On the 56th anniversary of Lin Zhao's death, the China Unofficial Archives wants to highlight several key additions to our collection of works about Lin Zhao, in memory of one of the most important freedom fighters and thinkers in the history of the People’s Republic.
On April 29, 1968, Lin, a 36-year-old political dissident, was sentenced to death and executed the same day. Inspired by Communist ideas, Lin passionately followed the Chinese Communist Party until the Anti-Rightist Campaign, when she witnessed and experienced the cruelty of those in power disguised in lofty ideals. She "could not allow herself to be degraded as a lackey of a tyrannical government" (“A Letter to the Editorial Board of People's Daily”), and turned into a staunch critic of the authorities. Though subject to torture behind bars, she continued to write, sometimes in her own blood when denied paper and pen, criticizing CCP’s tyrannical rule and expounding her thoughts on democracy, freedom, and political resistance.
In the years after her death, Lin Zhao's personal files were briefly made public and then sealed again, and memorizing Lin Zhao was allowed until one day authorities started to prevent visitors to grave. Today in China, there’s no room for even low-profile memorials, or texts that deviate from the official narrative. We hope that the China Unofficial Archives can do its part to preserve the history and let more people know and remember Lin Zhao.
The Archive currently holds several entries about Lin Zhao (search Lin Zhao in the Archive), including her own writings, as well as books and documentaries about her. This collection is far from complete, and we will continue to include more relevant contents. Among these are Lin Zhao’s most famous writing from prison “A Letter to the Editorial Board of People's Daily,” (also called “the 140,000-words letter”) and her eloquent poem “The Day Prometheus Suffered,” which was published in the first and only issue of the underground magazine Spark. Soon available will be Lin Zhao Anthology, a collection compiled and edited by Lin’s friends, containing nearly one hundred of Lin's works, including essays, poems, commentaries, and news reports written since her middle school years, as well as her manuscripts and letters that were written in prison and later returned to her family.
These unofficial records show how Lin Zhao stood firm in her values, and testified for history with her life in that era when fear paralyzed the whole society. Through the different perspectives of the writings, we can also look beyond the abstract, monolithic heroic image of dissidents, and understand Lin’s real, complicated experience as a woman and a unique individual.
Reading Lin Zhao creates a strong sense of connection for people today: then, as now, we live in an era of voicelessness, and people who "treat freedom as air and food" (“The Seagull”) were labeled political "aliens" (“Father's Blood”) and subject to cruel persecution. About the goal of resistance, she argued that resistance should not lead to another tyranny, and "as long as there are still people enslaved, no one is really free, not even those who enslave others!" ("A Letter to the Editorial Board of the People's Daily") On the strategies of resistance, she pointed out that organization is only a form, and the core lies in people: it's like making a necklace: as long as the beads are there, "one can use any thread to string" ("Thought Report and Self-Criticism"). Such political wisdom and vision remain relevant to today’s social movements.
After Lin Zhao was rehabilitated in 1980, her family and friends held a memorial service for her in Beijing, at which one of the couplets read: "?" and "!". More than 40 years apart, this wordless couplet seems to echo the white paper appearing on streets and in campuses since the end of 2022. History’s power of connection is precisely why authorities spare no effort to monopolize it. At the end of his documentary In Search of Lin Zhao's Soul, the independent filmmaker Hu Jie asks, "Will history enter our memory? How will history enter our memory?" Lin Zhao answered in her poem “The Day Prometheus Suffered”: "Fire belongs to human beings, how can it be hidden forever in Heaven? Even without me stealing the fire, people will always find the light."
China Unofficial Archive Editorial Group