Suicidal Communists, Posthumous Punishment, and Politics of Death in Maoist China

Based on diaries, memoirs, declassified official documents, and personal dossiers ( geren juanzong , 个人卷宗) of party members, this chapter explores the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s evolving ideological conceptualization of life and death in the Mao era. The CCP vehemently condemned suicide not merely because it conveyed messages of suffering, despair, and disillusion, but also because it posed a challenge to the Party’s dominance over its members’ physical and political lives. Despite the CCP’s avowed opposition to suicide, its management of suicide cases was marred by inconsistency and precariousness. Through a detailed analysis of how suicide cases were handled at the grassroots level, this chapter reveals that, while local party organs adhered to the CCP’s denunciatory stance, the actual resolution of suicide cases involved a complex negotiation to define the nature of the deaths and determine appropriate material compensation for families. This chapter contributes to the thriving yet underexplored field of the politics of death in Maoist China and provides new insights into state-society relations.