Zhang Zhixin (; 5 December 1930 – 4 April 1975) was a dissident member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Cultural Revolution who became famous for criticizing the idolization of Mao Zedong and the ultra-left.R. Randle Edwards, Human Rights in Contemporary China, 193 pp. 1986, 1988: Columbia Univ. Press. () She was imprisoned for six years (1969 to 1975) and tortured, then executed, for her views which contradicted those of Cultural Revolution leaders. A second CCP member who had expressed agreement with Zhang was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Many consider her a heroine among the people for standing up to the Gang of Four.Zheng, Yi. Scarlet Memorial: Tales Of Cannibalism In Modern China. 1997: Westview Press. ()
She was rehabilitated by Hu Yaobang and recognized as a revolutionary martyr and a model Communist.
Early life Zhang Zhixin was born in Tianjin in 1930. She was educated at Renmin University of China from 1951 to 1952 and later worked in the university. Zhang later became a member of the propaganda department for the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Zhang expressed her view:
Imprisonment and torture Zhang was imprisoned for her loyalty towards Liu Shaoqi. 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 CCP would be "punished by history; if not sooner, then later". For a year and a half she was frequently shackled in leg irons and tied in a harness.
In a prison political-education meeting called to criticize Lin Biao, she shouted that Mao should be responsible for what Lin did. A CCP committee 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 CCP committees.
Death and posthumous rehabilitation Zhang was paraded and executed on 4 April 1975, close to the end of the Cultural Revolution. It is reported that her larynx was slit before the execution, in order to prevent her from speaking.
On 16 October 1978, the Intermediate People's Court of Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, revoked the original judgment and acquitted Zhang Zhixin. Four years after her execution, in the spring of 1979 she was officially proclaimed a 'martyr'; 4 April 1979 was designated the day of her memorial. Although an investigation was begun into her case, Hu Yaobang had it stopped.
Zhang was celebrated in the post-Cultural Revolution era as a hero who stood up to those like the Gang of Four. She was promoted as a martyr, in part related to the posthumous rehabilitation of Liu Shaoqi's reputation. Among the cultural depictions of Zhang is her appearance as a character during a solo dance in The Song of the Chinese Revolution.
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". In 1979, Shanghai Television produced a TV drama based on the life of Zhang Zhixin, titled . In 2019, the Chinese government listed Zhang Zhixin as one of the “Most Beautiful Strivers.”
See also Censorship in the People's Republic of China Jonathan Chaves, "A Devout Prayer of the Passion of Chang Chih-hsin," Modern Chinese Literature Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Spring 1980), pp. 8–24.
References
zh:永不凋谢的红花