By Megan M. Ferry
Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, pp.236-269
This essay explores the transnational dimension of visual propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party from the late 1950s into the 1970s. It examines the dissemination of propaganda artifacts in Latin America and argues that the politicized images provide a common ideological space for a transnational Maoism. Regardless of the intention of propaganda at its production to reach such a global audience, this propaganda was consumed by people in China and without who saw China as a revolutionary model. The visual currency that such propaganda provides acts as a model of a successful revolution in China, and the promise that such a model is applicable to other nations undergoing and seeking political change. The essay looks specifically at Peru and the Maoist movement there in the 1980s to examine how the symbolism of Chinese propaganda images gained currency in Peruvian Maoist political art. Furthermore, the essay questions the extent to which Chinese visual propaganda incites or assists in the actualization of Maoist and other revolutionary actions in other nations.