Illustration:
ill. 6.32 b (set: 6.32)
Author:
清华大学井冈山兵团 不怕鬼战斗队 编
Date:
1967
Genre:
comic, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, grayscale; original source: photographs print on paper, black-and-white
Source:
Wagner 1990: Wagner, Rudolf. The Contemporary Chinese Historical Drama: Four Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990:201.
Courtesy:
University of California Press, Berkeley
Keywords:
Zhao Hongben, iconography, hero, villain, Cultural Revolution, Red Guards, revisionism, criticism, parody, Sun Wukong

Excerpts from Sun Wukong defeats the white-boned Demon four times (Sun Wukong si da baigujing (jiexuan) 孙悟空四打白骨精(节选))

The Red Guard comic chooses a traditional theme, making it an “old comic” and thus not quite in line with the straightjacket. But it does so in order to attack revisionism, a strategy which was well in line with the policies of the time.

The Red Guard comic declares the white-boned demon to be the major revisionist. This is very apt, as Liu Shaoqi was indeed considered the greatest enemy in early Cultural Revolution political rhetoric. On the other hand, the comic still has Zhu Bajie appear lasciviously: with nipples and navel in full shape and form as seen here. The comic thus openly subverts the straightjacket, and to do so in 1967 would have chained in some, bringing them into labor service. But the rules were not equally applied across the board, especially to those who called themselves “Mao’s Soldiers.”