How did La Chinoise show Jean-Luc Godard’s growing interest in left-wing politics?

Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film La Chinoise served as a clear indicator of his shifting focus toward left-wing political thought. The film’s title itself is a slang term for Parisian Maoists, and its production marked a transition in Godard’s career from aesthetic and fictional preoccupations toward an explicit engagement with Marxism and revolutionary ideology.1

During this period, Godard’s work began to reflect the influence of thinkers such as Herbert Marcuse, Che Guevara, and Frantz Fanon. La Chinoise signaled this ideological evolution, which was further confirmed by Godard’s active participation in the Paris student riots of 1968. Following this shift, his films moved away from traditional narrative structures, instead functioning as intellectual "agitprop" (agitation-propaganda) intended to serve as a struggle rather than mere entertainment.1