The Rise And Fall Of A Hero

Ernesto Che Guevara is one of the most famous revolutionary leaders of the 20th century,as well as a legend in the history of international communist movement.In the 1960s,when the international political situation was turbulent,his two visits to China greatly helped build the friendship between China and Cuba,and thus made him known as a communist hero by Chinese people.However,as the contradiction among communist countries grew,the image of Guevara changed in China's context.The hero got criticized and those books by him or about him were also translated and published secretly as critical materials.When the Down to the Countryside Movement began,the books were secretly passed on and read among educated youth,who got deeply moved by Guevara's melancholia,loneliness and tragic destiny and encouraged to carry on his revolutionary career.This study will focus on the changing process of Guevara's image in the first 30 years in China and analyze the transformation of the society and the history at the same time.The paper is divided into five parts:The introduction part mainly explains the research significance,existing research achievement,research methods and difficulties.The first chapter summarizes the public image of Che Guevara on China's official media and analyzes its elements from 1949 to 1965.People's Daily is the mainly source of the materials,while other newspaper,magazines and even movies are included in the analysis.The reasons why the image was built like that will be elaborately explained from two aspects,which are historical background and subjective consciousness.The second chapter mainly discusses the overturn of the image of Che Guevara in China's official context from 1966 to 1976.First of all,we will analyze the fact of the overturn,which is from praising Che publicly to criticizing him secretly in a certain circle.Meanwhile the specific discourse used will also be listed.Then we will see the process of Che's guerilla theory turning into guerilla centralism.And finally we can disclose the reasons of such changes within the historical background that the debate of China and Soviet Union led to the break of the relationship between China and Cuba.The third chapter discusses how the educated youth joining the Down to Countryside Movement recognized and respected Che Guevara,although in the official context he had already been criticized.Considering the historical background when people around the world got enthusiastic about revolution and the difficulties educated youth faced in the movement,we try to explain why the officially abandoned heroic image of Che Guevara could revive among young people,as well as the influence of this phenomenon.The conclusion part will summarize the whole paper and further present the meaning of Che Guevara to current society.