Sixty Feet, Brow to Chin

Leaving Changsha, we had a lot of down time in the airport.  The plane was delayed by two hours and we sat outside a shop playing a loud guzheng loop, which could have been worse. Up on one of the ads was an aerial photo of large bust, set on an island.  I couldn’t see it clearly at first but came to realize it was an enormous bust of Mao Zedong out there in the middle of the Xiang River.   Was this real?  Does such a thing really exist?

Indeed, the “Youth Mao Zedong Statue” was unveiled in 2009.  Mao, of course, hails from Hunan Province, in Shaoshan and I suppose it is understandable that the local officials, at least, would look for yet again new ways to commemorate the Province’ pivotal persona.  He looks young, hirsute, sagacious.  It’s big, of course.  It stands over one-hundred-and-five feet tall.   George Washington’s head on Mount Rushmore is only sixty-feet, brow to chin though Jorge is on top of a mountain and if we take into account the Mao edifice’ suggestion of shoulders and chest upon, which the head rests they are perhaps of comparable in size. 

What is not comparable of course, is that Mao is all by himself.  Gutzon Borglum the artist and sculptor behind Mount Rushmore chose to represent George with Thomas, Abe and Teddie alongside the country’s “father”, suggesting presidential cycles as much as presidential greatness.  This Mao, as most Mao’s do, stands alone.  Deng Xiaoping, at an earlier juncture was able to mandate that the people’s money, had the Chairman as the head of quartet, that included Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and that other Hunan native, Liu Shaoqi.  But times have changed and these days our local currency only has room for one helmsman.

Solitary busts can be temporal.  I can recall driving past the concrete Ferdinand Marcos bust of similar size, in northern Luzon in 1994.  It was destroyed by treasure hunters in 2002.  Considering the Mao bust up close, online, with the profusion of wind swept hair, I had a bad feeling.  I thought of our current U.S. president with his pungent vanity and somewhat less sturdy, wind swept hair. Is there anyone who doubts that he wouldn’t want his ever-so-commanding gaze elephantized in this manner?  Were he to be involved in such a sculpting, he would certainly want it to stand alone.  

Monday 4/09/18