Why does Che Guevara’s face often appear on clothes?

Che Guevara

Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna (Spanish: Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, June 14, 1928 - October 9, 1967), usually called Che Guevara (Spanish: Che Guevara), translated as Jie Guevara in Hong Kong. He was an Argentinian-born Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. Guevara participated in the "July 26 Movement" in Cuba led by Castro in 1959, which overthrew the pro-American Batista dictatorship. After holding some important positions in the new Cuban government, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 and continued to instigate communist revolutions in other countries. First came Congo, then Bolivia. In Bolivia, he was captured during a military operation planned by the CIA and killed by the Bolivian army on October 9, 1967. After his death, he became a hero in the communist revolutionary movement in the Third World and a symbol of the Western left-wing movement.

October 9th marks the 40th anniversary of the shooting of Che Guevara. During the short life of this legendary revolutionary, his reputation was not prominent in another revolutionary kingdom, China. However, In today's China, Che's name has been spread by tens of millions of people.

In today's China, it is not difficult to see Che Guevara in some fashionable metropolises: his classic style of wearing a red star beret will appear on the resident singer's cultural shirts at any time. On the mugs of young poets, or on the title pictures and avatars of blogs and BBSs. In today's China, Che Guevara has become a symbol. Seeing that portrait, many people will blurt out a series of concepts: purity, persistence, incorruptibility, etc.

Among the tens of thousands of Guevara admirers in China, perhaps not a few will read the long commemorative essay just written by Cuban President Castro, let alone a few. I am interested in Che’s philosophy of governance and guerrilla warfare strategies, as well as his huge inner changes during his stay in Zaire, Africa, because they are too specific, too trivial, too secular, and too un-Guevara. Many people admire Che, yes, but they admire Che as a symbol, not as a living person.

With the "Red May", "anti-war" and "the defeated generation", in the West, the trend of individual liberation and resistance to authority and order swept the entire 1970s, and people who dared to resist hegemony , monopoly, capital and authority, and possessing the Puritan traits of not loving power and the fearless character of "I would rather die standing than live on my knees", Guevara soon became a member of this generation full of rebellious and anti-authority thoughts and pursuit of individuality. An idol and hero in the minds of free Western youth, his behavior of repeatedly challenging powerful military machines with little power is full of romanticism in the eyes of these young people. So the revolutionary Che Guevara first became an idol, symbol and hero among them. His head was held high in anti-globalization demonstrations, printed on anti-war slogans and flags, and even environmentalists would Che Guevara regards him as his patron saint. His name is often sung by rock musicians, and his image is printed on a variety of items from cigar boxes to T-shirts. He protects more people. Che Guevara is very popular. It is about to become a global symbol. He symbolizes rebellion, freedom, anti-authoritarianism, and unwillingness to accept the situation. Perhaps some of the actions initiated in Che’s name are actually what Che is opposed to. Perhaps only the poor in the villages and slums of South America truly understand Che. Say and think, but it doesn't matter: Che Guevara is just a symbol.

The real popularization in China came with the singing and dancing of rock bands and cultural shirts, along with MTV, movies and Western pop culture, which were introduced as a fashion and quickly localized. If in the West, Che’s symbol appears more often on the streets, in China, it often stays on the ceiling of a bedroom or audio room, or on the wallpaper of a personal computer; if we say in the West, Che’s symbol is more of a group symbol , but in China, he is respected and collected by countless individuals.

Different from the West, where Guevara's followers are mostly from the labor and marginalized classes, in China, Che is often a topic of "elites", white-collar workers, small intellectuals, etc., but is usually not a topic for ordinary workers. They are well-known to each other (the real Che is the enemy of the former and the friend of the latter), they talk about Che's integrity, his idealism, and their anecdotes about how he scared away corrupt officials when he was the president of the Bank of Cuba. They are familiar with it, and they are full of praise for Che's active anti-Americanism, but they may not dare to understand Che's Puritan life, and it is even harder to imitate his chaotic life of riding a motorcycle to visit the sufferings of Latin American people. Some of them even paid attention to and admired Che just because his style was cool, or others were talking about Che, but they did not understand that this handsome Argentinian from an upper-middle-class background was trying to mingle with the poor during his speech. Almost always use the most vulgar and common popular language. For most Chinese admirers, Che Guevara is just a fashion, a symbol, not an idea.

They are also symbols. Che in the Western world is quite different from those in China. The former is more rebellious while the latter is closer to a perfect idealist. This is related to the characteristics of symbols: no matter where they are, Che is It is regarded as a reaction to people's dissatisfaction. The difference in dissatisfaction naturally produces different symbols. Guevara: China's fans do not have much personal pain about globalization, while in other countries, radical youths Nor will there be much interest in the story of its transformation into privatization.

The age of heroes has long gone away from us. In this era of consumption supremacy, the management of shopping malls and arenas has become the mainstream of social idols. However, in any era and in any society, people in their minds may or may not There are few heroes. In today's China, in the years when heroes are lacking, heroic symbols like Che Guevara are more popular and more likely to be regarded as people's spiritual sustenance, and like aged wine, they last for a long time.