Illustration:
ill. 6.33 b (set: 6.32)
Author:
Qinghua Daxue Jinggangshan bingtuan bu pa gui zhandou dui 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, black-and-white; original source: 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:
Sun Wukong, Mao Zedong, hero, villain, fight, Cultural Revolution, heroism, Red Guards, parody, comic

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 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.Yet, the hero is still not depicted in the prominent manner he would deserve according to the rule of Three Prominences. Indeed, one could argue that it is the demon who achieves greater prominence, for in his/her different incarnations he/she actually receives more close-up shots than does Monkey King.

Although Monkey King is victorious in the end and seen as a centralized or superior figure in some of his fights with the demons (ill 6.33a&c), this is not always the case in all panels. Indeed, there are several instances in which his fighting abilities do not appear superior and he is almost squeezed out of the picture by his enemy as can be seen in this image.

Thus, even in heady 1967, undoubtedly one of the most politicized periods of the Cultural Revolution, the regulations of Cultural Revolution Culture could or would not be applied consistently. This period, which has often been characterized as one of absolute dictatorship and monolithic rule over Chinese art and culture, is rather more anarchic than is generally assumed.