Red Legacy in China

Struggle sessions. Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

                                          

When one sees several photographs of the struggle sessions in a group as here it is clear that there was, as we say in today's computer age, a template for them, or in academic nomenclature there was an anthropology to the struggle sessions.

They were not "spontaneous demonstrations of proletarian anger" as Mao said.  They were highly organized: they were set for a particular day and time; they were held in large public venues; the victims were specifically, not randomly, selected; the victims were placed in an elevated position in relation to the angry proletarians; they were made to wear placards around their necks; they were made to bend forward in submission; in almost all cases their heads were held back so that the humiliation was increased by having their faces visible; they were usually "jet-planed" at some point in the proceeding; they, particularly women, often had their faces splashed with ink and their hair cut unevenly in a yin yang design to symbolize the good-bad polarities.