During the Boluan Fanzheng period, the growth of scar literature corresponded with the Beijing Spring, a period of greater openness in Chinese society; scar literature has even been described as a "second Hundred Flowers Movement".[2] Though scar literature focuses on trauma and oppression, and has been described as largely negative, love and faith remained its major themes; its practitioners were typically not opposed to Communism, but on the converse retained faith in the ability of the Party to rectify past tragedies, and "embraced love as a key to solving social problems".[3] Regardless, though their writing was hailed as marking a revival of the tradition of socialist realism in the arts, it in fact represented a break from that tradition, as it was no longer subject to party control, and was not under an obligation to serve the purpose of political education for the masses.[4]