744
1
177 * 248
04/12/2015
17+
1950. Mao Zedong has been in power for one year. In the mountains of
Yunnan, Secretary Li, a zealous young Communist official, brings Comrad
Tao to the city to ‘make revolution.’ Soon, the fruit of their union,
‘Little Li’ – Xiao Li – is born.
We are in the period of the Revolution triumphant, of audacious
experiments that frequently turn sour: the ‘Hundred Flowers,’ the ‘Great
Leap Forward’… and the Cultural Revolution. ‘All revolution is
just! The revolution is above reproach!’
At 11 years old, fiercely proud of his red scarf and armband, armed with
his little red book of the same color and his almost infinite
knowledge of the quotations of President Mao (whose spokesman he
considers himself), Xiao Li maintains a reign of terror over all around
him. Alongside his friends, he lets himself gradually slide into an
unspeakable collective madness, in the grips of which each one will come
to denounce, destroy, and burn…The Guardian : “This
ambitious graphic novel pulls you to the chest of the world’s latest
superpower, shows you something of what it has gained and lost, and lets
you go, 60 years later, drained and intrigued and feeling as though you
know China’s great, tangled present a little bit better.’
