“A Chinese life” in classroom: Contemporary China in comics

Abstract

This article aims to suggest ways in which questions about contemporary China can be problematized in the classroom, both in high school and in college history courses. To do so, we will use the comic by Phillipe Ôtié and Li Kunwu entitled A chinese life. In this comic, important moments of contemporary Chinese life are depicted in an autobiographical way. Thus, issues related to Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung) and its government are presented to problematize topics for teaching history. It also raises questions about the Proletarian Cultural Revolution that have been very well explored by the comic writers. Thus, this work intends to fit into Educommunication, but at the same time into the historiographical search for new and exciting sources for research and teaching. Our paper will consist of an introduction in which we present our topic and scope; this will be followed by the historical context in which we discuss relevant points of what we will later find in the comic. Then we will make a formal presentation of the work and its problematization for use in the classroom, pointing out possible ways and directions for interested teachers. Finally, we will present our conclusions.

Keywords:
History; China; comics; classroom