Representation of Third World Militant Femininity: Vietnamese Militiawomen in Communist Chinese Vietnam War Propaganda

Abstract Although scholars have analyzed the significance of Vietnamese revolutionary women during the Vietnam War for the global Left, none examine their impact on mass mobilization in the People’s Republic of China ( prc ). Assessing Vietnamese militiawomen posters that Beijing created, this article argues that the imagery of militiawomen invokes what the author labels “Third World militant femininity” to achieve three goals. First, it mobilized the Chinese, especially women, to support domestic socialist revolutions. Second, it displayed the prc ’s solidarity with Vietnam and undermined the Soviet Union’s strategy of cooperation with the United States, thereby emphasizing Communist China’s leadership in the Third World. Finally, it created an image of a powerful Vietnam and a weak United States to avenge the past humiliation China suffered as a victim of Western imperialism.