A giant golden statue of Mao Zedong has been torn down in central China just days after the 36-metre effigy sparked an outpouring of criticism and ridicule.
Photographs of Henan province’s “mega Mao”, which had reportedly been built in a rural corner of Tongxu county at a cost of 3m yuan (about £312,000), went viral this week after appearing on a Chinese website.
But a picture circulating on Friday showed that Mao was no more. The Great Helmsman’s hands, legs and feet appeared to have been hacked off, and a black cloth draped over his head.
Devastating news: giant golden Chairman Mao statue torn down in Henan province, locals say https://t.co/Y8T370KSeM pic.twitter.com/SDnkvQmAYN
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) January 8, 2016
“I heard it was destroyed yesterday,” a local delivery worker, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian. “I heard it was because it had occupied a farmer’s land.”
Before the demolition, Liu Jianwu, dean of the Mao Zedong research centre, said entrepreneurs and residents of Henan’s Zhushigang village appeared to have dreamed up the statue in order to commemorate China’s revolutionary leader.
“In contemporary China, Mao Zedong represents the embodiment of fairness and justice,” Liu said. “In the hearts of ordinary people, Mao represents fairness and justice. So people hold these kinds of emotions towards him.”
Last month, the state-run Global Times claimed “Mao worship” was on the rise in parts of rural China. The newspaper pointed to the construction of temples and statues dedicated to the former leader in the provinces of Shaanxi, Guangdong and Hunan.
However, the headline-grabbing Mao memorial is unlikely to have pleased Chinese authorities given the attention – and mockery – the statue drew.
“Why not use the 3 million to improve local education?” argued one of thousands of critics on Weibo, as photos of the golden statue spread this week.
Henan province was one of the regions worst hit by China’s great famine, a catastrophe that claimed tens of millions of lives that was caused by Mao’s disastrous “great leap forward” – a bid for breakneck industrialisation.
In his seminal book on the famine, Tombstone, Chinese writer Yang Jisheng described Henan as the epicentre of the disaster, and estimated that about 3 million lives were lost there because of starvation.
The Tongxu resident, who asked not to be identified, said the identity of Mao’s destroyers was a mystery. “I do not know [who destroyed it],” she said. “I haven’t been there to take a look.”
The People’s Daily newspaper later confirmed Mao’s demise. Officials said the statue had not gone through the correct “approval process” before construction.
Additional reporting by Christy Yao
