On the 1979 Joint Conference

Abstract

In January 1979 the various units in Beijing sent down a document concerning Beijing Municipality; this document misinterpreted Democracy Wall, the unofficial periodicals, and the small organizations. At the time, society had all kinds of views concerning Democracy Wall and the unofficial periodicals. In order to correct the distorted image, and to let society have a direct perception of us, the various unofficial periodicals all recognized the necessity to convene a large-scale forum to tell the people our aim, opinions, what we want to have done, and why we want to get it done directly; at the same time we wanted to prove to people that we dared to stand up and speak and that we were not the kind of people who could only spread rumors behind people's backs. The seven unofficial periodicals that took part were April Fifth Forum, Today, People's Forum, Enlightenment, Reference Material for the Masses, Human Rights League, and Exploration. The meeting was held on January 28, 1979. Later, this gathering was called a protest meeting, After the meeting everybody thought it necessary to preserve a form of conference to facilitate communication and to have frequent consultation, Thus a "Joint Conference" was formed comprising one delegate from each of the seven periodicals, Perhaps it was because the "Joint Conference" had my home as its address and I was not particularly fond of participating in the internal affairs of other organizations that I was delegated by all the organizations to be the convener of the "Joint Conference." That organization was basically demolished in that blast of wind at the end of March 1979. Thus I announced an indefinite postponement of meetings. Later, during the "Star A r t Exhibition" incident, April Fifth Forum, Today, and Beijing Spring thought of reviewing "Joint Conference with the plan of inviting other unofficial periodicals like Fertile Soil to join in; I was again temporarily designated as the convener. But this time, before the "Joint Conference" could be formally born, it was aborted.