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Zhang Zhixin

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Simplified Chinese
  
张志新

Name
  
Zhang Zhixin

Wade–Giles
  
Chang Chih-hsin

Hanyu Pinyin
  
Zhang Zhixin

Traditional Chinese
  
張志新


Zhang Zhixin httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Died
  
April 4, 1975, Shenyang, China

Education
  

Zhang Zhixin, formerly romanized Chang Chih-hsin, (December 5, 1930 - April 4, 1975) was a dissident during the Cultural Revolution who became famous for criticizing the idolization of Mao Zedong and the ultra-left. She was imprisoned for six years (1969 to 1975) and tortured, then executed, for having opposing views while being a member of the Communist Party of China. A second party member who had expressed agreement with Zhang was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Contents

Zhang Zhixin httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons44

Although many consider her a heroine among the people for standing up to the party, her experience is also a reminder of the potential punishment for deviating from party principles.

Zhang Zhixin Zhang Zhixin chinaorgcn

She did not consider herself anti-communist, but rather a "true Marxist" for whom Mao had distorted the communist cause. Even in prison, she insisted she was a member of the Communist Party of China. Many of her points of view were similar to those of the Communist leaders who succeeded Mao. For this reason, she was rehabilitated by Hu Yaobang and recognized as a revolutionary martyr, a model communist.

Zhang Zhixin Zhang Zhixin The Woman who Took on the Gang of Four ChinaFile

Early life

Zhang Zhixin The story of Zhang Zhixin

Zhang Zhixin was born in Tianjin in 1930. She was educated in Renmin University of China from 1951 to 1952 and later worked in this university. Zhang later became a member of the Communist Party Propaganda Department at Liaoning province.

Zhang Zhixin Zhang Zhixin documentary YouTube
Zhang expressed her view:

Imprisonment and torture

Zhang Zhixin FileZhang Zhixin younger 2jpg Wikimedia Commons

In 1969, she was imprisoned in a tiny cell for her critical comments toward Mao. She saved up 2 yuan a month to purchase books to read in the facility, where she wrote her study notes on toilet paper. The prison guards then took her pen away. She proclaimed that the party would be "punished by history; if not sooner, than later". For a year and a half she was frequently shackled in leg irons and tied in a harness.

Zhang Zhixin Zhang Zhixin

The party forced her to sign divorce papers. Confined in an all-male prison, she was raped and tortured. Other male prisoners were told they could reduce their sentences if they were willing to torture Zhang.

In a prison political educational meeting called to criticize Lin Biao, she shouted that Mao should be responsible for what Lin did. A party secretary from Liaoning Province urged that she be executed quickly. During the Cultural Revolution, most legal procedures were abolished: without judges or trials, cases were decided by various levels of the Revolutionary Committees and Communist Party committees.

Death and posthumous rehabilitation

In 1975 she was brought to the Shenyang Donglingda execution grounds where she was bound, impaled and executed by decapitation. Her final words were: "Party, my Party! Where do you want to take me?" Four years after her execution, in the spring of 1979 she was officially proclaimed a 'martyr'; April 4, 1979 was designated the day of her memorial. Although an investigation was begun into her case, party leader Hu Yaobang had it stopped.

Memorial

In People's Park in central Guangzhou, a statue named Mengshi (The Brave) has been raised to commemorate Zhang Zhixin. The statue depicts a nude female warrior shooting an arrow on horseback, and the inscription on its pedestal reads "dedicated to people who struggle for truth".

References

Zhang Zhixin Wikipedia


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