New Chinese comic shows Karl Marx as a romantic, teenage rebel
The “Lingfengzhe” or The Leader, the first comic book about Marx to be printed and released in China, is an effort to make the ideologue accessible and popular among teenagers in the country.
A sharply dressed and clean-shaven young man with blue eyes is looking intensely out of the comic book cover. He pretty much looks to be from the same universe where suited men, and women, turn into superheroes with a finger snap.
As it turns out, that’s a young Karl Marx, a superhero no less among believers in China, in a new avatar in a Chinese comic book.
The “Lingfengzhe” or The Leader, the first comic book about Marx to be printed and released in China, is an effort to make the ideologue accessible and popular among teenagers in the country.
The comic book, released in January, steps aside from only talking about Marx’s philosophy – it humanises him and reflects his life and struggles as a man.
It shows his “…family, love, friendship, theory and struggles”. The first issue depicts Marx’s early life Berne and Berlin and his love story with his wife Jenny von Westphalen.
“Using Marx’s life, the book explains the Marxist theory in a simple and vivid way,” the Hangzhou-based Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House, the publisher of the book told the tabloid Global Times.
The bid to make Marx more popular in China began last year, which marked his 200th birth anniversary.
“Two centuries on, despite huge and profound changes in human society, the name of Karl Marx is still respected all over the world and his theory still shines with the brilliant light of truth,” President Xi Jinping had said last year.
Xi had called him the “greatest thinker” of history and shows “our firm belief” in the scientific truth of Marxism.
Late last year, a cartoon series on Marx – with the same name The Leader – was produced to be shown on a video streaming site. The production was commissioned by the Communist Party of China-led government’s Marxism office.
The comic book is the latest effort.
“From emojis, stage plays and animation to comic book, China is producing various products about Karl Marx, who is regarded as the millennium’s greatest thinker, in a bid to popularise the political figure among Chinese teenagers,” the news report said.
“It tells young readers that Marx is not only a great thinker as they learned in textbooks, but also a diligent, romantic and rebellious teenager like a normal teenager would behave”.