Giant Mao Zedong stands alone in the autumn cold

Xiaoxiang Morning Post
November 2, 2009

November 3, 2009
 

A giant statue of a young Mao Zedong emerged from scaffolding in Changsha this week.

Standing on Juzi Island in the middle of Xiang River, the statue and its flowing hair were revealed to the world for the first time through an image splashed on the cover of yesterday’s Xiaoxiang Morning Herald (far left).

In today’s issue, the paper followed up with an article on the statue’s design process. It spoke with Xie Liwen, a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts who was on the creative team:

Now that workmen have taken down the scaffolding and the statue has revealed its face, many locals are surprised at the “smart, stylish long hair,” because the Mao statues with which everyone is most familiar either have the leader waving to the people or standing impressively dressed in an overcoat. Other poses are relatively rare.

“This design isn’t all that strange. The Mao statues people typically see are mostly of him standing and waving, or else fairly formal and serious. During the creation of this statue of a seated, young Mao Zedong, we were particularly concerned with differentiating it from past images,” said Xie Liwen.

The design of the seated, young Mao statue was hatched in 2006. “Our first concern was uniqueness and artistry,” said Xie. He said that at the suggestion Li Ming, president of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and another lead designer, they collected images of Mao at different stages of his life, ultimately selecting Mao at 32. “That was the year he wrote ‘Changsha,’ and besides, we wanted the design to capture the expansive abandon of the poem.”

To properly recreate Mao Zedong’s true image, the creative team repeatedly consulted historical materials and produced drafts that they sent off for Mao Zedong’s daughter-in-law Shao Hua to review. “Shao Hua was quite pleased with the design,” said Xie. Unfortunately, Shao passed away last year and was unable to see the completed statue for herself.

[…]

The poem “Changsha” describes what Mao Zedong saw while standing on Juzi Island looking at Yuelu Mountain. But perceptive locals noticed that the newly revealed Mao statue is facing toward the southeast, with his back toward the mountain. Why?

Xie explained that the southeast orientation was selected primarily for artistic reasons: “The light is better facing the southeast, and it has a stronger sense of shape.” Xie said that they performed a special survey of Juzi Island and its surroundings to address the orientation issue, and after considering multiple factors, they ultimately decided that the statue should face the southeast.

For the torso of the young Mao Zedong statue, the creative team chose the form of a mountain: “It expresses Mao’s magnificence, and also shows that he came out of Shaoshan.”

The statue measures 32 meters high and 83 by 41 meters on the ground. It is constructed out of granite quarried in Fujian Province.