Abstract

Exploring the visual representations of the barefoot doctors in China’s Cultural Revolution, this article demonstrates how a medical policy is visualized and politicized, and it also shows how the visual culture of the time was richer than it has been assumed. This article meanders through different visual means such as propaganda posters and cinema in order to explore the difficult relationships between politics and policy, as well as the uneasy position occupied by femininity on the national political stage. Focusing on the barefoot doctor as a case study, this article provides a specific angle for us to understand the intense dynamics between culture and politics in the Cultural Revolution.

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