Other than the fact that I find any parodies on Mao invariably hilarious (perhaps only because the "original" Mao or Mao portraits are so serious) I also wonder if Taussig's point on Sympathetic Magic is time/place contingent.
Obviously 20 years ago in China these images will be defacement much akin to the naked statues of Australian royals, but today they were accepted as jokes. Taussig did say that jokes and unmasking work the same way. Has Mao's death and China's modernization changed how these parodies would be viewed?
What is defacement in one context, could it be a non-defacement in another, and maybe even become art?
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