Struggle session

Struggle sessions (Chinese: 批斗大会; pinyin: pīdòu dàhuì), or denunciation rallies or struggle meetings, were public spectacles during the Cultural Revolution and in Maoist China, during which people accused of being "class enemies" were publicly humiliated, accused and criticized in public—sometimes to the point of violence and even death—often by people with whom they were close. The 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 (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, [and] children 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. They were forced to wear placards around their necks bearing the words "Counter-Revolutionary Revisionist" or other similar slogans with their names crossed out. Specific methods of abuse included hair shaving (阴阳头), dunce caps, "jetplane position" (喷气式) (a type of stress position), and verbal and physical attacks.