Supplementary collections

Comic books

Included in his collection of artifacts from the Cultural Revolution Sigurdson also has assembled a number of Chinese traditional “comic books” — Xiao Ren Shu. They used to be popular reading and were printed in large numbers.

A small selection, included here, illustrates classical themes, revolutionary operas, movies popular at the time, or more practical things. One booklet would describe building deep underground shelters to prepare cities from a perceived military attack from the US that at the time became deeply involved with its war in Vietnam. Many of them depict heroes often from the Liberation Army.

See more of the book covers in the catalogue under Comics.