Golden Mao Statue in China, Nearly Finished, Is Brought Down by Criticism

[n2doc]

ZHUSHIGANG, China — Just two days after images of a giant gold-colored statue of Mao in the bare fields of Henan Province spread across the Internet, the statue was gone — torn down apparently on the orders of embarrassed local officials.

Villagers said demolition teams arrived on Thursday morning, and by Friday morning, only a pile of rubble remained.

The 120-foot-tall statue, which local media reports said cost $465,000, had been under construction for months and was nearing completion when it began to attract attention.

Some commenters on social media denounced the extravagance of the colossus in a poor, rural part of China, where the money might have been better spent on education or health care. Several quoted from “Ozymandias,” Shelley’s meditation on the ruins of a monument to a long-forgotten autocrat (“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. ...”).

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/09/world/asia/china-mao-statue-henan.html?_r=0

[Historic NY]

1. Well it does look like he's have an enjoyable BM.

[NV Whino]

2. Well, that's pretty amazing.

I'm sure it would have been taken down eventually, but to have it "officially" removed is interesting.

[Archae]

3. "Ozymandias" was the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses.

[Person 2713]

4. So they wasted all that money on the statue, then destroyed it so now the area doesn't even have

the statue to show for the cost
It could have at least brought visitors to the area after so much exposure online
Talk about overreacting to criticism

[Jim Lane]

5. I agree, I thought of the tourism potential too.

They could have at least tried, to see if there was some money to be made, before tearing it down.

[tblue37]

6. Maybe they can replace it with one of these:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.thestreet.com/story/13142090/1/mcdonalds-is-hoping-to-lure-customers-back-with-kale.html&h=240&w=300&tbnid=om8IShk0UoPgkM:&docid=CzUw7EMuaMsRPM&ei=DeuQVoSUD8fRmAHnhrgg&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjEzuu0zJzKAhXHKCYKHWcDDgQQMwgdKAAwAAhttps://www.google.com/url?