Guangzhou's Democracy Movement in Cultural Revolution Perspective

Abstract

China's “democracy movement” seems, for the moment, to have passed into history. It began with wall-posters in Beijing in November 1978 and reached its high-tide the following February and March. By late March–April 1979, however, the first of a series of restrictions had been placed on participants, and the movement's most outspoken representatives, such as Wei Jingsheng, had been arrested. A year later there was a second crackdown, and even moderate members of the movement were ordered to desist. The final crackdown occurred in April 1981 and resulted in the arrest of more than 20 activists. Although the movement focused upon Beijing, where a wide variety of “unofficial” or “people's publications” (minjian kanwu) vied for domestic and international attention, many of China's provinces and cities produced their own “democracy activists” and publications.

Nanjing's “Second Cultural Revolution” of 1974

“…14Louie and Louie 1981; Heilmann 1993 Heilmann -1994 and Zweig 1978. 15 Brodsgaard 1981;Rosen 1985;Garside 1981;and Goodman 1981. 896 The China Quarterly, 212,December 2012, pp. 893-918…”

Individual and Collective Identities of the Beijing Democracy Wall Movement Activists, 1978–1981

“…4 The events and development of the Beijing Democracy Movement have been outlined 5 as well as the movement's relation to longer historical trends in Chinese democratic thinking. 6 Furthermore, the influence of the Cultural Revolution on the Democracy Movement activists has also been studied, 7 and the movement's close relation to the Party reformist faction duly recognized. 8 More recently the Democracy Movement has been compared to the 1989 Tiananmen student demonstrators' views 9 and it has been treated as a sign of emerging civil society 10 and part of the longer history of human rights thinking in China.…”