“Let a hundred schools of thought contend.” That promising invitation was a thinly veiled ruse to weed out dissidents and “in the end, the Hundred Flowers Campaign had failed miserably. . . .

In 1957, Mao Tse-tung made famous his proclamation: “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend,” inviting new ideas about government and encouraging individuals to ...

Tsukiyama’s new novel takes place in 1958 and its title comes from Chairman Mao’s 1957 declaration of openness: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend ...

Let 100 schools of thought contend. The crackdown that followed have been the subject of many books by historians. Now, novelist Gail Tsukiyama takes on that tumultuous time in a new novel.