Zen Paradox: 1957: Altar of Suffering: Altar of Suffering

Author: Hu Ping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The "Anti-Rightist Campaign" of 1957, like a massive iceberg, slowly emerged from beneath the surface over four decades, revealing its scale, objectives, strategies, and methods. As the descendant of a "Rightist," the author extensively collected official and unofficial, public and private materials, providing a detailed account and analysis of the campaign's origins and developments, from high-level decisions to grassroots reactions, unfolding this national tragedy before our eyes. This is a long-form (: documentary) about the 1957 Anti-Rightist Campaign. The text draws from extensive firsthand interview records, domestic and international research materials, memoirs, and the author's deep reflections on that period, aiming to reconstruct and reflect on the history from dual perspectives of culture and society. The book primarily portrays the vivid performances of intellectuals during and around the 1957 Anti-Rightist Campaign, including major "Rightists" like Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji, as well as leaders of the new China such as Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai. These figures exhibited both independent responses and intertwined interactions during the campaign. There were power struggles where survival was at stake, disagreements over the future of China, grand "open strategies," petty betrayals, treacherous backstabbing from friends, and the passionate but blind fervor of the masses. More than anything, there was the immense sense of loss when beliefs crumbled and the inexplicable bewilderment when absurd historical moments arrived. The book's effort to record the events truthfully and in detail is its most compelling aspect and also its ambitious commemoration of that era.