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One Communist Party member, named Wang Wenliu, developed a reputation for eating male genitals or preserving them in liquor. Lower-ranking citizens “were allowed only to peck at the victims’ arms and thighs.” Senior officials also reportedly took part in “flesh banquets,” reserving the tender hearts and livers of their opponents in Struggle Sessions for themselves to boil with spices and pork. That horrific practice began in 1968 when students at Wuxuan Middle School beat their geography teacher to death and carried her body to the banks of the Qian River where they forced another teacher to cut out her heart and liver.īack at the school, the students cooked and ate the organs. Some of the worst such demonstrations took place in Wuxuan County, where officials invoked a grisly tradition of eating their rivals’ hearts, livers and genitals. The murder was ghastly, worse than beasts.” According to one eyewitness, “All the cannibalism was due to class struggle being whipped up, and was used to express a kind of hatred. Therefore, the mass demonstrations of cannibalism in Guangxi couldn’t have been due to hunger. While cannibalism had occurred in China during the Great Famine out of desperation or necessity, by the late 1960s, food supplies had been largely restored. So-called “Struggle Sessions” became a popular form of punishment during which members of the Chinese Communist Party publicly humiliated and tortured dissenters or opponents.īut these sessions often turned extremely violent, and in some regions, devolved to cannibalism. Citizens Cannibalize Their Political Opponentsīettmann/Getty Images Mao indicated “Five Black Categories” for his rivals, which included rightists, counter-revolutionaries, “bad influences,” wealthy farmers, and landlords.Īll over the country, violent uprisings occurred. What ensued was a civilian clash that saw lynching, torture, and violence spread across the region. In such a charged atmosphere, ordinary citizens saw each other as class enemies to be destroyed. Soon after, Mao gave his blessing to the Red Guards, a group of militant, idealistic students who revered him and violently opposed anyone suspected of disloyalty and who ousted any dissenters.Īs local governments broke down under constant attacks from Red Guards and factional infighting, ordinary citizens lost faith in national politics and turned on each other in the frenzy. He did so on May 16, 1966, when he publicly accused several high-ranking leaders of being “counter-revolutionary revisionists” plotting to undermine his Party from within. The humiliated leader refused to accept even a minor demotion, however, and soon began planning his path back to supremacy. Mao was thus forced to admit his failure in 1962 and step down from the presidency, but he retained leadership of the Communist Party.

Struggle session 50 series#

The results were disastrous: over 50 million people died during the ensuing Great Chinese Famine, and tens of thousands more in a series of related disasters.

In 1958, Chinese premier Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward, an ill thought-out campaign to transform the country into an industrial powerhouse. Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images People of all ages and backgrounds were expected to take part in the Cultural Revolution, with young people encouraged to join the violent Red Guards.