'China's Statue of Liberty' under way
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| Working staff erect Bruce Lee's sculpture at the Foshan pavilion in the Expo Garden on Tuesday. |
Artists in Foshan, a city in Guangdong province that bills itself as the home of Chinese kungfu, are creating a 30-meter-tall sculpture of Bruce Lee which they hope will one day become a landmark on the scale of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
The red-painted ceramic statue depicts an eight-legged Bruce Lee, known as Li Xiaolong in Chinese, balancing world famous monuments on each foot. These include The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Bird's Nest, or National Olympic Stadium, in Beijing.
Over 100 smaller sculptures of China's most iconic martial arts fighter will form the centerpiece of Foshan Week, which opens to the public at the Expo on Tuesday afternoon.
Identical, except for the monuments they balance on their feet, the sculptures took 100 people six months to complete, due to the complexity and size of the ceramics.
The Enter the Dragon star was born in San Francisco of Hong Kong heritage but has ancestral links to Foshan. Recently, the series of Yip Man movies have celebrated his teacher Ye Wan, who was born to affluent parents in Foshan.
In reality, the city competes with several Chinese towns and provinces for kungfu bragging rights, notably the Shaolin Monastery in Henan province. But Foshan locals claim more responsibility for promoting the art internationally over the last century.
The towering sculpture, which looks like a stop-motion capture of Lee doing one of his explosive high kicks, will not be ready for another year, according to artist Shu Yong.
"We hope it can compete with the Statue of Liberty. But our sculpture, The Kungfu God of 1,000 Legs, is meant to symbolize Chinese wisdom, creativity and health," he said.
"We are taking it to the Guggenheim Museum (in Manhattan) next year as part of a grand world tour," he said.
While the neoclassical Statue of Liberty was an international gift of friendship from France, Shu and cohorts hope an epic 10-year world tour will suffice.
One of the criticisms of Expo 2010 Shanghai is that it has not celebrated the debut of any breakthrough monuments like the Statue of Liberty, parts of which appeared at two World Expos in the late 20th century. In their place, the Shanghai-hosted event offers dazzling pavilions, many designed by world-famous architects such as the UK's Thomas Heatherwick.
Qiu Dailun, director of the exhibition commemorating Foshan Week, said the Bruce Lee sculpture was designed to "help China communicate with the world on an artistic level".
"During China's recent development, much has been made of our shortcomings and problems, but our strengths and skills have been largely forgotten by the rest of the world," he said. "We hope, through cultural exchanges like these, to restore a sense of balance."
The sculpture also shows how it is "possible to use the least amount of resources during the act of construction for the benefit of all", he said. Foshan produces 25 percent of the world's construction ceramics, 60 percent of which is used in China, officials said.
The exhibition, located inside the Urban Best Practices Area in Puxi, also features a replica of one of the world's oldest ceramics kilns. It was built in Foshan in 1506.
As such, organizers said they plan to give away 100 prizes of 1,506 yuan ($220) to visitors who can best emulate Lee's martial arts prowess by assuming difficult poses over the course of the week.
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