My thoughts on the Karl Marx Chinese anime

As I'm typing this, multiple thoughts are racing through my head. Where should I even begin? I realise I'm also about a week late on this.

On the politics

Some of you think it's completely ridiculous that we're getting a Chinese animation about Karl Marx. Whether you agree with him or not, Marx IS a historical figure whose writings are still influential to this day. We have movies about all kinds of historical figures; Jesus, Nobunaga, Stalin, Napoleon and of course Hitler. Anime is no exception, featuring a huge amount of historical figures from all over the world. If you remove the political aspect of it, this is just another historical series featuring a historical figure. This is why I don't see much controversy or reason to be upset, so calm yourselves.

So yes, I do think people are being snowflakes over this. His ideology in its purest form has been tried and didn't succeed which inevitably caused plenty of suffering, no doubt, but hey, so did Hitler. Yet, he has his own manga by the great Tezuka. The thing is, Hitler was directly responsible for the massacre he ordered while Karl Marx was merely a philosopher who had his ideas tried out, decades after his death. I can't hold him personally responsible for Stalin, Mao and the likes for that reason. Additionally, you could argue that capitalism also caused suffering, and I don't think it'd be fair to put the blame on Adam Smith.

Since the ideological diehards are so obsessed over the left-right culture war these days, the real controversy is not that Karl Marx is getting an animation, rather, it's that this series is being produced by various groups of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to honour Marx's 200th anniversary. This means that they'll most likely not going to dive too deep into his writings nor are they going to show any negative aspects of his life. If anything, I'm expecting to discover Marx as a person in this show through rose-tinted lenses.

However, as many have pointed out, he was absolutely not a saint when he was alive. In fact, it was said that he was quite vulgar and rude to anyone who disagreed with him, and worst of all, he didn't pay his housekeeper (which he impregnated) a salary. Also, did I mention he didn't bathe? Yuck. But I suppose this is what makes the contrast so interesting; someone who's so concerned for the workers' plight, rightfully so, yet at the same time acts like the very same people he so heavily criticised. It's people like him who makes history worth studying.

Even if the CCP are big fans of Marx, they would be doing a huge disservice to history if they don't portray the man faithfully. After all, even people in China today have recognised that Mao has fucked up in many areas, and I just wish that they bring that same level of criticism to Marx. After all, the CCP has tweaked many of his ideas beyond recognition which is why it's only fair that they at least admit that. But this is modern China, a totalitarian state which censors every little thing that might offend the party's precious political sensibilities. As a fan of history, I won't hold my breath if the show just turns out to be another boring and dull propaganda from the country's state media.

On the actual trailer