劳改

勞改

láogǎi

noun #24,093

Meanings

1 reform through labor
2 laogai (Chinese labor camp system)

Characters

labor; toil; to work hard

to reform; to change; to correct

Examples

他被送去劳改，服刑五年。

Tā bèi sòng qù láogǎi, fúxíng wǔ nián.

He was sent to a labor camp and served five years.

劳改营制度在中国历史上存在了数十年。

Láogǎi yíng zhìdù zài Zhōngguó lìshǐ shàng cúnzài le shùshí nián.

The labor camp system existed in China for several decades.

历史学家研究了劳改制度对社会的影响。

Lìshǐxuéjiā yánjiū le láogǎi zhìdù duì shèhuì de yǐngxiǎng.

Historians studied the impact of the labor reform system on society.

Tips

culture

劳改 is short for 劳动改造 (láodòng gǎizào, reform through labor). The laogai system, modeled partly on Soviet gulags, was used extensively from the 1950s onward to punish political dissidents, criminals, and class enemies. Though officially reformed, labor camps remain a sensitive and contested topic in modern China.

register

劳改 carries strong political and historical weight. In contemporary Chinese, it still refers colloquially to prison labor, though the formal term 监狱 (jiānyù, prison) is more neutral.

Stroke Order

劳 láo

改 gǎi