The New Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial: Made In China

The irony is just too great. The memorial was sculpted in China by a Chinese. It just keeps getting better and better. Americans couldn't do the job on a cost effective basis so the work went to a Chinese artist. Read it and weep:

"As memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was set to be opened to the public on the National Mall in Washington on Monday, news media recalled a controversy ignited by claims that the statue — by a renowned Chinese sculptor — renders Dr. King's appearance as slightly Asian.

The 30-foot-tall granite statue of the slain civil rights leader — the first person who is not a president or fallen soldier to be honored with a major memorial on the mall — is the centerpiece of a $120 million, four-acre memorial to Dr. King.

The King Memorial is surrounded by monuments and memorials dedicated to presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

The statue, showing Dr. King emerging from a mountain of granite with his arms crossed, is called The Stone of Hope and was sculpted by Lei Yixin, a 57-year-old master from Changsha in Hunan province, the Telegraph reports. Further:

Critics have openly asked why a black, or at least an American, artist was not chosen and even remarked that Dr. King appears slightly Asian in Mr Lei's rendering.

Mr. Lei, who has in the past carved two statues of Mao Tse-tung, one of which stands in the former garden of Mao Anqing, the Chinese leader's son, carried out almost all of the work in Changsha.

The statue and long granite wall are inscribed with key quotations from Dr. King and will be officially dedicated Sunday — the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Reverend King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech — with President Barack Obama is scheduled to give an address, VOA reports.

The King Memorial is the latest in a series of additions to the National Mall in the past two decades. The Korean War Memorial was built in 1995. A monument honoring president Franklin Roosevelt was dedicated in 1997 followed by the World War Two Memorial in 2004.

Lei was commissioned for the work after architects in charge of the project said that they had visited his studio in Changsha to find he had already carved several versions of the work, the Telegraph reports..."

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/...110822/martin-luther-king-memorial-made-china

 

Jackie's change of heart...

Jackie Kennedy Onassis not a fan of Martin Luther King Jr.
9/9/11 : Jacqueline Kennedy expressed disdain for Martin Luther King Jr. on newly released tape recordings - saying she couldn’t look at a picture of him “without thinking…that man’s terrible” - but later came to admire the civil rights leader.

 

I read that even the inscription carved on the statue of MLK, Jr. misquotes him. What a pathetic country. The statue of MLK, Jr. looks like Mao Zedong.

 

Date for ML King Jr. monument dedication reset...

New date set for MLK memorial dedication
11 Sept.`11 WASHINGTON (AP) – Organizers have set a new date in October to dedicate the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial after Hurricane Irene forced them to postpone the event in August, days before 250,000 people were expected to attend.

 

FWIW - Not only was it carved in China by a Chinese sculptor, it is made of Chinese granite.

Apparently not only are there not any American sculptors, but there is no American granite either...

Let's just change the name of the country to the "United States of China" and get it over with!

 

Weren’t there a few other memorials with similar problems?

Rev A

 

Outsourceing our national monuments. Priceless.

 

The memorial would be more majestic if it was carved out from a mountain of granite in the US instead of from a molehill of granite in China.

 

What happened to the jobs program Obama was touting about?
With so many unemployed blacks, why could a black artist not be found?

Slightly asian looking? Well, you get what you pay for!

 

You weep when China sells a stone to the US. If you live long enough, you will find a greater irony. You will be weeping louder some decades down the road when China sells spaceships, military aircraft and other high-tech weapons to the US.

 

Following are excerpts from the article headlined "Washington glimpses Martin Luther King memorial — made in China" at http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/...110822/martin-luther-king-memorial-made-china

(Begin excerpts)
...Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III, defended the outsourcing. He told USA Today:

"I have seen probably 50 sculptures of my dad, and I would say 47 of them are not good reflections. This particular artist: he has done a good job."
(End excerpts)

Since his son is so happy and satisfied with the sculpture, what else can others say? Did you cry louder than his son when King died?

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was no Deng Xioaping.

 

Well that's wonderful that MLK III likes the monument to his father, perhaps he could explain why it had to be manufactured in China of Chinese granite...

I'm just wondering why the sculptor couldn't have come to New Hampshire - aka: "The Granite State" - and carved it out of American granite?

 

....AND is a huge waste of money. /thread

 

I remember there was an outcry when the winning design for the Vietnam Memorial came from a 21 year old woman of Chinese descent. But she was born in the US, and her parents fled China a decade before she was born.

In fact, it was over this that I forever turned my back on Ross Perot. He frequently called her an "Egg Roll", and tried to use his influence to get her design thrown out once he discovered she was Asian.

When everybody was going ga-ga over him in 1991-1992, I remained cold to any thoughts of his being my candidate for President. I remembered his outrage at the memorial, and forever set myself to oppose him and his politics of hate and discrimination.

 

Artists and architects from around the world always bid on jobs and present plans to win a commission..

This is neither weird nor suspect.

 

LOL.... It was commissioned before Obama was elected!

 

LOLOLOLOL.. Ouch.

 

Bush was Obama lite. Just another scumbag like his inexperienced successor.

 

It was still commissioned BEFORE Obama...

 

we had to pay the King family $800,000 for the copyrights.

that's sickening...but I suppose a brother gotta make a buck..and everything is for sale.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/item_4DTe3bj9QcHd7Y2Hpvmp1O#ixzz1VylmxhYq

 

Those xenophobic Vietnamese need to launch a "cultural revolution" to discard many things that are of Chinese origin in themselves and their country, both physically and culturally. First of all, they have to find a new system to name themselves, otherwise they will have to carry their existing names and surnames of Chinese origin forever and ever.

 

Your post reminds me of Canadian ambivalence about Americans.

 

If the client asked for it, I am sure the Chinese artist would accede to whatever demand as long as he was paid well. All stones, whatever their source of origin, in the final analysis, are actually composed of molecules and atoms that are created by the same God. So what's the farce over a piece of granite?

Unless Americans consume only American foods all their lives, whatever they consume will run in their blood and become part of their genes for the rest of their lives.

Finally, I hope that MLK III can personally explain his decision and answer your question one day.