Illustration:
ill. 4.5 (set: 4.1)
Date:
1973
Genre:
comic, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, grayscale; original source: print on paper
Source:
Caoyuan ernü 草原儿女 (Little sisters of the grasslands). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1973:3.
Inscription:
听毛主席话， 跟共产党走。 毛主席万岁！
Keywords:
Children of the Grasslands, Mao’s writings, Mao portrait, Mao’s works, Mao Zedong Thought, comic, studying, reading, children, family, minorities, hero, female

Children of the Grasslands (Caoyuan ernü 草原儿女)

The image from the cartoon Children of the Grasslands 草原儿女 Caoyuan ernü (which later also became a model ballet) appears in 1973. It shows a father explaining to his children that they must be diligent and learn from Chairman Mao. They are kneeling in front of a large Mao portrait, each of them (and their father) holding a book with Mao’s writings in their hands, and many more such books are waiting on the table.

The power of Mao’s words thus learned are, so these images suggest, appreciated by everyone. The impossible becomes possible by remembering Mao famous quote: one of the little sisters (Comic Caoyuan Ernü 1973:63) remembers Mao’s phrase of being resolute enough to “overcome difficulties” when at one point later in the story, where she and her sister are lost in a snowstorm, she has almost given up fighting the snow. As she mumbles Mao’s words to herself, she remains determined not to let go and soon enough, the snowstorm dies down (Comic Caoyuan Ernü 1973:64). Her determination (based on her earlier diligent reading and memorizing of Mao’s works with her father) has saved her.