
Struggle sessions (), or denunciation rallies or struggle meetings,
were violent public spectacles in
Maoist China
Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Re ...
where people accused of being "
class enemies" were
publicly humiliated, accused, beaten and tortured, sometimes to death, often by people with whom they were close.
These public rallies were most popular in the
mass campaigns immediately before and after the
establishment of the People's Republic of China, and peaked during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
(1966–1976), when they were used to instill a crusading spirit among crowds to promote
Maoist thought reform.
Struggle sessions were usually conducted at the workplace, classrooms and auditoriums, where "students were pitted against their teachers, friends and spouses were pressured to betray one another,
ndchildren were manipulated into exposing their parents", causing a breakdown in interpersonal relationships and social trust.
Staging, scripts and agitators were prearranged by the Maoists to incite crowd support.
In particular, the denunciation of prominent "class enemies" was often conducted in public squares and marked by large crowds of people who surrounded the kneeling victim, raised their fists, and shouted accusations of misdeeds.
Specific methods of abuse included
hair shaving (),
dunce caps, "jetting" () (similar to
strappado
The strappado, also known as corda, is a form of torture in which the victim's hands are tied behind their back and the victim is suspended by a rope attached to the wrists, typically resulting in dislocated shoulders. Weights may be added to ...
), and verbal and physical attacks.
Etymology
The term () comes from (, ) and (, ), therefore the whole expression conveys the message of "inciting the spirit of judgment and fighting", and instead of saying the full phrase , one often speaks of the shortened version ().
The term "struggle session" refers to a session of (): the session is held in public and often attended by a large crowd of people, during which the target is publicly humiliated and subject to verbal and physical abuse, for having "
counterrevolutionary
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution has occurred, in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "c ...
" thinking or behavior.
History
Origins and development

Struggle sessions developed from similar ideas of criticism and
self-criticism
Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...
in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
from the 1920s. Chinese communists initially resisted this practice, as struggle sessions conflicted with the Chinese concept of "
saving face"; however, these sessions became commonplace at
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
(CCP) meetings during the 1930s due to public popularity.
Struggle sessions emerged in China as a tactic to secure the allegiance of the Chinese people during the
Land Reform Movement (which ended in 1953). As early as the 1940s, in areas controlled by the CCP during the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
, the CCP encouraged peasants to "criticize" and "struggle against" land owners in order to shape class consciousness. This campaign sought to mobilize the masses through "speak bitterness" sessions (, ''sùkǔ'', 'give utterance to grief') in which peasants accused land owners.
The strongest accusations in the "speak bitterness" sessions would be incorporated into scripted and stage-managed public mass accusation meetings (, ''kòngsù dàhuì''). Cadres then cemented the peasants' loyalty by inducing them to actively participate in violent acts against landowners. Escalating violence during the Land Reform Movement resulted in the mass killing of landlords. Later struggle sessions were adapted to use outside the CCP as a means of consolidating control of areas under its jurisdiction.
Struggle sessions were further employed during the
Anti-Rightist Campaign
The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign w ...
launched by
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
in 1957, in which a large number of people both inside and outside the CCP were labeled as "
rightists
Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, r ...
" and subjected to persecution and public "criticism". Many alleged "rightists" were repeatedly "struggled against" and purged. According to official CCP statistics released during the "
Boluan Fanzheng
''Boluan Fanzheng'' () refers to a period of significant sociopolitical reforms starting with the accession of Deng Xiaoping to the paramount leader of China, paramount leadership in China, replacing Hua Guofeng, who had been appointed as Mao Z ...
" period after Mao's death, the campaign resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people.
Cultural Revolution
After the disasters of the
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...
, Mao Zedong had stepped back from presiding over the daily affairs of
China's Central Committee. In order to regain power and defeat political enemies within the party, Mao leveraged his
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...
to unleash the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...
in 1966.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), struggle sessions were widely conducted by
Red Guards
The Red Guards () were a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 until their abolition in 1968, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes
According to a ...
and various
rebel groups across mainland China.
Though there was no specific definition for the "targets of struggle", they included the
Five Black Categories
The "Five Black Categories" () were classifications of political identity and social status in History of the People's Republic of China#Mao era (1949–1976), Mao era (1949–1976) of the People's Republic of China, especially during the Chinese C ...
and anyone else who could be deemed an enemy of
Mao Zedong Thought
Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Re ...
. According to one source on classified official statistics, nearly 2 million Chinese were killed and another 125 million were either persecuted or "struggled against" (subject to struggle sessions) during the Cultural Revolution.
In the early phase of the revolution, mass violence spread over school campuses, where teachers and professors were subjected to frequent struggle sessions, abused, humiliated, and beaten by their students.
Intellectuals were labelled as
counter-revolutionaries
A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution has occurred, in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "c ...
("反动学术权威") and were even called "
Stinking Old Ninth",
subject to frequent struggle sessions and extensive torture.
During the
Red August
Red August () is a term used to indicate a period of political violence and massacres in Beijing beginning in August 1966, during the Cultural Revolution. According to official statistics published in 1980 after the end of the Cultural Revolution ...
of Beijing in 1966, notable intellectuals such as
Lao She
Shu Qingchun (3 February 189924 August 1966), known by his pen name Lao She, was a Chinese writer of Manchu ethnicity, known for his vivid portrayal of urban life and his colorful use of the Beijing dialect, such as in the novel '' Rickshaw Boy' ...
and
Chen Mengjia committed suicide after being humiliated and "struggled against".
Meanwhile,
Zhou Zuoren requested
euthanasia
Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...
from the local police after being harassed by Red Guards, but received no reply. Zhou eventually died of a sudden relapse of an illness on May 6, 1967. Top government officials, including
Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi ( ; 24 November 189812 November 1969) was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. He was the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959, first-ranking Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communis ...
,
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
,
Peng Dehuai
Peng Dehuai (October 24, 1898November 29, 1974; also spelled as Peng Teh-Huai) was a Chinese general and politician who was the Minister of National Defense (China), Minister of National Defense from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor ...
, and
Tao Zhu
Tao Zhu (; 16 January 1908 – 30 November 1969) was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Biography
Tao was born in Qiyang, Qiyang County, Hunan, on 16 January 1908.
He was imprisoned in Nanjing by the K ...
, were also widely "struggled against" and even persecuted to death during the revolution.
After the Cultural Revolution, struggle sessions were disowned in China, starting from the Boluan Fanzheng period, when the reformers, led by Deng Xiaoping, took power in December 1978.
Deng and other senior officials prohibited struggle sessions and other forms of Mao-era violent political campaigns, and the primary focus of Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government shifted from "
class struggle
In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...
" to "
economic construction".
Academic studies
Purposes
Frederick T. C. Yu identified three categories of mass campaigns employed by the CCP in the years before and after the
establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC):
* Economic campaigns sought to improve conditions, often by increasing production in particular sectors of the economy.
* Ideological campaigns sought to change people's thinking and behaviour.
* Struggle sessions were similar to ideological campaigns, but "their focus is on the elimination of the power base and/or class position of enemy classes or groups."
The process of struggle sessions served multiple purposes. First, it demonstrated to the masses that the party was determined to subdue any opposition (generally labeled "class enemies"), by violence if necessary. Second, potential rivals were crushed. Third, those who attacked the targeted foes became complicit in the violence and hence invested in the state. All three served to consolidate the party's control, which was deemed necessary because party members constituted a small minority of China's population.
Both accusation meetings and mass trials were largely propaganda tools to accomplish the party's aims.
Klaus Mühlhahn, professor of China studies at
Freie Universität Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...
, wrote:
Julia C. Strauss observed that public tribunals were "but the visible
dénouement of a show that had been many weeks in preparation".
Accounts
Anne F. Thurston, in ''Enemies of the People'', gave a description of a struggle session for the professor
You Xiaoli
In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from ...
: "I had many feelings at that struggle session. I thought there were some bad people in the audience. But I also thought there were many ignorant people, people who did not understand what was happening, so I pitied that kind of person. They brought workers and peasants into the meetings, and they could not understand what was happening. But I was also angry."
Depictions in media
The struggle session has become one of the most emblematic and recognizable visuals from the Cultural Revolution, often depicted in film and TV to immediately place viewers in the era. Belinda Qian He, professor of East Asian and Cinema & Media studies at the University of Maryland, even describes these "show trials" as "the period's iconic form of violence".
Notable examples of struggle sessions shown in Chinese cinema can be found in ''
Farewell My Concubine (1993)'' and ''
To Live (1994)''. Both historical dramas achieved immense international acclaim, and both films were censored in mainland China for their critical depictions of the Cultural Revolution.
''3 Body Problem''
In 2024,
Netflix's global adaptation of the award-winning Chinese science fiction novel ''
The Three-Body Problem'' by
Liu Cixin
Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...
sparked significant controversy in China by opening with a brutal scene from the Cultural Revolution.
In the first episode,
Ye Wenjie, one of the main characters, watches in horror as her father, a physics professor at the prestigious
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...
, is publicly beaten to death in a struggle session.
The scene may have been inspired by the true story of
Ye Qisong, who was a renowned Chinese physicist persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and who shares the same family name as the fictional character.
The real Ye even founded the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University.
Though the series' opening was criticized on Chinese social media for casting China in a negative light, the portrayal of the struggle session was done with original author Liu Cixin's blessing.
In an interview with
The Chosun Daily, a Korean newspaper, Liu stated that he "provided personal opinions as an advisor" to the Netflix production, and while not all of his suggestions were taken, "the depiction of the
ultural Revolutiondid not deviate from
isoriginal work."
Liu had originally intended to open the novel the same way, but moved the scenes to the middle of the narrative on the advice of his Chinese publisher to avoid government censorship.
When asked why he emphasized the Cultural Revolution in his book, Liu stated:
See also
*
Anti-Bolshevik League incident, 1930s purge
*
Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries
The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries ( zh, c=鎮壓反革命運動, p=zhènyā fǎngémìng yùndòng, abbreviated as zh, c=鎮反, p=zhènfǎn, labels=no) was the first campaign of political repression launched by the People's Repu ...
, early 1950s purge
*
Futian incident, 1930 purge
*
Acts of repudiation, Cuba
*
Self-criticism (Marxism–Leninism)
Self-criticism involves how an individual evaluates oneself. Self-criticism in psychology is typically studied and discussed as a negative personality trait in which a person has a disrupted self-identity. The opposite of self-criticism would be ...
*
Show trial
A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...
*
Two Minutes Hate
In the dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949) by George Orwell, the Two Minutes Hate is the daily period during which members of the Outer and Inner Party of Oceania must watch a film depicting Emmanuel Goldstein, the principal enemy ...
, in Orwell's novel, ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically ...
''
*
Kangaroo court
Kangaroo court is an informal pejorative term for a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc. A kangaroo court ma ...
*
Presumption of guilt
A presumption of guilt is any presumption within the criminal justice system that a person is guilty of a crime, for example a presumption that a suspect is guilty unless or until proven to be innocent. Such a presumption may legitimately arise ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Struggle session
Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party
Cultural Revolution
Group processes
Maoist China
Maoist terminology
Meetings
Political repression in China
Abuse of the legal system
Vigilantism
Crowd psychology
Torture in China
Mass psychogenic illness