I never heard of the name of Lin Zhao before. In Chinese history textbooks, some martyrs like Qiu Jin are recorded and praised for there devotion of their causes of revolution or reform. Any events or person during that dark age were deliberately ignored in history books except very vague and short introduction. However, it is people who created history, not the history textbooks. Forced amnesia are not possible because those events and person would be remembered by those were concerned with or involved in it. Actually I got to know Lin Zhao and other names like Zhang Zhixin from internet.
Lin Zhao was born in 1932 when China was not liberalized. She was a fervent believer of communism and also Mao. She ever supported underground CCP activities at that time. After the liberation of China, she run away from home and got to a vocational school to study journalism. Then she became a CCP member and later admitted by the department of journalism of Peking University. She was very different from other classmates in terms of life style and thinking. She got involved in the anti-rightist campaign and criticized its craziness. She was condemned as rightist and asked to confess but she refused. Then she was put in jail in Shanghai. She wrote a great deal of essays and poems criticizing the ill government. She was deprived of pen and paper. She used her blood as ink, comb as pen and clothes slices as paper. In 1968 she was sentenced to death. What is the most ironical thing is, Lin's family was asked to pay for 5 cents of bullet fee. Lin's death sentence was secretly done and many people including her classmates and friends knew it several years later.
I saw some of those blood writings in a documentary "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul". I was completely shocked with that. It is not stage property in an ordinary film but real thing. She not only wrote essays and poem to criticize the system, but defended freedom through her struggle against the authorities. Her critics were inspired by the spirit of Christian traditions and also awareness of the situation of society. Some of her opinions are permanent. She wrote, "not only the slaves are deprived of freedom, but also those masters are not free". She also said, "freedom can't be obtained by replacing a slavery state with another". These words remain very meaningful today.
During the vindiction movement afterwards, Zhang Zhixin was officially regarded as martyr. Lin Zhao was just announced a case of mistrial. I thought that this kind of discrimination came from their different attitude on socialism. They are both adherents of socialism but they were killed in different reasons. Zhang Zhixin opposed personal cult of Mao and pointed out some wrongdoings of Mao and thought Mao went too left and diverted from fundamental Marxism. So Zhang was a socialist until death. On the contrary, Lin Zhao criticized the whole autocratic system on behalf of freedom and equality. Lin was greatly influenced by Christianity because she was a Christian from very young age. In view of CCP, Zhang is a family member and Lin was a stranger, which finally lead to different treatment after their deaths. But for me, it doesn't matter. The significance of Lin Zhao in the process of liberation of Chinese people would not be diminished without official recognizing.
I recommend anyone who want to understand practiced liberalism to see the documentary "Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul".
reference:
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/02/AR2008070203677_4.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008070202549&s_pos=
2. http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/stao/memo_linzhao
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