MaoSpeak in Cultural Revolution Comics

The Little Red Book, or MaoSpeak, is a dominant motif in the Cultural Revolution comic, featured not only on book covers where heroes are frequently seen clutching Mao’s writings or gesturing with them (ill. 6.3a–d), but on the inside pages as well: in one a young and energetic woman, talking of the glorious deeds accomplished by Shashiyu villagers, cites Mao’s support for the Foolish Old Man (ill. 6.4). Repetition is at work here: the quotation is displayed as a poster on one of the sheds, the young woman is obviously reading it out aloud, some of the peasants are seen eagerly noting it down, and the passage appears, in bold, in the text at the bottom of the comic page as well.