Wang Shiwei and "Wild Lilies": Rectification and Purges in the Chinese Communist Party, 1942-1944 (review)

Reviews 127 Using Basel archival records and family histories, Constable provides biographies and genealogies ofseveral ofthe earliest Hakka converts on the mainland and, as of1932, ofthe leading families ofShung Him Tong, in two appendixes. The value ofthese data lies in their revelation ofthe crucial importance to Hakka Christianity of successive generations ofChristians families going back to the first Hakka converts by the German missionaries in the 1840s and 1850s. From these families came Christian pastors, teachers, and church workers; they were a source of continuity and stability for Christian congregations. Since church membership and mission-school education were a means to social mobility, these Christian families also contributed much of the financial support considered a prerequisite to autonomy. The biographies are interesting and informative in themselves, but the life stories could have been more fully integrated into the thesis ofthe monograph. These, however, are minor issues, and I can recommend the work with enthusiasm . The study has important things to say on ethnicity, the Hakka Chinese, and the indigenization of Christianity. Scholars interested in any of these subjects will find it rewarding reading. Jessie G. Lutz Rutgers University Dai Qing. Wang Shiwei and "Wild Lilies": Rectification and Purges in the Chinese Communist Party, 1942-1944. Edited by David E. Apter and Timothy Cheek. Translated by Nancy Liu and Lawrence R. Sullivan. Compiled by Song Jinshou. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1994. xxxi, 204 pp. Paperback $24.95, isbn 1-56324-256-7. We have, oflate, been much apprised ofthe hygienic habits and carnal entertainments of China's once Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong. Dai Qing's insights into life within the Chinese Communist Party remind us ofsuch recent exposés. Her work, however, stands apart in that she relies on documentary material as well as personal interviews to tell the story ofWang Shiwei, the only person known to have been executed in connection with the CCP's Rectification Movement during y mversity ^ ^^ 1940s in Yan'an. Her narrative, as well as the inclusion ofEnglish translations of significant material relevant to Wang's case, are the most powerful components ofthis absorbing contribution to our understanding ofideological struggle within the CCP. ofHawai'i Press 128 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1996 Wang Shiwei was killed, according to Dai Qing, by his Red Army guards during their 1947 retreat from Yan'an. He was forty years old at the time. There were three charges for which Wang Shiwei was incarcerated: He was considered a Trotskyite, a Guomindang spy, and the founder-leader ofthe "Five Member Antiparty Gang." Although material is presented by the CCP as evidence for these accusations , it seems to find its substance only after his arrest. The charges resemble labels rather than verifiable facts, and, indeed, all three are formulated as abstractions . At Wang's arrest on April 1, 1943, and four months thereafter, the Liberation Daily articles, other essays, and various speeches associated with the antiWang movement largely reflected the ideological nature of the struggle against him. A survey of the documents included by Dai Qing shows a marked turn, however, with Kang Sheng's August 1943 speech to a Rectification Movement training class. This piece vilifies not only the thinking but also the person of Wang Shiwei. In addition to faulting Wang for ideological errors, Kang blames him for the subsequent detours of the campaign, charging him with what amounts to a conspiracy to derail the movement and undermine the CCP. Thereafter , "dehumanizing linguistics" become standard components ofthe rhetoric leveled against Wang. Dai Qing examines the execution ofWang Shiwei as a feature ofthe Rectification Movement and identifies his demise as an outcome of the campaign itself. The affront to the principle of freedom of speech represented by the ideological remolding that the CCP undertook with its members seems to be the issue here. Wang called the CCP leadership to task for its inequities, citing such elitism as the exploitation ofwomen, the acceptance ofhigher pay, and the expectation of greater privileges. These practices were, after all, what rectification should address . If one uses this book as a comment on the Rectification Movement, it is most valuable for its dramatic effect. Dai Qing focuses us away from...