Thought Reform in Daily Life: Revolutionary Ideology and the Self of a Chinese College Student, 1951–1953

Abstract

This article reexamines China's Thought Reform campaign in higher education through a college student's daily experience. Unlike previous research, which has examined the ideological effects of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on faculty members, we focus on college students' thoughts, emotions, and behavior before, during, and after the Thought Reform campaign. On the basis of in-depth analysis of personal diaries and official archives, this article examines how a college student understood, accepted, and practiced revolutionary values and the conflicts that occurred during these practices. We argue that students selectively practiced revolutionary values following personal motivations, mainly focusing on the specific values that matched their daily concerns and interests. We also argue that, although the Thought Reform campaign consolidated the CCP's power in colleges and universities, it had little effect on individuals' desires to pursue personal interests and happiness in their daily lives.

Introduction

Thought reform, or ideological remolding, is a term used widely in Chinese studies to indicate the ideological work of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reform or transform people's thoughts or ways of thinking.¹ Thought reform was initially tied to wartime mobilization; the CCP had widely practiced a series of methods of thought reform, including collective political study, group discussion, criticism, and self-criticism or confession, to remold people's attitudes during the 1942 Rectification campaign, that is, before the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949.² As soon as the CCP seized power, the Thought Reform campaign began to be carried out in the people's revolutionary universities, from whence it gradually expanded to colleges, universities, and other areas of education and literacy.

There has been much research on the Thought Reform campaign. As early as the 1950s and 1960s, Edward Hunter and Robert Lifton analyzed the process and implications of the Thought Reform campaign in terms of "brainwashing."³ Since the 1990s, with the development of research on the history of Chinese intellectuals in the twentieth century and the opening of archives,⁴ many studies have examined the implementation of the Thought Reform campaign in a wide range of contexts, from the people's revolutionary universities to other educational institutions⁵ and from the press to the intellectual world.⁶ In addition, because of recently increasing interest in ordinary people's attitudes and experiences,⁷ some scholars have studied those at the bottom of society, such as prostitutes, beggars, and prisoners, and have shown that thought reform was not merely a way of remolding people's thoughts but also a forceful means through which the state disciplined the bodies and minds of seemingly marginal individuals in order to further strengthen political control and maintain social order.⁸

Inspired by this previous research, in this article we reexamine the Thought Reform campaign in higher education through a college student's daily experience. Su Hua (苏华),⁹ an ordinary college student in the years 1951–1953,¹⁰ is the focus of this article. He was born to a wealthy family and had a "bourgeois life"—pursuing personal interests and happiness in the spring of 1951. In 1952, he actively participated in the Thought Reform campaign and tried to use revolutionary values to regulate himself. On the one hand, revolutionary ideology offered him new knowledge and skills for adapting to the new environment.¹¹ On the other hand, his personality, family background, and preexisting personal concerns inevitably influenced his experiences of absorbing and practicing the revolutionary values. The process was multifaceted and complex, full of conflicts and tensions.

It would be difficult to understand the Thought Reform campaign in its entirety without examining students' thoughts and behavior. In 1951, there were 22,085 students enrolled in Shanghai colleges and universities, 10 times the number of faculty members.¹² Like professors and famous intellectuals, these students were also required to confess their own family backgrounds and social relationships and to reform their own "bourgeois thoughts" (资产阶级思想 zichan jieji sixiang) during the Thought Reform campaign.¹³ Though it is difficult to determine the extent to which Su's case was typical of college students because students' reactions and attitudes differed, we can at least say that his case is more universal than that of professors and other famous intellectuals. However, most studies of the Thought Reform campaign in higher education have focused on faculty members rather than students.

Another reason why we focus on one person's daily experiences is because it is only through the analysis of one person's internal world that we can better understand the complex relationship between revolutionary ideology and the self. The creation of a "new person," who was to be equipped with a revolutionary identity, was one of the main goals of the Communist revolution. However, this "new person" could not be easily created from above. Many intellectuals and "counterrevolutionaries" resisted and suffered from the coercive implementation of the Thought Reform campaign, but it would be simplistic to analyze people's thoughts or behavior merely as resistance. A much larger number of young people helped the party collect the evidence of professors' "wrongdoings," participated in the meetings that criticized professors, and were mobilized to expose the "wrongdoings" of their family members and friends. We need to see how individuals' minds and behaviors were shaped by revolutionary ideology and to what extent the "new person" was created. However, in contrast to the study of Soviet history, there has been little discussion of the relationship between revolutionary ideology and the self in the study of Chinese history.¹⁴

This article defines "thought reform" as both the CCP's ideological work and the practice of individuals' understanding and absorbing revolutionary ideology in their daily lives. On the basis of analysis of Su's diaries and other official documents (drawn from the Shanghai Municipal Archives, the Collection of Important Historical Documents of the CCP [Zhonggong zhongyao lishi wen xian ziliao huibian], and the Database of Chinese Political Campaigns in the 1950s), this article attempts to explore the following three questions: How and under what circumstances did college students accept and practice revolutionary ideology in their daily lives? What conflicts and tensions occurred when they practiced the revolutionary ideology? What were the implications of the Thought Reform campaign for students' daily lives? Through these questions, this article demonstrates a multidimensional relationship between revolutionary ideology and the self in the early years of the PRC.

Su left five books of diaries dated from January 1, 1951, to December 31, 1959, with a total of over 700,000 words.¹⁵ Among them, the diaries of 1951–1953 are the main source of this article. They provide particularly useful insight into student experiences of the Thought Reform campaign, because Su recorded his experiences and activities in detail almost every day from 1951 to 1953, revealing what was not shown in official archives: how the Thought Reform campaign was carried out and experienced at the grassroots level. We think these diaries, since they are different from military diaries or reviewed school diaries, are highly valuable.¹⁶ Su wrote the following words on the first page of his diary on New Year's Day of 1951: "Record faithfully what I do every day, study and observe with objective as well as subjective eyes, and reflect upon what I did every day carefully with a cool mind, so that the meaning of this diary will not be lost."¹⁷ Indeed, besides describing his experiences and activities, he also expressed his grievances and complaints about his classmates and class cadres and wrote about his private relations with some women he did not want other people to know about. In other words, he wrote these diaries just for himself.¹⁸

Regarding "revolutionary ideology," we adopt the following three meanings based on official discourse: 1) revolutionary values for life (革命人生观 geming rensheng guan) or Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought,¹⁹ which emphasized serving the people, class struggle against the bourgeoisie, and anti-individualism; 2) a set of civic education values, including loving the motherland, loving laboring, maintaining discipline, and being of strong body and mind to defend the country;²⁰ and 3) the social values needed to be a good person or a model for CCP members, including helping others rather than pursuing personal interests, as well as being modest, working hard, and so on.²¹

Individual Daily Life before the Campaign

Let us first describe Su's personal background and see how revolutionary ideology penetrated into his life. He was born and grew up in a relatively wealthy family in Shanghai. His father was a senior manager in a machinery company in Shanghai and owned some shares of the company. His mother was a housewife. He had two sisters and one brother; all of his siblings were married by 1951. He regularly received an allowance from his parents. He spent it buying clothes (shirts, suits, and leather shoes), going dancing, playing pinball, going to movies and to traditional Chinese opera, and going out to eat. Sometimes he read books, mostly novels or practical advice books.

Su was enrolled at the Nanjing Industry Technical College (南京工业专科学校 Nanjing gongye zhuanke xuexiao) in Shanghai in the spring of 1951 and transferred to the East China Textile Engineering College (华东纺织工学院 Huadong fangzhi gong xueyuan; ECTEC) in the fall of the same year. From his diaries of 1951, we know that he was a pragmatic person. His primary concerns were his family, his health, and his academic studies. He paid close attention to his parents: he often went back home—to a traditional lilong (里弄 alley) house in Shanghai—when he had no classes, and he showed filial respect toward his parents on their birthdays. He also paid close attention to his health, focusing on eating nutritious food and doing physical exercises. He studied hard in some practical subjects he cared about, such as calculus and physics. He was not very social or outgoing. Because he wanted to have the best of everything, he sometimes quarreled with his friends over small matters.

In January 1951, when Su began his diaries, changes were occurring at colleges and universities. The institutional leadership had been partly replaced by the CCP, subjects related to the Nationalist Party's doctrine had been abolished, and new subjects about Communist revolutionary ideology such as "social development" and "dialectical materialism" were taught.²² Students' attitudes toward these subjects varied across colleges and universities. Although students at several prestigious universities had mounted demonstrations or protests against the Nationalist Party before 1949 and showed strong interest in politics, students at many colleges and universities had little concern about political studies.²³ Su was one of these students with little initial interest in political studies. He sometimes slipped out of political lectures and returned to his dormitory to study calculus or chat with his friends. On January 31, 1951, he wrote without regret in his diary, "I have not attended a single class for the politics exam tomorrow."²⁴

It is worth situating these changes in the context of the effects of the Korean War, which intensified the political involvement of ordinary citizens. After the outbreak of the war, the CCP's land reform policy became more critical of "landlords," and counterrevolutionary repression campaigns were launched throughout the country. In the spring of 1951, politics penetrated into daily life still further with the Resist America–Aid Korea (抗美援朝 Kangmei yuanchao) campaign, during which the CCP reorganized its grassroots organizations to propagate revolutionary ideology. In Shanghai, the Winter Defense Committee (冬防会 Dongfanghui) was initially organized in the side streets and alleys but gradually became the residents' committee organization at the grassroots level.²⁵ Su attended the meetings of the Winter Defense Committee to help cadres find counterrevolutionaries hidden in alleys, participated in elections of the people's representatives held at the grassroots level, and so on.²⁶

It was also during the Resist America–Aid Korea campaign that patriotic education focusing on Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong Thought was particularly emphasized in colleges and universities. At Nanjing Industry Technical College, where Su studied, the leaders of the college administration and the students' union were reorganized in March 1951 without competitive elections.²⁷ Under these new cadres, many collective events were organized: students were mobilized to listen to the radio together, to watch revolutionary dramas, to attend sports activities, and to participate in various kinds of meetings or gatherings related to suppressing counterrevolutionaries.²⁸ These activities led Su to be aware of the greatness of "New China" and the CCP. After watching a movie about the CCP's guerrillas in the War of Resistance against Japan, Su stated, "I am very lucky, but I feel ashamed for only enjoying the New China and living in the current China which is made by the flesh and blood of heroes."²⁹ On the day of the CCP anniversary celebration, he wrote, "The CCP plays the key role in the PRC. The whole world is illuminated by this incomparable bright star."³⁰ Like other young people, Su also exclaimed about the greatness of the New China and expressed his expectations and hopes for its future. These exclamations often occurred after Su had watched revolutionary films or participated in the collective activities that increased greatly after the Resist America–Aid Korea campaign.³¹ Apparently, the intensified propaganda or patriotic education activities strengthened during the Korean War produced in Su a strong emotional reaction, which led him to admire and so accept the CCP's revolutionary ideology.

However, admiration or acceptance of revolutionary ideologies does not necessarily mean that these ideologies were internalized and implemented well in daily life. Su attended political activities while he still went to dance halls. He sometimes snuck out of political study to enjoy dancing in the dance hall or to go back home and rest. When conflicts occurred between political mobilization and his health, he prioritized his health. On May 7, 1951, as part of the Resist America–Aid Korea campaign, the college administration required every student to defend the campus against the invasion of "bad elements" by their actions. Su was assigned to patrol the campus from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Since he cared about sleeping and keeping healthy, he patrolled for only 10 minutes and then slipped back to the dormitory to sleep. His behavior was immediately criticized by class cadres, which made him feel frustrated and begin to consider transferring to another college.³²

Su transferred to ECTEC in September 1951. ECTEC was a newly established college under the dual leadership of the East China Textile Administration Bureau and the East China Ministry of Higher Education.³³ With government-appointed administrative officials, the campus life at ECTEC was more organized than that at Nanjing Industry Technical College.³⁴ All newly enrolled students were required to attend an intensive political training program for five days. It was the first time that Su had engaged in such intensive political study. Lectures on revolutionary history and theories were held in the mornings, with group discussions in the afternoons and evenings. Students were divided into large groups and small groups, usually led by a Youth League member. Each large group had about twenty-three students, and each small group had roughly eight students; during this program, Su learned a range of revolutionary ideologies, such as the duty to serve the interests of his country and the people and the need to learn academic skills with a political understanding. When he heard that the Youth League would cultivate many student activists in colleges and universities, he decided to join the Youth League.³⁵ For Su, studying politics was no longer irrelevant to his own interests but a useful way to pursue a better future. It was with this motivation that he actively participated in the Thought Reform campaign.

Student Mobilization during the Campaign

Notably, the Thought Reform campaign in higher education was composed of a series of campaigns: the Three Antis, the Five Antis, Ideological Criticism and Self-criticism (思想改造阶段 Sixiang giazao jieduan), the Honesty and Frankness campaign (忠诚老实 Zhongcheng laoshi), and the Cleaning Up the Organization campaign (组织清理 Zuzhi qing li).³⁶ In East China, there were four stages of the campaign: 1) the mobilization and preparation stage, including learning policies, training cadres, and establishing unified mobilizational institutions; 2) the Three Antis and Five Antis, during which the party mobilized students to participate in meetings to fight against corruption and wasteful behavior, calculate the value of the college or university properties, and expose their family members or relatives' wrongdoings;³⁷ 3) Ideological Criticism and Self-criticism, which involved intense confession as an act to publicly cleanse oneself of one's past, alongside the Honesty and Frankness campaign and the Cleaning Up the Organization campaign;³⁸ and 4) the construction stage, which included conducting political studies, developing the CCP's and Youth League's organizations, implementing unified job distribution, and reorganizing colleges and faculties (院系调整 yuanxi tiaozheng).³⁹

The Thought Reform campaign was carried out from the top down and with highly coercive political mobilization, under the unified leadership of "study committees" established at colleges and universities. Establishing a hierarchical mobilization structure that extended from the college or university level to small groups was the first stage in conducting the Thought Reform campaign. In small groups, students were mobilized to study revolutionary ideology and participate in political activities.⁴⁰ According to Su's diaries, each small group contained political activists, either Youth League members or those who planned to join the league. In the fall of 1951, small groups had been widely established at ECTEC. There were two types of small groups: 1) temporary small groups established for specific political study, such as small groups in the intensive training program mentioned above and 2) institutionalized, stable small groups established as the basic units in which to study politics and implement government policies within classes. For the latter, there were six to eight members in Su's group, which was established soon after the intensive training program was completed.⁴¹

On October 6, 1951, Su became the head of his small group. He thought it was a good opportunity for him to make progress in politics. He noted, "I am going to join the Youth League, but the only way to do that is to start with the job of the small group leader."⁴² Under the instruction of class cadres, he realized that to make progress, he needed to organize more collective art and sports activities. He called on his group members to establish a "patriotic contract" (爱国公约 aiguo gongyue), organized them to watch revolutionary exhibitions, do morning exercises, dance Ukrainian dances, and attend other group activities like basketball contests.⁴³ He also helped his group members with their homework, because the college encouraged students to associate in a Mutual Aid Group (互助组 Huzhu zu) to help one another with their academic studies.⁴⁴

At ECTEC, the Thought Reform campaign combined with the Three Antis was formally started on March 28, 1952.⁴⁵ The college administration required every student to attend political study for at least eight hours per week and all professors to lower the requirements for academic studies so that students could prioritize political study.⁴⁶ As a small-group head, Su's life was dominated by political study. He mentioned many types of meetings in his diaries. The following types of meetings were held frequently: 1) lectures or speeches held at the department level, the college level, and the intercollege level by cadres of the Shanghai municipal government, the Shanghai Textile Bureau, college administrative officials, and so forth; 2) communication meetings between small groups, classes, departments, and colleges and universities devoted to exchanging experiences of fighting against "bourgeois thoughts"; 3) meetings managed by class cadres and focused on openly criticizing individuals who had "bourgeois thoughts" or behavior.

The methods of political study at these meetings included learning the CCP's policies on political campaigns, discussing how to practice these policies, sharing experiences, and carrying out criticism or self-criticism. Sharing experiences was an especially effective way to mobilize students' emotions. Small groups and classes were, in fact, the primary means of this emotional mobilization. Students were not only required to participate in collective assemblies but also to join in group discussions afterward. Through mutual exchange and participation, students understood what class struggle was, how to be a good member of the group, and how to fight the bourgeoisie.

Su's emotions were clearly stirred by the words of model students.⁴⁷ Students who exhibited outstanding progress in fighting their "bourgeois thoughts" or those of their family members were selected as models to go to other colleges or universities to share their experiences. Because the presentations by these model students were full of personal experiences expressed with emotion, their words could quickly transmit their feelings to other students.⁴⁸ On March 8, after he had attended such a meeting, Su realized that he should strengthen his body to defend his country:

The class meeting convened today was full of anger, detestation, and excitement. We criticized the dangers and long-term influence of the germ warfare caused by the US. All the students and dormitories expressed their determination to exercise their bodies well, to eliminate carelessness and lack of concern, and to respond to the motherland's call at any time. Well! The meeting was a success, and it helped me decisively. Here I show my attitude. First, I will actively participate in winter sports to train my body. Second, I will be strict with myself and tolerant of others. I will resolutely eliminate my tendency to join small cliques and make trouble with others, and I will be conscious of the difference between the small "self" and the big "self." Third, I will work actively, get rid of arrogant individualism, study hard, and be a great young man to respond to the call of the motherland anytime, anywhere.⁴⁹

Su's anger about US germ warfare led him to realize the importance of defending China. Physical health for Su became integrated with the political task of national defense. To further defend China, he learned, individuals needed to sacrifice their own interests and oppose all separatist and clique tendencies.

Likewise, on July 25th, Su listened to a speech by another model student from Jiaotong University and recorded what he felt in his diary:

He had a lot of similarities with me, but what did he do? He exposed all of them (the bad thoughts). Recently, he was even working hard to join the party! Why can't I do the same thing he did? I heard that the students of Jiaotong University had shown great enthusiasm in self-criticism. They worked all night; they even forgot to sleep and eat. Compared to them, how shameful am I?⁵⁰

Students were encouraged to become models for each other in classes and in the small groups. Those who actively responded to calls from the party and made progress in the campaigns were praised or rewarded, while those who reacted negatively to calls from the party were openly criticized. These incentives highly motivated students. For example, during the Five Antis campaign, when students were urged to go back home to investigate their family members' wrongdoings, Su and his classmates showed hesitation at first. However, after several classmates cooperated and were praised by class cadres, Su felt upset. He wrote in his diary, "Why should I remain different? I am ashamed to fail dear Chairman Mao and the vast working people of the motherland."⁵¹ Su ultimately decided to go to his father's factory to investigate, and his decision was immediately supported by the class cadres and his classmates. He described in his diary how his behavior was encouraged by the cadres and how he felt at that time:

The first thing I found in the morning was that my name was posted on the blackboard newspaper in the classroom, and "victory belongs to Su Hua" was written. Since then, I have continuously received letters of support and encouragement from my classmates and the class committee. I received help from the class leaders and the study committee, and we had conversations. . . . In the afternoon, although it was raining and the ground was muddy when the news that I was going home came out, many classmates and all the female classmates came to send me off, accompanying me from the school gate to the station until I got on the bus. Although we didn't talk with each other—we walked silently—our priority is the same. It is for our motherland, for the construction and elimination of obstacles, for the future of the beautiful socialist system.⁵²

Su's emotions were not mobilized by the victimization and redemption language used in class struggle meetings;⁵³ rather, they were mobilized by communication with his classmates, the personal incentive of making progress in politics, and his attendance at sports and cultural activities, such as collective dancing, drama, and watching the films about Soviet or Chinese revolutions that were often played on special days, such as Chinese Youth Day.⁵⁴ In particular, Su's emotions were mobilized by cadre encouragement. The cadres often used personal conversation (谈话 tanhua) as a means to push students to become politically active in the Thought Reform campaign.

Many students exposed their parents' "wrongdoings" to display their loyalty to the CCP during the Three Antis and Five Antis campaigns. However, the degree to which students rebelled against their parents depended on their relationships with their parents as well as on their personalities and personal experiences. Su never criticized his father's "wrongdoings." Instead, he helped his father write a confession report to enable him to pass the Five Antis inspection conducted at his father's factory. He even persuaded his father to apply to join the party.⁵⁵ When he discovered that his father was being criticized by his close friend and had received administrative punishment, he noted, "My father's enemy is my enemy."⁵⁶ He practiced the value of class struggle against "bourgeois thoughts" selectively, following his own personal motivations.

Struggles with the Self during the Campaign

As mentioned previously, besides the value of class struggle, the revolutionary ideology also included a set of social values on civic education and being a good person.⁵⁷ Many of these values emerged in the 1920s and were strongly advocated by the Nationalist regime in the 1930s and 1940s; these values included strengthening one's body to defend one's country, working or studying hard, and being diligent and modest.⁵⁸ The values that the CCP emphasized most were those relevant to collectivism and self-sacrifice, such as loving laboring (热爱劳动 reai laodong) and solidarity and friendship with others (团结友爱 tuanjie youai) without pursuing personal interests.

Su had accepted the values of working or studying hard and being diligent and modest, and he had taken care of his health before the Thought Reform campaign. He repeatedly disciplined himself to be a good student, especially after the autumn of 1951, when he realized that making progress in politics could help him secure a good future. During the Thought Reform campaign, he became more aware of practicing these values. In particular, he made many efforts to practice the value of being of strong body and mind to defend his country. At ECTEC, a winter exercise campaign was launched in February 1952 that called on students to participate in physical exercise as a means of defending the country. Su recorded his efforts at lifting dumbbells, throwing grenades, high jumping, long-distance running, and other activities and connected these activities to his awareness of needing to defend his country. He wrote, "It is a shame for young people not to meet the standards. Can a person who can't defend his motherland be called a human being?"⁵⁹ On June 1, 1952, during the Three Antis campaign, Su even made a detailed plan for himself that included doing radio exercises, paying more attention to nutrition and sleep time, and carefully studying the Three Antis policy.⁶⁰

However, the values relevant to collectivism or self-sacrifice were difficult for Su to practice. Regarding loving labor, although he understood that "laboring could help me make progress," he complained in his diary about how hard it was to work physically.⁶¹ In the Three Antis campaign, he was selected as the head of the investigation team for the school cafeteria's account; he precisely weighed and counted the basic cafeteria supplies, such as rice, cooking oil, coal fuel, and so on, to prevent corruption or waste. On July 9, after having worked for a whole day, he complained in his diary.

Now I don't admit that I am studying in college or taking part in the Three Antis, because I was working from morning to afternoon. In the morning, I was like a coal miner. In the afternoon, I was like a peasant in the countryside. I was extremely tired.⁶²

At the same time, he could not stop thinking about his academic studies of subjects that he thought useful for his future. In June 1952, when Su saw the second-year curriculum by accident, he felt anxious. He noted in his diary:

These courses are quite intense, which is ideal for me, but after seeing the courses, I have a lot of selfish and individualistic thoughts; that is, I don't want to join the Youth League and work in this way next semester, and I am ready to devote all my energy to dealing with my academic studies.⁶³

From the terms "selfish" and "individualistic" that Su used to describe his personal desire to concentrate on academic studies, we can conclude that he had understood and accepted the CCP's ideology of prioritizing collective interests over his personal interests. However, working or studying without thinking about personal interests was difficult for him. On July 19, when he knew that the cadres of small groups and classes would be reorganized to prepare the third stage of the Thought Reform campaign (the Ideological Criticism and Self-Criticism stage), he resigned his small-group job by giving the excuse of his family background. He noted that being the head of the small group was too difficult for him. After resigning, he felt relaxed and went to several different theaters to enjoy Chinese operas and films.⁶⁴ Thus, Su did not uniformly adhere to all revolutionary values in his daily life; instead, he selectively practiced revolutionary values according to what he cared about.

When the third stage of the Thought Reform campaign began, every student and faculty member was required to confess at the small group about their "bourgeois thoughts" related to studying, daily behavior, and other private issues. The Ideological Criticism and Self-Criticism stage was a top-down and coercive process monitored by the study committees at every administrative level. The cadres of the small groups were required to report confessions to the class-level study committees, and then the cadres of classes reported the confessions to the department- or college-level study committee. Upper-level study committees also dispatched work teams to lower-level study committees to guide and supervise the implementation of the Thought Reform campaign.⁶⁵

During the Ideological Criticism and Self-Criticism stage, there was virtuocratic competition among students, which caused social conflict and mutual harm, as Susan Shirk has mentioned.⁶⁶ Furthermore, this competition caused intense psychological stress for the one under scrutiny. On July 17, Su was selected by the college study committee as someone who had "bourgeois thoughts" and needed to conduct criticism and self-criticism. Initially, he reacted positively and wanted to use his self-criticism to make progress.⁶⁷ He thought that criticism and self-criticism would be useful for establishing "revolutionary values for life" and decided to confess all of the dark aspects from his past.⁶⁸

Su conducted self-criticism at the small group level first. The criticism that was directed toward him was too fierce for him to accept. He realized that he needed to use the same technique to attack others. He noted, "I despise him because first of all he despises me. I will treat him the way he treats me."⁶⁹ The class cadres thought that Su's criticism was insufficient and required him to confess his family's issues and lifestyle in detail. He resisted and reacted with anger: "You guys are too subjective. I will remember some of you class cadres."⁷⁰ Later, he regretted his anger, tried to control his emotion, and finally decided to make an additional confession. However, the result was not what he expected. He noted:

Unfortunately, the criticism was all about some trifles without mentioning big points. So, I felt it was of less help to me. They continued to criticize me about some trifles. I felt angry. I tried my best to control my anger, but I couldn't shut my mouth to speak. I explained for myself, and I resisted.⁷¹

This fierce criticism had a strong emotional impact on Su. After a talk with the cadre assigned from above, he regretted his reaction as an expression of his individualism: "I will definitely grasp this opportunity to completely destroy my thoughts of individualism, arrogance, and heroism."⁷² Su then kept criticizing himself in his diary for his individualism.⁷³ He was torn between two mentalities. One was constructed by the state to denounce any personal motivations as "bourgeois thoughts" and to be a complete "new person" without a past, while the other came from his original background and living environment, filled with personal desires, demands, and interests in his daily life.

On August 17, Su conducted self-criticism at the class level. Su was criticized for his opportunistic thinking, joining the Youth League for the pursuit of personal interests, and having relationships with women. He felt frustrated and depressed and even considered dropping out.⁷⁴ Later, Su was comforted by class cadres. On the night of Su's confession, a cadre of the study committee talked with him for an hour and a half. After the conversation, Su realized that the study committee and the Youth League had expectations of him.⁷⁵ Encouraged by the cadre, he wrote an essay describing his experience of having his thoughts reformed. The essay was later published on the blackboard of the college-level study committee.⁷⁶

Daily Life after the Campaign

The Thought Reform campaign had wide-ranging effects on higher education. First, as many studies have shown, the campaign consolidated the CCP's power, paved the way for rapid implementation of the reorganization of higher education without resistance from university faculties, and altered authority inside colleges and universities.⁷⁷ Professors' authority declined greatly following the Thought Reform campaign, since their thoughts and behavior had been openly criticized by students and the party during the campaign. In many colleges or universities, students showed their attitudes toward professors through rudeness.⁷⁸

For several years after 1952, the party's organization was increasingly more solidly established and consolidated at the grassroots level.⁷⁹ The widespread establishment of party organizations was accompanied by an expansion of grassroots bureaucracy.⁸⁰ At Shanghai colleges and universities, a detailed CCP plan for consolidation and expansion was carried out as soon as the Thought Reform campaign ended.⁸¹ Many bureaucratic offices were newly established, and the number of cadres at colleges and universities increased gradually. The Organization Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee calculated the total number of cadres required according to the total numbers of students and positions and then assigned cadres to those positions lacking cadres.⁸² Special attention was paid to ensuring the leadership of party members at the college and university level, division level (处级 chuji), and section level (科级 keji).⁸³ By May 1953, party committees and branches were widely established among 17 colleges and universities: 13 had more than 50 party members, and 6 had more than 100 party members.⁸⁴ Student activists who wanted to join the Youth League and the party were also promoted organizationally step by step. Absorption of 10% of students into the party within one year was scheduled after the Thought Reform campaign.⁸⁵

The Thought Reform campaign also strengthened the CCP's administrative control over students' daily lives. One's "political condition," including one's political activism and family background, became increasingly important for the progress of students after the campaign. Because students' family background and social relationships were investigated and discussed openly during the Thought Reform campaign, family background became much more important for students trying to make progress in politics. "The situation now is completely different from a year ago," Su complained; he also wrote, "Now I carry a heavy family burden."⁸⁶ According to a survey conducted in January 1954 at the Shanghai Russian Language College, to be an activist, a student needed to have "good study and good work," "good class composition," "clear history," and "good awareness and attitude toward the party."⁸⁷ Students were categorized as "advanced activists" and "ordinary students." "Ordinary students" were further divided into "middle elements" (those who were not opposed to the party or the league but who were not overly active) and "backward elements" (those who demonstrated negative attitudes in their thoughts and behavior). Displaying a positive attitude in politics became an important criterion for classification of students. On January 22, 1953, when the class announced the list of students who had participated in the Youth League's political activities, Su's name was not included. Consequently, he felt "it was a big issue."⁸⁸

Reinforcement of the party's administrative control occurred in almost every aspect of student campus life after the Thought Reform campaign, from academic studies to collective activities, from student enrollment to graduation and job assignment. For academic studies, it was reported that much chaos occurred in teaching under the Soviet curriculum.⁸⁹ Teachers and students were required to finish the new curriculum within four years although the Soviet model was designed for five years of learning.⁹⁰ This tighter timetable was also made more strenuous by the many collective entertainment activities that the college or university administration and the district and municipal administrative departments organized. Su complained several times about the tight management of campus life and his problems organizing his time. Su wrote in his diary, "School life is too hard and stressful now. Nowadays people are simply like machines."⁹¹

The Thought Reform campaign to some extent prompted Su's consciousness of self-regulation. In February 1953, five months after the end of the campaign was announced, he visited a dance hall and then felt guilty and determined to carry out "the second thought reform" by himself. He "confessed" all of his thinking and experiences in his diaries.⁹² However, his self-regulation of personal interests and desires did not last for long. The term "bourgeois" appeared far less often in his diaries for 1953. He used the term only once from January to June 1953, after having used it 22 times from March to August 1952. The same was true of other revolutionary words like "motherland." This decrease in Su's use of revolutionary language suggests that he was less conscious of trying to regulate his behavior to become a "new person" after the Thought Reform campaign.

In August 1953, Su was assigned to work at a state-owned cotton factory in Tianjin. Because he wanted to stay in Shanghai to work, he felt frustrated.⁹³ His desire to return to Shanghai was so strong that he wrote numerous petition letters and visited various Tianjin and Shanghai government offices in person. He noted, "I must not let go of any opportunity that I can seize."⁹⁴ When the sufan (肃反 eradicating hidden counterrevolutionaries) campaign was carried out at Su's factory in May 1955, he observed, "What I have seen and heard in the past two or three years of social experience has engraved a very deep shadow in my young mind, and we, a group of ordinary people, are still at the mercy of others."⁹⁵ Just as the purges were reaching their climax, he was suspected of being a counterrevolutionary by the cadres of factory. Though he was eventually deemed innocent, this experience made him become more careful to protect himself from being attacked by others. He wrote a letter directly to the dean of the ECTEC expressing his request to be transferred back to Shanghai.⁹⁶ This time, he was successful; in October 1956, he went to work in Shanghai Yongan First Cotton Textile Factory as a technician.

In Su's diaries from 1954 to 1959, we did not find any references to practicing class struggle against "bourgeois thoughts" or to individualism, although Su sometimes demonstrated awareness of being diligent and modest in working and studying. Instead, he was more focused on his family life and career. On March 1, 1955, when he talked about his future with his fiancee, he said that he would join the Youth League, study Russian, and try to become a factory engineer.⁹⁷ In 1957, the year that the Anti-Rightist campaign occurred, his biggest concern was his salary. He repeatedly wrote letters and talked to the leaders of his workplace asking for a raise.⁹⁸ In 1958, he participated in the Great Leap Forward without doubts and competed with other technicians to invent new textile machinery. In the spring of 1959, when the factory decided to send him to the countryside, he resisted at first.⁹⁹ However, when he realized that he would be targeted as a rightist, he changed his mind and showed his "passion" to work in the countryside to the secretary of his factory. In his diary entry for the following day, he stated his motivation for changing his mind: "It is to win the initiative."¹⁰⁰

Conclusion

Through analysis of Su Hua's diary alongside official archives, this article highlights the intersection between the CCP's coercive ideological work and individual subjectivity. Su's experiences show that the relationship between revolutionary ideology and the self is neither a simple story of how individuals were brainwashed by revolutionary ideologies nor a simple story of how they resisted them. Rather, it is a complex story of how individuals understood and accepted revolutionary ideologies while selectively practicing these ideologies in their daily lives. Three main conclusions emerge from our study.

First, thought reform was not only a coercive ideological work imposed from above but also a daily process of accepting, absorbing, and practicing revolutionary ideology. In Shanghai colleges and universities, political mobilization based on small groups was established quickly, and patriotic education or propaganda was strengthened greatly during the Korean War. It was under these circumstances that Su began to understand and accept the CCP's revolutionary ideology.

Second, individuals practiced revolutionary values selectively because of personal motivations. Making progress in politics to secure a good future was the main incentive for Su to practice the revolutionary ideology. He kept practicing those values that matched his interests, and he had practiced most of those already before the Thought Reform campaign. However, other values, such as "class struggle" and opposing individualism, were hard for him to practice and caused much tension and conflict for him in his daily life.

Third, this article demonstrates the impact of the Thought Reform campaign on both higher education and individuals' daily lives. The campaign paved the way for reinforcement of the CCP's political control of campuses. It also had some impact on students' thoughts and behavior. Su's awareness of loving the motherland and being diligent and modest in working and studying was stronger than before. The consciousness of his "bourgeois" family background was also intensified. However, class struggle or anti-individualism, the core of the revolutionary ideology, had little impact on his attitudes toward life. Though he struggled with his "individualism" during the Thought Reform campaign, he retained his desire to pursue personal interests and happiness in his daily life after the campaign. Furthermore, the difficulties of transferring his job to Shanghai and his personal experiences in the sufan campaign made him more pragmatic in protecting himself from being attacked by others in the Anti-Rightist campaign. In the late 1950s, he continued to learn and absorb new knowledge, skills, and tactics not only to survive the political campaigns but also to pursue a better life for himself.