Saturday, August 24, 2013

SHAME!!! SHAME!!! SHAME!!! MLK Memorial Sculpture is Made in China!

Guess What? That MLK Memorial Sculpture is Made in China!What a huge insult!

Personally, I think the statue looks more like a Chinese Louie Armstrong….

Related image
Related imageImage result for Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin.Image result for Chinese looking Martin Luther King Monument.


More evidence that capitalism is failing the average American: the statue of Martin Luther King destined to stand at a national memorial was outsourced to a Chinese sculptor.  And something got lost in translation.
This King looks like rather disturbingly like sculptures of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and other communist luminaries, all of whom were guilty of genocide.
This image, a model for the actual sculpture, is the best I could find of the King statue Note the aggressive, confrontational posture, the stance, the scowl, as well as the coat and the chiseled (no pun intended) hawkish features on both statues, features neither King nor Dzerzhinsky actually had.  The style is referred to as "socialist realism" and its visual elements are what makes art from the Soviet Union and its communist imitators so distinctive.  No doubt my friend and co-blogger David could weigh in with greater insight, as visual art's not my thing (I did spend some time in a misbegotten phase studying the socialist realist movement as it applied to literature, but that's for another time), but the similarity of style is such that even my untrained eye picked it up immediately.
Now, joking references to communism and capitalism, and jokes about China aside, I agree with those who are demanding that the statue be reworked, not because I have a problem with communism (though I do), but because this aggressive, "we will bury you" style of memorialization seems horribly inappropriate to Dr. Martin Luther King, who while as bold as any genocidal communist, was a man of peace.
Free at last! Free at last! The massive granite centerpiece of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial – stranded at the Chinese seaport of Xiamen for more than a month – should soon be free at last!
But shipping the 159 carefully carved pieces that collectively make up the “Stone of Hope” will be far from free. And that’s a bit of irony that isn’t lost on those in Barre’s granite industry, who argued vociferously and unsuccessfully against outsourcing the work to China in the first place
.”This whole thing just never seemed right to me,” said John Castaldo, executive director of the Barre Granite Association. “This is work that could have, and should have, been done here in the United States”
Yes John, I agree, but you have to do what the boss says.  And we all know who the new boss is now, don’t we?

8 Responses to “Guess What? That New MLK Memorial Sculpture is Made in China!”

  1. Carolyn
    so, this “memorial” took 15 years to get finished, and now no one wants to ship it. How funny. How sad also.
    I wonder how muchit would have cost if someone on America had made it, and what a wonderful way to have honored Dr. King. Wasn’t he all about America being a strong, united country?
    I hope his grave does not have room for him to “turn over in” He must be loling as he watches us “honor” him with an import.
  2. Otto
    what a joke….
    selling out this country to china.
    fitting for an agitator though.
    If I ever get to DC, I will spit on the monument.
  3. BoNan
    What ever happened to ‘Go Local’? This is alot like Phoenix maybe 20 years back or so; when a piece of ‘southwestern’ freeway art with cactus and desert plants was commissioned by an artist in Colorado. Can’t fix stupid
  4. just a thought
    is that Chairman Mao?
  5. just a thought
    what a thought Quest, MLK’s famous speach, can be rewriten from America civil rights movement, “I have a dream”,…. to World civil rights movement?(that never happened btw)
    MLK was speaking to Americans, about America, and I do believe that he would be the first to stand here and say, a statue to honor the things that happened for the American Black, should be MADE IN AMERICA
  6. This is an ugly statue, and makes MLK, Jr. look like the arrogant jerk of conservative wet dreams (interesting that this Chinese sculptor gives him such an authoritarian vibe), but there’s nothing wrong with it being made in China. It’s 2013, folks — y’all still carrying on about Japanese automakers and Pearl Harbor??
    No?
    Well, I guess we’ve made some progress, then, even if it’s now Chinese bogeymen. =)
    And yes MLK, Jr. promoted human rights around the world…in fact, he looked to Gandhi and believed in the universality of civil rights. It wasn’t simply about “making America strong and united” — nice try by some more enlightened conservatives to co-opt the Reverend’s revolutionary message — it was about being moral and good, which you cannot be without being towards one and all



    Martin Luther King Monument. Made In China

    Image result for Chinese looking Martin Luther King Monument. Made In China
    Celebrating a young Mao by the Communist Chinese scuptor  Lei Yixin



    Yesterday, a huge statue of a great American was unveiled at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. However, it has already become controversial with many saying that the statue does not look anything like Dr. Martin Luther King. Other critics say the statue depicts a Chinese person. NPR and CBS news investigated only to discover that the statue was sculpted by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin. There are so many great Americans designers, look at Apple, look all the great buildings and bridges all across the country. So where were they when this was going on? Why didn’t any of them step up?


    Master Sculptor Lei Yixin and Harry Johnson, president and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, stand at the base of the 30-feet-tall sculpture at the new King memorial.
    Tags Channels:

    Comments (8)

    Steve Mullany's avatar
    Steve Mullany · 104 weeks ago
    The pictures I have seen of this Chinese monstrosity bring to mind similar statues of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Chairman Mao and Joseph Stalin, but not Martin Luther King. Some people defend this outrage by pointing out that "MLK is a universal symbol of human freedom and dignity" and that is why it was appropriate to award this commission to a sculptor who lives in a country whose government oppresses ethnic minorities and imprisons people who worship any God other than the State. Although I normally object to the Affirmative Action I would readily make an exception in this case. Considering the enormous symbolic value of a memorial to a great American and democrat, is it to much to expect that it should be created by an American?
    jaygo · 103 weeks ago
    Yeah, never mind that it was the lowest bidder... the bottom line - how absolutely AMERICAN!
    Tim's avatar
    Tim · 104 weeks ago
    The statue looks like a Stalin version of MLK.....
    Joe's avatar
    Joe · 103 weeks ago
    20% unemployment in America. The people who planned this have alot of nerve.But it shows how stupid some people have become.That the way to help African Americans get work.Way to go.
    Donald N. Brown's avatar
    Donald N. Brown · 97 weeks ago
    I am confused at this point...are you telling me we don't have one gifted African American who could've worked on this project. We have plethera young Blacks in our America college system, not mention the HBCUs, this is sad, very sad.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments always welcome!