ROMANCE MEETS PROPAGANDA

CHINA’S KARL MARX ANIME SEEKS TO MAKE THE FORMER COMMUNIST LEADER PALATABLE TO THE YOUTH

The Chinese Communist Party is trying a new way to woo younger people, commissioning an anime series whose hero is cleanshaven, slim and a hopeless romantic — Karl Marx.

Called The Leader, the online cartoon series is designed to make Marx more palatable to China’s younger generation, which usually encounters the bearded German philosopher through thick textbooks and classes.

“There is a lot of literary work about Karl Marx, but not as much in a format that young people can accept,” said Zhuo Sina, one of the scriptwriters behind the online series.

“We wanted to ill this gap,” she added. “We hope more people can have a more positive understanding of and interest in Marx and his biography.”

Created by animation studio Wawayu but backed by China’s central propaganda department and the state-run Marxism Research and Construction Programme Ofice, the release of The Leader comes as the Chinese Communist Party ramps up its push for ideological rigour — especially in classrooms and on university campuses.

With its Ferrari-driving elites cashing in on an economic boom that has revolutionised China since the economy was opened to market forces in 1978, Beijing’s allegiance to Marx may seem like an anomaly.

But the Communist Party is still loyal to its ideological forefather, dismissing the apparent contradiction and framing its evolution through a prism of “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.”

Students start learning the theories of Marx and Lenin in middle school, and civil servants — even journalists in state-run media — have to take mandatory courses in Marxist theory to secure promotions.

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping also urged party members to cultivate the habit of reading Marxist