agreed to demand our democratic rights, we were ist,” used her own blood to write hundreds release Lin Zhao for medical treatment, but subjected to unprecedented persecution of thousands of words in prison and was she refused to leave prison. After her family and suppression. Our youth, passion, learn- finally executed. He decided to “resurrect” forcibly brought her home, Lin Zhao contin- ing, idealism and joy were all sacrificed to Lin Zhao, and at his own expense inter- ued to write voluminous criticisms of the the terrible rule of this wicked tyranny. How viewed many of Lin Zhao’s fellow students, government. Several months later, she was can this not be blood?”1 At the time that friends and family members. After collect- arrested again, and back in prison she pre- Lin Zhao wrote these words, Mao Zedong pared for the inevitability of death. She sub- had initiated a Cultural Revolution even mitted articles to the People’s Daily, went more crazed than the anti-rightist move- on hunger strike and wrote essays in her ment, and in the name of revolution own blood. She left behind hundreds of defrauded and used even more young thousands of words in the form of journals, people to violent and murderous ends. essays, letters to her family and poems A video compact disc of Hu Jie’s docu- brimming with brilliance and emotion. Lin mentary circulating in Hong Kong and over- Zhao’s fellow student, Zhang Yuanxun, vis- seas has raised strong reactions. Many ited Lin Zhao in prison in 1966 after he people break into tears while watching it; himself was released from custody for right- they recommend it to each other and organ- ist offences. He found that Lin Zhao’s hair ize group viewings, and many writers have had turned white, a mark of her oppres- extolled Lin Zhao as the most trenchant sion. Lin Zhao told him in front of the prison critic of the Mao era, a cultural pillar who guards that she had been subjected to hor- puts her male contemporaries to shame. rendous abuse and violence. Open Magazine has presented the view that One of the spiritual pillars in Lin Zhao’s Lin Zhao is altogether worthy to be ranked deadly struggle was her Christian faith. among the greatest freedom fighters of the Documentary film director Hu Jie. Photo: Open Using her own blood as ink, she wrote, “As I 20th century, a Chinese Joan of Arc, and Magazine silently rub the drops of blood on the wall, I has appealed to China’s intelligentsia to make Lin Zhao a household name. Hong Tilting at Windmills ernment official Huang Jingao, a county- Kong film critics have expressed the hope level cadre in coastal Fujian province, 2004 A Review of Wild Grass: Three Stories that China’s future artists might someday wrote a long letter to the central govern- of Change in Modern China . 3, produce an even more outstanding film on ment complaining about widespread cor- Ian Johson NO Lin Zhao. Some overseas scholars have ruption, and lamenting that his efforts to Pantheon Books, 2004 suggested that the film be dubbed or subti- take action on individual cases were 336 pages, $16.80 tled in English to give the West a better hamstrung by more senior officials. In a understanding of China. BY TOM KELLOGG sign of increasing central government In China, the VCD of this independent frustration over the problem, Huang’s let- film has also circulated around campuses Consider the following news stories, ter was published on the Web site of the and intellectual circles. Some university plucked from the newspapers over the last flagship People’s Daily, and dozens of professors have organized screenings for several weeks: papers followed the People’s Daily’s RIGHTS FORUM students in the hopes of raising conscious- lead. Huang himself is no stranger to ness and reflection on historical events. An • “Villager is beaten senseless after try- anti-corruption fights: several years ago, CHINA essay by Professor Ai Xiaoming of ing to expose corruption,” AFP,August 2, he uncovered an illegal slaughterhouse Guangzhou’s Zhong Shan University points 2004: Zhen Shuqing, a 46-year old in Fuzhou that was under the protection 91 out, “In today’s era of building human peanut farmer from Hebei province, was of the local police, which led to several rights, the spirit of Lin Zhao is a rediscov- beaten senseless and his daughter was arrests. During the Fuzhou investigation, ered legacy; she challenged the moral bot- jailed after he began looking into corrup- Huang had to wear a bulletproof vest tom line of the Chinese of her era, and tion in his village. Zhen began looking and was protected by bodyguards TURES teaches us that our actions are more into serious allegations of corruption because of constant threats. important than our ideologies.” Ai Xiaoming after he was elected chairman of the also highly praises the way that Lin Zhao, in finance committee of Sanlitun, a village None of these stories is particularly an environment of darkness and brutality, of 3,000 mostly poor farmers. Zhen uncommon or atypical; I found them with- “preserved her poetic vision and aesthetic ignored threats against him by local offi- out really looking, just as I was reading the REGULAR FEA sensibility.” cials, and finally faced a visit from four day’s headlines. With little effort, I could Hu Jie’s documentary successfully uses men, who beat him with iron bars until have found dozens more stories of graft film angles, visuals and music to coolly yet he passed out. “I was bedridden for two and violence, as both are very much a part emotionally depict the beauty of Lin Zhao’s months,” Mr. Zhen said. “I’m not sure if of daily life in China today.