In order to make up my mind about the deck I thought I would come back to the idea of strictly separating artists and their mindset from the artwork itself.
From looking at the deck alone I do like the artwork, and the deck actually doesn’t appear shallow or simple minded to me. It shows a fair number of different aspects of Maoist times. I see brainwashed and insanely happy people as well as hard working or even unhappy people. And I take the devil card for example as an ironic reflection rather than a plain statement. All in all I’d expect that the deck would work well for me as a reflection on romantic Western views of Maoism, less on Maoism itself though.
Still a deck reflecting on Nazi aesthetics and mindsets would be a no-go for me because I couldn’t avoid seeing the real history every time I look at it. Many people who suffered from communist regimes, have ties to Tibetan culture or simply have no memories of their own romantic attitude towards communist ideas during adolescence won’t be willing to ignore real history either. Insofar most posts in this thread stating repulsion make perfect sense to me. The objections just don’t apply to me, while I wouldn’t use the deck for readings either, except maybe for myself.
I stopped trying to understand the artist’s mindset. My best guess is that they have a slightly romantic or misty-eyed attitude towards the Cultural Revolution and after being harshly criticized became defensive in an awkward way which made them make even more annoying statements. But since a tarot deck can’t be a spiritual tool and a balanced political analysis at the same time I think it doesn’t matter either how balanced the view of the artists is.
I am going to buy the Cultural Revolution Tarot.
