The chunks of granite used to sculpt the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial had to be imported from Changsha. And the whole thing was designed by a Chinese architect, Lei Yixin — previously noted for statues of that great champion of human rights, Mao Zedong.
Chinese workers, too, were brought in to put it all together as the U.S. lacked people capable of doing this.
Yup, made in China strikes again and at the heart of the U.S. capital. The new sculpture has been installed in between monuments to Jefferson and Lincoln in Washington.
Some observers have discerned an Asiatic cast to Dr. King’s features. Others find his stance — stern, with folded arms — reminiscent of another Communist icon, Joe Stalin. Still others are upset that the work was done in China and U.S. architects were ignored
For Stanley Wrzyszczynski at the Newark Advocate, the finished work gives completely the wrong impression of King.
True, body language in sculpture comes across as a certain style of presentation — naturalist, social realist, expressionist, etc. The body language of the late Martin Luther King — in a crowded hall giving a speech, walking up to receive the Nobel or walking arm in arm down a street with other Americans to right a wrong — was totally unlike anything portrayed by Lei Yixin. After addressing the huge throng on the mall in Washington, King did not fold his arms and look down at the crowd. The stance of a big boss man does not befit the figure of a man who preached and practiced nonviolent determination.
