Titles were written in a similar style: "Guevara said that the U.S. From 1959 to 1965, there were in total 83 pieces of translated articles and remarks by Guevara published on People's Daily, the majority of which shared the theme of anti-U.S. His speeches and writings began to frequently appear on People's Daily, China's official newspaper directly managed by the Party, the most widely read publication in China during that time.
Che Guevara, a major figure of the revolution and the Minister of Industries, was especially endorsed by the CCP as a political model for socialist revolutionary and a hero who resisted the U.S. In 1959, when the Cuban Revolution’s victorious news reached to People’s Republic of China on the other side of the Pacific ocean, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responded with great enthusiasm and quickly initiated a country-wide propaganda campaign that introduced Cuban history and praised the revolution.
From the Socialist Hero to a "Bourgeois Opportunist" Lastly, from 2012 to the present day, the emergence of a subculture “Qie Guevara” among the youths exposed hidden issues of social inequality, class tension, and widespread discontentment, expressing a call to redefine happiness and secure the freedom to live one’s desired life. From the eighties to the beginning of the twentieth century, Guevara became a nostalgic symbol for idealism that became scarce in a society turning toward consumerism and entertainment. Then, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Guevara was officially rejected by the Party but was secretly treated as spiritual guidance by the “sent-down” students living harsh agrarian lives. Guevara’s reception in China can be roughly classified into four stages: firstly, during the period from 1959 to 1965, Guevara was endorsed by the Chinese Communist Party as a heroic symbol of the socialist revolution and anti-Americanism. The paper will examine the development of Che Guevara’s image in China, a topic that is less discussed by western scholars and historians. This discussion shows how his image has been tailored to various local contexts and has become engraved in Chinese cultural memory.įollowing his legendary life as well as his tragic, almost-sacred death, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was transformed into a world-wide popular icon that has shaped the cultural memories of many generations. The complex evolution of Che Guevara’s image in modern China testifies to his chameleon-like potential to represent different ideals. He evolved from a propagandized model of the socialist revolution and anti-American hero endorsed by the Chinese Communist Party, to a secret spiritual guide for the “sent-down” youth during the Cultural Revolution from a nostalgic symbol for idealism generated by Guangtian Zhang’s milestone drama Che Guevara, to a subculture of “Qie Guevara” on the internet that voices discontentment with social and economic inequality. This paper examines the image and reception of Che Guevara in Chinese cultural memory from the 1950s to the present, revealing his manifold significations endowed by different social groups in various historical contexts. However, in 2003 the duet broke up, and the artists embarked on solo careers.Being a worldwide popular icon, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara has been differently re-appropriated by a variety of movements across the globe but his reception and symbolization in contemporary China has been less discussed by western scholars. Komar and Melamid’s last works, among them the “People’s Choice” and “Monumental Propaganda” series, lost none of the duo’s trademark wittiness or zeitgeist relevance. A parody of modernism, it came about after the pair viewed the late abstractions of Gerhard Richter and concluded that elephants would be able to paint no worse. In the 1990s, their “Painting Elephants” project became a smash hit. Painting elephantsĪfter the collapse of the Soviet Union, the socialist realist artist “Komar and Melamid” ceased to exist, although the two remained together for a while longer. Their exhibitions were held worldwide, and their works were acquired by leading museums, including the Metropolitan and MoMA. Western gallery owners reached out to the artists. This postmodernist hybrid of academism and socialist realism rode the 1980s wave of perestroika. They repainted pictures, introducing 20th-century political figures into salon scenes, among them Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler. In the West, the artists discovered the fallow lands of academic painting. Yalta Conference, from the “Nostalgic Socialist Realism” series, 1982ĭespite having left their Soviet homeland, Komar and Melamid remained engaged in sots art.
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