| Goddess Of Democracy |
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| history of the peoples republic of china | |
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''Goddess of Democracy'' (. The statue was constructed in only four days out of Styrofoam and Papier-mâché over a metal armature by students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The students decided to make the statue as large as possible so the government would be unable to dismantle it. The government would either have to destroy it, showing its anti-democratic nature, or leave it standing. Many people have noted its resemblance to the '' Statue Of Liberty ''. Nonetheless, a sculptor present during its construction, Tsao Tsing-yuan, has written that the students decided ''not'' to model their statue after the '' Statue Of Liberty '' because they were concerned that it would be unoriginal and "too openly pro-American." Tsao further notes the influence on the statue of the work of Russian sculptor Vera Mukhina , associated with the school of Revolutionary Realism (Tsao 1994, 141-2). On May 30 , 1989 , it was erected in Tiananmen Square , facing the large photograph of Mao Zedong posted on Tiananmen Gate . The Chinese People's Liberation Army destroyed the statue during the June 4 protests. REPLICAS Several replicas of the statue have been erected to commemorate the events of 1989. These include: A replica erected at a vigil attended by tens of thousands of people in Victoria Park , Hong Kong on June 4, 1996. A Bronze Sculpture was begun in 1989, dedicated in 1994, by Thomas Marsh, leading a group of volunteers. It weighs approximately 600 pounds (272 kg) and stands in Portsmouth Square, in San Francisco 's Chinatown . There is a copy at the University Of British Columbia , erected by the school's Alma Mater Society. There is a gilded replica that stands in the foyer of the Student Centre at York University in Toronto, Canada. An unknown artist's fibreglass copy was erected at the University Of Calgary in 1995, commemorating students who died in the uprisings six years earlier. The Democracy Award given by the National Endowment For Democracy is a small-scale replica of the Goddess of Democracy. A 3 meter bronze replica is planned for a Victims Of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C. REFERENCES
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