These Chinese statues were so awful, many were demolished within days of their unveiling after enduring scorn and ridicule from the people of the Republic of China.
The Brylcreem Buddha of Luoyang
In April of 2013, citizens of Luoyang in east-central China’s Henan province were excited about the soon-to-open Hualong Amusement Park with an enormous gold-toned Buddha statue at its heart. Imagine the shocked silence when the covers came off the statue, revealing what incredulous netizens quickly dubbed the “Big Maitreya with the Swept-back Hairstyle.” When pressed, park managers admitted the statue’s head was modeled after a local entrepreneur who believed his grinning golden visage would help “inspire young people.”
After a few days of scathing and unrelenting criticism from local web commentators, park visitors arrived to find the statue headless. As for the missing head, it turned up shortly thereafter mounted on a small, nondescript building some likened to a public restroom.
So Long Soong Ching-ling
Soong Ching-ling was the second wife of Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Republic of China, and is held in high regard by all Chinese to this day. Therefore it was no surprise the Henan province Soong Ching-ling Foundation was able to scrape up 120 million yuan ($19.5 million) to construct a 24 meter (78.5 ft) tall statue honoring her in Henan’s capital city of Zhengzhou. But it was surprising that the statue was demolished before it was even half-finished.
Curiously, it seems that managers at the Henan Provincial Soong Ching Ling Foundation took issue with the appearance of the statue, which was supposed to have been based on a design by Professor Liang Mingcheng of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. “Though the statue and our design look alike, it is terrible in both effect and quality,” stated Professor Liang.
Jinshitan’s Volleyball
Jinshitan (“Golden Pebble Beach”) near Dalian in northeastern China has a lot going for it, such as a golden pebbled beach and a cool rock formation called “Dinosaur Swallowing the Sea”. It also has this statue, which sort of looks like the unfortunate lovechild of Princess Fiona and the Great Gazoo. The story goes that “Sandy” was built in honor of the world beach volleyball championships held in Jinshitan several years ago. The tour has moved on but the statue remains.
Hotel Hell
Cruise the Yangtze River for about 170 km (110 miles) downstream from Chongqing and gaze out towards the mighty river’s northern bank, and there you’ll find Fengdu. A modern ghost town designed to express the Chinese concept of the underworld, Fengdu is basically Hell on Earth. Ghosts may indeed find it appealing.
Dazed and Confucius
One of the cool things about monumental statues is that they may be huge but they’re obviously not real. Chinese artists Zhang Huan evidently didn’t get that memo because his oversized animatronic Bathing Confucius is both towering and life-like: internal motors make the figure appear to be breathing in and out.
Kobe Bronzed Somewhere Else
Perennial scoring machine for the Los Angeles Lakers and 15-time NBA all-star Kobe Bryant deserves a statue to stand alongside those of Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Chick Hearn outside the Staples Center and now he does. The bronzed “Black Mamba” has indeed been rendered in metallic, larger than life fashion but his likeness is rooted outside the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts’ Sculpture Museum in Guangzhou, China.
This Bizarre Expression
As the most populated nation on Earth, China has done much to discourage its citizens from having more than one children. Perhaps one of the most innovative initiatives (though not officially intended as such) is a statue in the smallish city of Shiyan named “The Expression of Sex” or as we’d like to call it, the Big Turn Off.
The Flying Apsara Statue
59 feet, 40 tons, 11 days — we’re referring to the late and unlamented Flying Apsara statue in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s height, weight, and lifespan after completion. Dedicated on Friday, August 6th of 2012, the statue of the goddess Apsara in flight decked out in heavy makeup and a long skirt covered with living grass and colorful flowers loomed over a busy Urumqi intersection for a very limited time only. Following an 11-day firestorm of intense Internet criticism, the much-mocked Flying Apsara was suddenly and unceremoniously chopped into four parts and hauled away to parts unknown on flatbed trucks.
According to Ablimit Mijit, a resident of mainly-Islamic Urumqi, the semi-clothed appearance of the goddess “was difficult for some Muslim ethnic groups to accept,” and its public prominence would likely exacerbate tensions between the city’s ethnic Han Chinese governing authorities and the restive native population. As well, a majority of netizens complained that “the sculpture was ugly and did not represent a traditional image of female beauty.”
WEB URBANIST
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