Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth Century World
by Rebecca E. Karl
The most interesting thing about Mao Zedong are the paradoxes that surround him. The “cultural worker” who created art for the benefit of mass politics was Mao’s ideal artist; now his own image is an icon of pop art, overlayed by Warhol hypercolors and juxtaposed with commercial symbols. The kitsch of his anti-capitalist Red Guard — the little red books and propaganda posters that were powerful ideological tools during the Cultural Revolution — have become commodified collectibles.
