Gao Xiaolin and Luo Lianghu: The Development, Components, and Implications for Party Governance of the Party Initiation Ceremony
Party members are the "cells" of a political party and the human resource foundation upon which it is built; thus, the selection and recruitment of members is a matter of a party’s rise, fall, and continued existence. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has attached great importance to the development of new members, making this issue a key thread running through more than a century of organizational building. The process of joining the Party is the procedural mechanism by which the organization absorbs "fresh blood," while the induction ceremony serves as a rite of passage [1] marking the transition of a new member's political status. Examining membership induction activities through the lens of political ritual is of great significance for understanding the developmental trajectory, constituent elements, and party governance implications of the induction ceremony.
I. The Developmental Trajectory of the Induction Ceremony
As a vital link in the CPC’s development of organizational members, the induction ceremony has existed since the Party’s inception and has been continuously enriched and perfected over more than a century of development. Combing through the evolution of the CPC induction ceremony over the last hundred-plus years is conducive both to gaining a longitudinal grasp of the ceremony from a historical dimension and to providing a reference for comparative analysis of the similarities, differences, and causes of change in these ceremonies across different historical stages.
(1) Induction Ceremonies during the New Democratic Revolution Period (1921–1949)
At its founding in 1921, the CPC had only some 50 members; it was only through continuous development that it gradually became China’s leading party. Prior to the formal establishment of the CPC, several local party organizations already existed within the country. These early organizations were founded spontaneously by progressive-minded Chinese nationals at the time. Because their organizational regulations were not robust, they lacked uniform standards for recruiting new members and sometimes even lacked party sponsors [2]. Consequently, the development of early CPC members did not undergo the "baptism" of an induction ceremony. For example, when reflecting on his own entry into the Party, Mao Zedong noted that he and five others, including "He Shuheng and Peng Huang, signed the founding documents," and were thereby considered to have formally joined the party organization. At the Seventh National Congress of the CPC, Mao recalled: "I had no sponsor. At that time, we did it ourselves, and we did not know very much." During the First National Congress of the CPC, the Party's first program was adopted, which clarified issues such as the procedures for new members to join, laying the groundwork for the subsequent emergence of the induction ceremony. Following the First Congress, the forms through which new members joined can be typologically divided into three categories: a show of hands, organizational interviews, and form registration. In the early days of the CPC, there was no fixed induction ceremony for new members; rather, local branches acted according to actual conditions, providing useful experiments for the Party’s subsequent exploration of establishing a rule-based induction ceremony.
On August 31, 1925, the CPC Central Committee issued Circular No. 53, which explicitly required that "new students must undergo an enrollment ceremony upon entering the school and be immediately assigned to a specific branch." Due to the harsh domestic and international environment at that time, out of practical needs for safety and secrecy, the circular used "school" as a code for the CPC and "classmates" for CPC members; the "enrollment ceremony" mentioned was, in fact, the induction ceremony. Following the issuance of the circular, various locales followed suit in implementing induction procedures. Subsequently, the Shanghai Regional Committee issued Circular No. 5, conveying the spirit of the Central Committee’s Circular No. 53 to Shanghai members regarding induction procedures and the regulation of school-based [Party] and [Youth] League organizations. More than a month later, the Shanghai Regional Committee issued another circular pointing out that previously implemented induction procedures suffered from delays and perfunctory forms. It called for the induction process to be made more solemn and required local party branches to strictly enforce the requirements for member development prescribed by the party organization. This period saw a rapid increase in CPC membership. Since the quality and ideological level of new members were uneven, conducting rigorous and standardized induction ceremony education was undoubtedly an effective means of strengthening Party building and an important way to "implement Party education and train new members as quickly as possible."
After the failure of the Great Revolution [3], the CPC began to reflect on previous issues in member development and further clarified the matter of new members joining: "Newly introduced comrades must fill out a form to be approved by the branch and be given induction training such as interview meetings and training classes." Although the Party Central Committee had not yet established specific regulations for the standardized flow of the induction ceremony, various revolutionary base areas actively explored procedural formats. In May 1939, Chen Yun, then director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out in How to be a Communist Party Member that probationary members should be carefully screened and appraised to judge whether they met the standards of a formal member; when the time was ripe, local party organizations should "hold an induction ceremony" for new members based on actual conditions. In 1945, Liu Shaoqi noted in his report on the revision of the Party Constitution at the Seventh National Congress: "As for the induction ceremony for new members, if necessary, different regions may adopt different methods." The Party Constitution of the Seventh Congress detailed the conditions for developing members and the procedures for joining, but it did not explicitly define the core procedures of the induction ceremony. In 1949, the Central Organization Department mentioned in a reply to the North China Bureau regarding induction ceremonies: "The induction ceremony and the admission oath are not expressly provided for in the Party Constitution, nor is it appropriate to make such express provisions. The induction ceremony is merely a method of conducting education and should not contain other meanings."
In summary, from 1921 until the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPC conducted significant and fruitful explorations of the induction ceremony. In particular, the regulations regarding ceremonial procedures laid the initial framework for the subsequent development and refinement of the ceremony. Generally speaking, the development of the induction ceremony in this stage was immature and the degree of institutionalization was low. It was characterized by a combination of central advocacy and autonomous local exploration, and it lacked confirmation within the fundamental law of the Party (the Constitution) at the legal-procedural level. The reasons for this were twofold: on one hand, the CPC realized the importance of the induction ceremony for member development and organizational building, and thus consciously explored related issues, yet it positioned the ceremony only as "a method of education," reflecting a limited understanding of its value and function. On the other hand, there was a tension between the geographical fragmentation caused by the revolutionary situation and the organizational need to replenish membership. It was difficult to create uniform regulations for the induction ceremony across the entire Party; thus, the holding of ceremonies was primarily based on autonomous local exploration tailored to actual conditions.
(2) Induction Ceremonies during the Period of Socialist Revolution and Construction (1949–1978)
After the founding of New China, the CPC became the national governing party, and its organizational foundation and the internal and external environments it faced underwent massive changes. To meet the governance needs after the founding of the PRC, it was necessary to strengthen Party building, absorb advanced elements of the masses into the Party, and forge a loyal, reliable, and high-quality revolutionary cadre to provide human resource support for socialist revolution and construction. However, "opportunists and saboteurs are also seeking various ways to worm their way into our Party to attempt to gain membership status." It was therefore necessary to strictly guard the gate of member development. When absorbing new members, the induction ceremony was used as a key nodal event to strengthen the education of new members. In December 1949, the Xinjiang Sub-bureau of the CPC, in a report requesting instructions from the Northwest Bureau and the Central Committee, stipulated that for members who passed the qualification review and were approved by the Party committee, "an induction ceremony must be held promptly" to provide ritual-based education.
From the historical context of that time, the induction ceremony primarily functioned to educate members, mold "new persons," and temper Party spirit [4]. It had not yet become a mandatory, uniform regulation implemented by the whole Party upon the entry of new members. This led to differing understandings across different regions and industries regarding whether a ceremony was necessary. For instance, in the early years of New China, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee's Organization Department had no rigid requirements for ritualistic induction activities, leaving it to local discretion. In 1955, the party organization of the Shanghai light industry sector issued a notice requiring that around July 1st (Party Anniversary), an oath-taking rally for new members be held in subordinate factories, including a "swearing-in ceremony" to educate them. This show that during the early period of the PRC, there was a lack of uniform regulations on whether an induction ceremony was required, and the Party remained in a stage of fragmented exploration. In 1956, the Eighth National Congress of the CPC revised the Party Constitution, stating that "those applying for Party membership must individually fulfill the procedures for joining," but it still did not explicitly stipulate an induction ceremony.
Following the outbreak of the "Cultural Revolution," the Party organization suffered severe damage, and the procedures for developing new members were difficult to implement effectively. The Ninth National Congress in 1969 revised the Party Constitution, mentioning that those wishing to join must "individually fulfill induction procedures" regarding sponsors, the application form, and branch review. However, looking at actual local implementation, local Revolutionary Committees [5] and the military system exercised considerable autonomy in the process of developing members. This was particularly true regarding the versions of the application forms and the content of the admission oath, which possessed great flexibility, even leading to disorganized procedures in some instances. The Constitution of the Tenth National Congress was also revised during the "Cultural Revolution" stage; its provisions regarding joining the Party did not differ significantly from those of the Ninth Congress and still made no explicit provision for an induction ceremony. The Constitution of the Eleventh National Congress was the first after the end of the "Cultural Revolution." Although it "cleared the source and rectified the chaos" [6] on certain issues and provided clearer procedures for joining the Party, "Leftist" errors had not yet been fully eliminated, and content related to the induction ceremony was not reflected therein.
As seen above, during the period of socialist revolution and construction, the induction ceremony remained in a stage of exploratory development. First, at the level of intra-Party regulations, the ceremony had not yet been confirmed by explicit codes. Although the central authorities raised requirements, they did not issue party-wide regulations, leaving local organizations with significant elastic space for implementation. Second, regarding functional positioning, the ceremony was treated primarily as a channel for educating members, which limited its potential utility. After 1949, the CPC needed to expand membership to adapt to complex and diverse governance tasks, during which the induction ceremony became an important organizational activity for educating new members. Third, regarding the stability of ceremonial development, the induction ceremony during this period was characterized by twists and turns compared to other stages. Due to the "decade of turmoil" (the Cultural Revolution), the CPC’s top-down organizational structure was impacted, and for long periods, normal organizational activities were difficult to carry out, let alone induction ceremonies.
(3) Induction Ceremonies during the New Period of Socialist Modernization (1978–2012)
The convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee marked China’s entry into a new stage of historical development and placed new requirements on Party building. Under these circumstances, the Party Constitution—serving as the "Constitution within the Party"—needed to "advance with the times" through revisions and improvements to adapt to new situations and tasks. Accordingly, the central leadership core with Deng Xiaoping at its center began discussing revisions to the Party Constitution. On February 5, 1980, while discussing the draft revision with Hu Yaobang and others, Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "The addition of the requirement for an oath-taking ceremony upon joining the Party in the 'Members' chapter is very good; I strongly approve. ... Taking the oath is a very solemn matter that can stay with a person for a lifetime." This indicates that Deng Xiaoping realized at the time that the induction ceremony and its associated regulations held important political significance for members and needed to be codified in the Party Constitution. In 1982, the Constitution adopted by the 12th National Congress of the CPC explicitly required that "probationary members must take the admission oath facing the Party flag," while simultaneously unifying the text of the oath. This marked the confirmation of the induction ceremony’s procedure and status within the Party Constitution. Specifically, by providing clear provisions for the oath and the text of the oath—the core components of the ceremony—the legal-procedural basis of the induction ceremony was established within the Party, representing a critical step toward its institutionalized development. Thereafter, from the 13th to the 17th National Congresses, although the Party Constitution underwent various revisions, the expressions regarding the induction oath and its text remained unchanged, reiterating the standardized procedures established by the 12th Congress. This demonstrates that the norms for the induction ceremony established at the 12th Congress gained universal recognition within the Party, possessing institutional continuity and stability.
Once the initiation ceremony was confirmed by the Party Constitution, it transitioned from a previous "optional action" to a "mandatory action" requiring unified implementation across all levels of the Party. After an applicant submits a formal application for Party membership to the Party organization, two full Party members who understand the applicant must serve as introducers to track, inspect, cultivate, and maintain contact with them. Regarding the ontology of the initiation ceremony itself, it can be divided into the admission oath ceremony for probationary members and the ceremony for the promotion of probationary members to full status.
The admission oath ceremony for probationary members is the pivotal node in the transformation of an applicant's political identity. In the Detailed Rules for the Work of Developing Members of the Communist Party of China (Trial) issued by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee in 1990, it was clearly stated: "The admission oath ceremony is generally organized by the primary-level Party committee or the Party branch (general Party branch). Higher-level Party organizations should send representatives to participate in the oath ceremony held by the Party branch." Loudly reciting the Party admission oath signifies the applicant's identification with the Party’s program, observance of the Party’s discipline, and execution of the Party’s orders; it is an act of submission to the political party they are about to join. After becoming a probationary member, the applicant has, to some extent, become a part of the party, though they enjoy limited membership rights. During the probationary period, the Party organization conducts comprehensive re-inspection and re-education of the probationary member to further judge whether the applicant meets the standards for full membership.
After the probationary inspection period expires, the Party branch must convene a general meeting to discuss whether the probationary member can be promoted to a full member as scheduled according to regulations—this is the promotion ceremony within the initiation process. Under normal circumstances, if a probationary member meets the standards, they will generally become a full member on time and deliver a "position statement" (biǎotài fāyán) [7] at the promotion meeting. The position statement is a specific manifestation of the "declaration culture" common in the political sphere; for a probationary member, it is both a channel to express party identity and an important means for the Party organization to shape the member’s Party spirit (dǎngxìng) and discipline their thoughts. The conclusion of the promotion ceremony can be regarded as the final completion of the membership ritual, at which point the applicant completes their political identity transformation.
During the new period of socialist modernization, the CPC's initiation ceremony gradually became institutionalized and stabilized. Compared to the two previous historical periods, the development of the initiation ceremony in this period was characterized by two prominent features. First, from the perspective of intra-Party regulations, the initiation ceremony was confirmed by the Party Constitution and related intra-Party laws. "As the governing party, the Communist Party of China's own construction has always been connected to the development of the nation; after undergoing the restorative reconstruction of the governing system and the functional adjustment of governing concepts, the CPC's self-construction strode forward toward the direction of a modern political party." [8] Therefore, at the 12th National Congress, the CPC modified the Party Constitution by seeking truth from facts and confirmed the initiation ceremony within it, thereby fundamentally establishing the ceremony's status within the Party from a jurisprudential dimension—a key link in the institutionalization process. Second, in terms of its scope, the initiation ceremony evolved from being an "extra credit question" in the previous two periods to a "compulsory question" in the membership process. Once prescribed in the fundamental law of the Party and other organizational regulations, it became a mandatory activity for the entire Party. The intra-Party institutional regulations and their series of ritualistic agendas were established, and the CPC gradually constructed an initiation ceremony system with standardized procedures and clear elements.
4. Initiation Ceremonies in the New Era (2012–Present)
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China’s development has entered a New Era. The risks and challenges facing the Party and the country have become increasingly complex, necessitating the further strengthening of Party building and the enhancement of member quality. On May 28, 2014, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued the Detailed Rules for the Work of Developing Members of the Communist Party of China, which largely inherited the 1990 trial rules regarding the admission procedures for probationary members, but deleted the requirement that higher-level Party organizations must send representatives to attend the oath ceremony. This change granted primary-level Party organizations greater autonomy in initiation ceremonies, reduced the workload of higher-level organizations, and ensured the integrity, effectiveness, and rationality of the ceremony, representing an improvement aligned with practical realities. In the Party Constitution revised at the 19th National Congress, the initiation ceremony and the admission oath remained unchanged, indicating that the institutional stability of the ceremony has been further strengthened.
Upon entering the New Era, the initiation ceremony has seen new developments on the basis of upholding the fundamentals. Practices such as "revisiting the Party admission oath" and celebrating "political birthdays" [9] for members were confirmed in normative intra-Party documents such as the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee on Strengthening the Party's Political Construction. By integrating commemorative ritual elements beyond the initial entry, a more macroscopic institutional system for initiation ceremonies was constructed. In addition to the roles of educating members, strengthening consciousness, and shaping loyalty, commemorative initiation ceremonies also function to "make intra-Party life solemn, serious, and standardized."
Commemorative initiation ceremonies in the New Era are generally held at specific temporal nodes. For individual members, the "political birthday" is a highly personalized commemorative ritual with a certain degree of flexibility in its operation. Some Party organizations hold monthly or quarterly branch meetings to conduct collective activities for members celebrating their "political birthdays" during that period, issuing cards and inviting them to hold seminars to discuss their original aspiration and founding mission. For the collective, "revisiting the Party admission oath" is a Party activity conducted at significant moments. Intra-Party regulations do not explicitly define the specific scenarios for revisiting the oath; in practice, it includes but is not limited to receiving probationary members, holding major Party activities, visiting Red education bases [10], or visiting revolutionary commemorative halls. The commemorative initiation ceremony is essentially a ritual of remembrance. Unlike general commemorations centered on major historical events or figures, its subject is the individual member. This process reproduces the member's memory of joining the Party, helping to awaken their consciousness of Party spirit and achieving re-education.
In the New Era, the CPC focuses on the new tasks of the new stage, presenting a characteristic of upholding the fundamentals and breaking new ground in the development of initiation ceremonies. Regarding "upholding the fundamentals," the ceremony inherits the basic norms and main procedures established in the Party Constitution since the 12th National Congress, reflecting the stability of its institutional development. The New Era is an "era of building on past successes to further advance our cause, and of continuing to strive for the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics under new historical conditions" [11]; thus, the operation of the ceremony follows the basic framework established since the Reform and Opening-up. Regarding "breaking new ground," in terms of connotations, the New Era has expanded the institutional system by integrating commemorative rituals into normative documents and political life, enriching the content of the ceremony. In terms of function, the New Era initiation ceremony is no longer anchored solely in educating members but extends to dimensions such as solemnizing intra-Party political life and strengthening Party discipline. These changes coincide with the deepening of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party since the 18th National Congress. Comprehensively and strictly governing the Party must begin with intra-Party political life; as an important component thereof, the initiation ceremony serves as an effective tool for regulating political life and advancing the new great project of Party building in the New Era.
II. Constituent Elements of the Initiation Ceremony
As a systematic, institutionalized political ritual, the initiation ceremony is the result of the coordination and interaction of various elements. Clarifying these elements and their mechanisms of action is highly beneficial for analyzing the performance logic and functional utility of the ceremony from an internal micro-structural perspective.
(1) Party Emblem and Party Flag
The Party emblem and flag are indispensable symbolic political signs in the initiation ceremony, remaining present throughout the process. The Constitution of the Communist Party of China stipulates: "The emblem and flag of the Communist Party of China are the symbol and sign of the Party." The detailed explanations and regulations regarding their components, usage norms, and political connotations make them highly symbolic within intra-Party political activities; they have become the substantive and concrete symbolic expressions of the CPC in initiation ceremonies. Therefore, they appear and play a special role in specific scenarios such as organizational life and major Party meetings.
At the site of the branch general meeting discussing the admission and promotion of new members, participants generally wear the Party emblem on their chests to highlight their identity as Party members. Whether it is the new member—the protagonist—or the organizers, all wear the emblem without exception. According to regulations, the emblem is worn in the middle of the left chest of the outer garment. Thus, in practice, the emblem not only functions as a political symbol declaring membership but also integrates with the member's attire, achieving a semiotic connection and extension of meaning. "Real clothing always contains narrative factors, just as every function has at least its own sign." The attire of members at the initiation ceremony also possesses a narrative function. Having all participants wear the emblem on their clothing expands its symbolic meaning, creating an organic link with the disciplining of the body—wearing the emblem signifies an identification with the CPC's propositions and program in both body and mind. In other words, new members must not only maintain high consistency with the Party in their ideological statements but also strive to align their actions with the Party's requirements. Therefore, wearing the emblem is not only a fulfillment of membership obligations but an act of expressing identity with the CPC. The uniform symbolic landscape created by all members wearing the emblem reinforces the situational effect of the political ritual and plays an irreplaceable role.
In addition to the emblem, the Party flag is another important political symbol. A party's flag is its concrete manifestation; hanging the Party flag at the ceremony signifies the Party’s presence and dominance over the ritual. Compositionally, the flag is a red banner with a golden-yellow Party emblem, symbolizing the arduous struggle lead by the CPC in the revolution and its bright future prospects. The red flag is highly directional, inspiring new members to remain true to the Party's original aspiration, inherit the legacy of their predecessors, and pass on the revolutionary spirit. The sickle and hammer pattern within the flag is a clear reflection of the Party’s class basis within its symbolic iconography. Historically, the Party flag was born during the "dark and stormy" (fēngyǔ rúhuì) [12] revolutionary years, witnessing the historical journey of the CPC leading the Chinese people in seeking national liberation and prosperity, and carrying the collective memories of the Party and its members. During the education prior to the ceremony, new members undoubtedly receive education on Party symbols and their connotations. Thus, displaying the flag can awaken collective memories of Party history, stimulate emotional resonance, and promote the construction of identity.
(2) The Party Admission Oath
As a crucial linguistic element, the Party admission oath is an indispensable piece of the initiation ceremony puzzle. Oath rituals have permeated human activities across time and space, ranging from military pledge-taking to wedding vows. In these rituals, the drafting and delivery of the oath are critical; it serves as a linguistic carrier for the swearer to show resolve and assume a posture. Regarding oaths aimed at joining an organization, the process is a stage where new members internalize and externally express their identification with the organization's ideas, rules, and identity. The oath read by the member centralizes the organization’s goals, member standards, and constraints; reading it signifies an unconditional acceptance of these terms. Consequently, every organization featuring an oath-taking segment attaches great importance to its formulation.
When the CPC was first established, there was no requirement for an initiation ceremony, let alone regulations for an admission oath. With the development of the labor movement and the growth of membership, the background of members became more complex, placing new demands on membership standards and the Party’s self-construction. In this context, the CPC explicitly stipulated initiation ceremonies, and concise admission oaths began to appear. Although the CPC did not form a unified nationwide oath until the 12th National Congress—instead allowing local branches to draft them based on actual conditions—one can still summarize the inherent laws of the oath’s formulation by reviewing those that appeared throughout the CPC's history.
As seen in Table 1, the core substantive content of the CPC admission oath over the last century can be divided into three levels. First is the level of ideals and beliefs: the oath states the Party's values and goals from the outset, demonstrating the firm will of its members. Second is the level of Party discipline: the oath concentrates the disciplinary requirements for individuals, particularly for a Marxist party, which requires "the practice of extremely strict centralization and discipline." Finally, there is the level of member obligations: the oath emphasizes requirements for participating in organizational life, fulfilling organizational tasks, and practicing organizational expectations.
Beyond remaining constant, the CPC’s oath of admission also exhibits developmental characteristics of advancing with the times. As the CPC’s tasks and goals shifted across different historical stages, the oath changed accordingly. During the Land Revolutionary War period [13], class struggle was extremely acute; under such circumstances, elements of class struggle were highlighted in the oath. For example, on October 15, 1927, Mao Zedong presided over an admission ceremony for new members at the Ye Family Ancestral Hall in Shuikou, Lingxian County (now Yanling County), where the oath read: "Sacrifice the individual, class struggle." This serves as a clear illustration. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the national contradiction between China and Japan became the primary contradiction, while domestic class contradictions receded to a secondary position. Consequently, the discourse of "class struggle" remained latent in the oath of admission.
Regardless of the dimension from which it is interpreted, the oath of admission is fundamentally a discursive and symbolic expression of the party's ideology and organizational pursuits. The act of new members swearing the oath during the ceremony is also a process of their joyful acceptance of the constraints and propositions of the party's ideology, organization, and discipline. Prior to the 12th National Congress [14], for various reasons, the oath lacked unified and centralized regulations and thus possessed considerable variability and diversity. With the 12th Party Constitution providing explicit clarity on the admission ceremony, the oath subsequently became stable and unchanging. This not only promoted the institutionalized development of the oath itself but also became a major aspect of the institutionalization of the admission ceremony.
(3) Ceremonial Participants
In the admission ceremony, the activation of ceremonial elements requires the joint participation of ceremonial members (including new members and other participants). The ceremony links the individual to the collective; the swearing-in ceremony marks the integration of the individual joining a political party with broader organizations and values.
New members—the swearers in the admission ceremony—are undoubtedly the protagonists. Their subjective behavior during the ceremony is disciplined by party power. This discipline is manifested primarily at two levels. First, regarding the agenda of the ceremony, "power ensures the control and use of time," as party power achieves a regularized and institutionalized arrangement for the swearers' participation in the ceremonial process. There are specific ritualized regulations for when new members sing "The Internationale" [15] in unison, when they face the Party flag to swear the oath, and when they deliver their statements of commitment. These underscore the party's organizational and disciplinary nature, achieving the education and guidance of all participants through subtle, repetitive ceremonial arrangements. Second, regarding the bodies of the swearers, the institutionalized regulations of the admission ceremony shape their physical movements, serving as a concentrated expression of placing the party's will upon the swearer’s body. During the swearing-in, new members must maintain a standing posture of attention, face the Party flag, and raise their right hand in a clenched fist above the shoulder, reciting the oath as it is read out sentence-by-sentence by the oath-leader. At the conclusion of the ceremony, every swearer must report their own name to declare their individual identity. It can be seen that in the admission ceremony, the bodies of the swearers are strictly disciplined by the procedural ritual, with meticulous step-by-step regulations for physical movements in the actual operation of the ceremony. The completion of the oath represents the transformation of their identity.
Beyond the swearers as new party members, the ceremony involves participants such as the presider, the head of the primary-level party organization, the oath-leader, and other ordinary members. In some cases, the roles of presider, head of the organization, and oath-leader are merged into a single party member; this composite role can be termed the "conductor" of the admission ceremony. The conductor is both the manager of the ceremonial process and the object of learning and imitation for new members during the swearing-in. The conductor must not only lead the new members in the oath but also provide a concluding summary and evaluative remarks, "publicly announcing the entry into a new identity," possessing the authority and legitimacy bestowed by the organization. In the ceremony, many ordinary members play the role of witnesses, observing the transformation of the new members' political identity throughout the process. Every formal party member may serve as a witness to several admission ceremonies in their lifetime; this experience is also a process for formal members to revisit the oath, receive education in their convictions, and awaken their memories of joining the party. Therefore, the educational role of the admission ceremony is by no means directed only at new members, but is a normalized and institutionalized ritual education activity for all members.
(4) Sonic Symbols
A symbol is "the whole resulting from the association of the signifier with the signified." Besides physical objects and images that can enable individual subjects to produce this association, sound can play a similar role. In the process of political rituals, sonic political symbols often play an important role in creating atmosphere, controlling the process, and mobilizing emotions. For example, in the agenda of the "Two Sessions" [16], all attendees sing the national anthem at the opening and closing ceremonies. This is a vivid manifestation of sonic political symbols functioning in political rituals; it can both stimulate a sense of mission and sublimity in the delegates as they participate in the deliberation of state affairs and fulfill their duties, and trace the arduous struggle of China in modern times through the anthem's lyrics, echoing contemporary development and inspiring delegates to "not forget the original aspiration" and "strive forward." Music, as a sonic symbol, is a common ceremonial element and a basic component of rituals. Sonic symbols in the admission ceremony include the aforementioned sounds of swearing the oath and political commitment discourses, as well as political music. Music can be viewed as the "organizational principle" of a ceremony; the appropriate use of political music in political rituals can mobilize the atmosphere and strengthen ceremonial effects, thereby achieving political governance goals and the rendering of political values. In the admission ceremony, the universally used political music is "The Internationale." Although internal party normative documents do not explicitly stipulate the application scenarios for "The Internationale" in the ceremony, singing it has already become a matter of custom.
As a classic song in the history of the international communist movement, the creation and singing of "The Internationale" are closely linked to the development of the communist movement and the history of the CPC. Thus, singing "The Internationale" in the admission ceremony carries significant historical weight and symbolic meaning. First, "The Internationale" represents the CPC's inheritance of the political lineage (daotong [17]) of communism. Realizing communism is the ultimate goal of the CPC, and its history is inextricably linked to the development of the Communist International. Singing "The Internationale" at the ceremony—with discourse such as "struggle," "unity," and "L'Internationale"—demonstrates the CPC's repeated affirmation of its own goals, inspiring members to remain true to their original aspiration, keep their goals in mind, and strive diligently. Second, the collective singing of "The Internationale" by participants meets the need to enhance ceremonial interactivity and integration. Members in the ceremony play the role of "interactors" in addition to being swearers, witnesses, or conductors; this to some extent compensates for the potential lack of subjective agency among ordinary members acting as witnesses. As interactors sing songs with typical communist colors like "The Internationale," it further promotes interaction between witnesses, organizers, and swearers, allowing everyone present to achieve integration with the entire ceremony through the melody of the sonic political symbol, serving as a landmark and nodal action within the ceremony.
III. The Party Governance Implications of the Institutionalization of the Admission Ceremony
As an institutionalized political ritual held with extremely high frequency within the CPC, the admission ceremony plays an incredibly unique role. It is both an important procedure for the CPC to absorb new members and a vital form of intra-Party political life, as well as an effective opportunity and carrier for the CPC to carry out intra-Party education. Since the founding of the CPC, the changes and development of the admission ceremony over the past century have been closely related to Party building and have played an irreplaceable role therein.
(1) Regulating Intra-Party Political Life
"To manage the Party, we must first start with intra-Party political life; to govern the Party with rigor, we must first start with the rigor of intra-Party political life." Regulating and normalizing intra-Party political life is a matter that the CPC, as a Marxist party, has always attached great importance to, and it is also a major proposition for Party building in the New Era. Regulating intra-Party political life requires not only tightening intra-Party political discipline, clarifying political rules, and establishing a sound orientation for the appointment of personnel, but also "strictly implementing the system of the Party's organizational life." Promoting the continuous institutionalization and standardization of the admission ceremony is undoubtedly an important starting point for regulating the Party's organizational life system.
From the perspective of the ceremonial process, the holding of the admission ceremony is a key nodal event in a member's intra-Party political life. It marks the point from which individual members must exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations in accordance with the requirements of the Party Constitution and other normative documents. Whether the admission ceremony is standardized and serious largely influences a member's basic judgment and cognition of intra-Party political life. In a certain sense, the admission ceremony is the "first button" [18] of a member's participation in intra-Party political life; whether this button is fastened accurately and straight concerns how well the individual member will participate in subsequent political life. As the admission ceremony has been continuously standardized over the past century, the discipline of a Marxist party has been highlighted. The organizational atmosphere created by the ceremony forms a strong positive demonstration effect for new members, laying the psychological expectation that intra-Party political life is serious and earnest, with a "clean and upright political ecosystem" (fengqing qizheng [19]). This leaves an "organizational imprint" on new members for their subsequent participation, favoring the further regulation of intra-Party political life and the institutionalization of organizational life.
From the perspective of the ceremony's nature, it is an activity in which individual members make an organizational commitment to the Party organization. The disciplinary constraints contained therein possess significant value for regulating intra-Party political life. Regarding behavioral manifestations, accepting the admission ceremony and voluntarily becoming a member implies submission to the party's disciplinary rules and the requirements of political life. Regarding discursive symbols, the oath is the concrete expressive carrier of the individual member's organizational commitment. "I volunteer" indicates that joining is a voluntary and conscious action. Oaths such as "strictly guard secrets and obey discipline," "recognizing the Party Program and Constitution," and "executing Party decisions, strictly observing Party discipline, and guarding Party secrets" indicate that members make solemn promises regarding political life and discipline. "Struggling for communism for the rest of my life" and "never betraying the Party" provide permanent constraints on observing discipline and participating in political life from a temporal dimension. Thus, the admission ceremony is saturated with the individual member's emotional, normative, and continuous commitment to the Party organization, setting the standard and creating the foundation for their orderly, standardized, and serious participation in future political life.
From the perspective of the ceremony’s extensibility, the admission ceremony is a "ritual cluster," including not only the swearing-in ceremony itself but also a series of ritualistic activities such as celebrating "political birthdays" and renewing the oath of admission. "To strengthen and regulate intra-Party political life, we must both persist with systems and regulations that have proven effective in the past and advance with the times by combining them with new characteristics of the era to produce new methods and regulations." In the New Era, comprehensively and strictly governing the Party has become a distinct theme of Party building. The continuous promotion of thematic education, the deepening of political lecturing, and the in-depth conduct of "red" study tours [20] have strengthened and developed intra-Party ritualistic activities. Other related intra-Party political rituals based on the admission ceremony hold similarly irreplaceable value for regulating political life. Under normal circumstances, a member may experience the admission ceremony only once, but they can experience multiple "political birthdays" or renewals of the oath. This ensures that the individual memory, party discipline, and ideals and beliefs associated with the admission ceremony are continuously awakened and emphasized during subsequent political life. "Ritual has the capacity to give people a sense of continuity." Through the repetition of these related ritualistic activities, the cognition of the standardization, seriousness, and discipline of intra-Party political life established at the admission ceremony will be continuously reinforced. The good norms established through the ceremony are thus extended and consolidated. Therefore, viewed from the perspective of Party building, the admission ceremony and its related ritual cluster can continuously regulate intra-Party political life and clarify intra-Party political rules.
(2) Enhancing Member Identity...
Categorizing the specific characteristics of the ceremony, the induction ceremony for joining the Party belongs to the category of "rites of passage." A "rite of passage" is a "ceremony held to accompany every change of place, state, social position, and age," serving to distinguish the identity of the participants. For the CPC, the induction ceremony, with its increasing degree of institutionalization, is not only a necessary procedure for absorbing new members into the organization but also a representative rite of passage within the Party. The holding of the induction ceremony signifies a transformation in the status of the new member—from non-member to Party member—and also heralds the expansion of the organizational scale and the strengthening of the revolutionary ranks. For the individual member, the ceremony is the starting point for shaping their identity as a Party member; the completion of the ceremony signifies the confirmation of their status as a member of the newly joined organization.
Identity is a crucial dimension of the self-concept, representing an individual's cognition regarding their group belonging. Social identity stems from an individual’s awareness of being a member of one (or more) social groups, and the emotional significance associated with that identity. From the perspective of shared identity, once a non-member about to be absorbed into the party completes the series of procedures for the induction ceremony, the organization declares him or her a formal party member. "An organization can only be 'seen' through the symbols associated with it." At the site of the induction ceremony, party symbols representing the CPC—such as the Party flag, Party emblem, and slogans—are deployed, becoming a concrete manifestation of the Party organization at the ritual site. For new members, seeing the party symbols at the ceremony means seeing the Party organization; they gain a sense of political group belonging and share the identity of a CPC member with other formal party members. In particular, wearing the Party emblem as a marker of membership at the ceremony reinforces the new members' identification with their political identity. Since then, whenever attending activities related to the Party organization, wearing the Party emblem has become a "standard action" [21]. This act continuously reinforces the group identity of the party members in daily organizational activities, signaling that the individual's status has been granted authoritative certification by the Party organization.
From the perspective of emotional connection, the process of an individual member participating in the induction ceremony is also a process of emotional resonance with the Party organization. During the conduct of the induction ceremony, the Party organization inevitably looks back on the extraordinary journey the party has traversed and the immense sacrifices made, thereby creating a solemn, sacred, proud, and confident emotional atmosphere at the site. Through the performance of the ceremony, organizational emotion can influence every party member involved, realizing an emotional link between the Party organization and the individual member within the connected procedures of the ritual. Under the display of the induction ceremony's procedures and the influence of the organizational atmosphere, individual members develop a sense of organizational pride and collective honor, and the organization consequently generates immense cohesion. The generation of cohesion and the positive evaluation of the organization by individual members are results of the positive influence of individual social identity on group behavior. Therefore, the deployment of the induction ceremony can enhance emotional sharing between individual members and the Party organization, thereby promoting the individual member's identification with their political identity as a CPC member.
In addition to the induction ceremony itself, a "cluster" of induction-related rituals—represented by celebrating "political birthdays" and revisiting the Party admission oath—also carries positive significance for enhancing members' identity. As early as 2004, Xi Jinping, then Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, pointed out that no matter what position or office a member holds within the Party, "they must first understand that their primary identity is that of a Communist Party member." In the context of that time, this emphasized both the need for leading cadres to strengthen their awareness of governing for the people and the implicit emphasis on the issues of belonging and identity for members of the CPC organization. "Adhering to and improving political ceremonies such as revisiting the Party admission oath and members' 'political birthdays'" is undoubtedly an effective measure to strengthen identity. A member's "political birthday" is a significant chronological node for the individual; by giving greeting cards and books and conducting talks or symposiums in the name of primary-level Party organizations, the party can periodically remind individual members of their status and reinforce their identification. The Party admission oath is a core component of the induction ceremony and a discursive symbol for individual members to make a political declaration to the organization. "Every sentence of the oath is both a solemn requirement of the Party for its members and a promise made by the new member to the Party, expressing a voluntary assumption of corresponding political, organizational, and moral responsibilities—which can be understood as the original aspiration." Holding ceremonies to revisit the admission oath on necessary occasions can further awaken the identity consciousness of individual members, strengthen the sense of mission and responsibility of the member group, and enhance identity.
(3) Educating members of the Party organization The participants in an induction ceremony include not only the new members as protagonists but also many formal members who play the roles of organizers and witnesses. For the formal members participating, the ceremony is both an event to witness the organization absorbing new members and an opportunity to receive organizational education through a process of subtle influence. Ritual education is a performative activity in which relevant subjects, through specific procedures and the comprehensive use of symbolic signs, conduct ideological discipline, behavioral standardization, emotional guidance, and value output for ceremony participants. The induction ceremonies held by the CPC serve not only the functions of organizational absorption and identity shaping but also the effect of intra-Party ritual education.
From the perspective of creating a ritual environment, the induction ceremony creates an excellent atmosphere for member education. "The environment created by a ceremony has the effect of connecting emotions and saturating the soul." As the degree of institutionalization of the induction ceremony deepens, the expression of party concepts embedded within it appears more solemn, sacred, rigorous, and standardized. The environmental creation of the induction ceremony provides a prerequisite for the CPC to carry out member education and is an effective means of daily intra-Party education outside of centralized education campaigns. First, the atmosphere created by the ritual environment can stimulate the emotional identification of the participants. When the relevant subjects enter the site, they are moved by the sacredness of the environment, laying the foundational conditions for conducting member education. Second, the time and space upon which the induction ceremony relies provide a carrier for member education and management. Formal members are gathered into a specific physical space when holding ceremonies for new members; in the process of witnessing the induction, they collectively review the Party’s history of struggle and their original aspiration and founding mission, which is also a process of studying Party history and tempering their Party spirit.
From the perspective of the participants, the induction ceremony mobilizes their initiative, allowing both the new members (as the subjects of the oath) and formal members (as witnesses) to possess full subjectivity, participation, and interactivity. Rites possess the characteristics of theatrical performance: "every participant in a ritual is a character in a play." In the induction ceremony, formal members and new members are fully integrated into the rite; symbols such as flags, sounds, discourse, and images within the ceremony enter the minds of formal members, causing their individual memories of joining the Party to be awakened and reproduced. The ritual atmosphere felt at the site creates a shared emotion among party members, and "energy rich in moral significance" is mobilized as the ceremony proceeds, allowing participants to feel a lofty sense of morality and a pressing sense of mission as CPC members. This ultimately achieves the goal of ideal and faith education as well as political party moral education.
Looking at the characteristic of ritual repetition, the act of formal members observing and participating in ceremonies for new members is also a process of repeated exposure to ritual education. The induction ceremony can be viewed as an important platform for the education of members' ideals and faiths; especially for formal members, every instance of participating as a witness is a vivid lesson in Party spirit. In the periodic holding of induction ceremonies, the ritual field—composed of organizational symbols, ideals, faiths, and discursive expressions—repeatedly influences the members. As the organizer and leader of the ritual, the Party can achieve long-term immersion and guidance of its members through the regular performance of these ceremonies. Member education activities using the induction ceremony as a carrier deeply integrate daily intra-Party political life with member education. Compared to traditional intra-Party education focusing on centralized lectures and themed presentations, this has the advantage and effect of "moistening things silently" [22]. Therefore, for the CPC, the induction ceremony also plays the role of educating the members of the organization.
( About the Authors: Gao Xiaolin, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, Fudan University; Director of the Center for Overseas CPC Studies at Fudan University. Luo Lianghu (Corresponding Author), Doctoral Candidate at the School of Marxism, Fudan University. ) ( Funding: This article is a staged achievement of the National Social Science Fund Key Project "Research on the International Image Shaping of the Communist Party of China" (Project No: 21AKS010) and the Fudan University School of Marxism 2023 "Panlin Wangjing" Graduate Innovation Program Class A Project "Research on Political Rituals within the Communist Party of China—A Typological Perspective Based on Institutionalization" (Project No: 2023FDMYC01). ) Web Editor: Tongxin Source: Shandong Social Sciences, Issue 1, 2024.