The Hundred Flowers Campaign (百花运动, Bǎihuā Yùndòng) was a period of relative ideological liberalisation launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao Zedong in 1956, in which intellectuals, scholars and ordinary citizens were encouraged to voice criticism of the Party-state. Its name derives from Mao's slogan "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" (百花齐放，百家争鸣), first articulated in May 1956 and elaborated in his February 1957 speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People." The campaign drew on the classical allusion to the intellectual flourishing of the Warring States era and was framed as a means of strengthening socialist construction by exposing bureaucratic failings, encouraging scientific debate, and integrating non-Party intellectuals into the new order following the 1949 revolution.
The campaign unfolded slowly because intellectuals, scarred by the sufan (counter-revolutionary suppression) drives and the 1955 attack on the writer Hu Feng, were initially wary of speaking out. After repeated official reassurances through early 1957, a flood of criticism emerged between May and June 1957, much of it far harsher than the leadership anticipated. Critics attacked the CCP's monopoly on power, the privileges of cadres, the subordination of universities to Party committees, and Soviet-style dogmatism; some demanded multi-party competition and an end to one-party rule. Big-character posters (dazibao) appeared at Peking University and elsewhere, and democratic-party figures voiced demands that the leadership read as a threat to the regime's foundations.
Mao abruptly reversed course in June 1957, denouncing the critics and launching the Anti-Rightist Campaign (反右运动), led operationally by Deng Xiaoping as General Secretary. Roughly 550,000 people were officially labelled "rightists," losing posts, being sent to labour reform (laogai) or rural exile, with many rehabilitated only after 1978. Historians debate whether the Hundred Flowers Campaign was a genuine experiment that backfired or a deliberate "luring the snake from its hole" (引蛇出洞) entrapment to identify dissenters; Mao himself later claimed the latter. The episode silenced independent intellectual life, eliminated internal checks on Mao's authority, and cleared the political ground for the disastrous Great Leap Forward (1958–62) and ultimately the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). As of 2026 the campaign remains a sensitive, tightly managed topic within the People's Republic.
For exam purposes, the Hundred Flowers Campaign is a high-yield topic in modern Chinese history and world history papers (UPSC GS Paper I world history, optional History, FSOT, and China's Guokao political-history sections). Typical question angles ask candidates to explain the relationship between the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Anti-Rightist Campaign, to assess Mao's motives and whether the liberalisation was sincere, and to situate the episode within the sequence leading from de-Stalinisation abroad to the Great Leap Forward at home. Strong answers cite the specific slogan, the 1956–57 timeline, Mao's February 1957 "Correct Handling of Contradictions" speech, and the scale and consequences of the rightist purge.
Example
In June 1957, Mao Zedong reversed the Hundred Flowers Campaign and launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign, under which roughly 550,000 critics were labelled "rightists" and purged.
Frequently asked questions
The slogan was "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" (百花齐放，百家争鸣), invoking the intellectual diversity of China's Warring States period. Mao first used it in 1956 to encourage open criticism and scholarly debate.