Aside from the regular appearance of his image on Tian'anmen Square during occasions of national importance, Karl Marx, as one of the major founts of ideological wisdom, has been visualized more than often. His portrait has been ingrained in the Chinese gaze. Up to the present, it remains one of the favorite images for use in class rooms.
During the Cultural Revolution,
the representation of Marx played a great role in the attempts to
position Mao Zedong as the last living --and therefore most relevant--
contributor to Marxism.
Marx's contributions to the revolutionary cause were recalled in other instances as well. In 1971, for example, to mark
the centenary of the Paris Commune, commemorative posters appeared that were graced with his portrait.
In 1983, a century after Marx had passed away, a
number of posters was published to honor this founding father of
Marxism. The images carried appropriate quotations from his writings.
In some cases, Marx was used for more contemporary propaganda purposes. When the one-child policy was started in
the early 1980s, much was made of the fact that Marx himself, by fathering only one daughter (Jenny), was an early advocate of the single-child
family.
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Ideological Foundations
s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl
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