The exhibition, “The Gao Brothers: Grandeur and Catharsis,” was held in the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri from mid-September 2010 to January 2, 2011.
It included a series of pictures of crimes committed under communism in China, but it was the remarkable life-sized statue of Mao Zedong in the exhibit, called “Mao’s Guilt,” that triggered the mass of online interest from Chinese netizens.
The message may not have even escaped the museum if a Chinese blogger didn’t pick up the news, and pen a blistering essay reflecting on the piece titled “Repent! Mao Zedong.”
Initially published on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, the author included a picture of the bronze, a kneeling and clearly repentant Mao. Searches for “Mao Zedong” on Weibo are blocked, so the author remains anonymous, but the piece has been widely copied on Chinese websites.
The article was scathing; it says Mao was, “the combination of the most evil thoughts of the Eastern emperors and the Western totalitarians. He ruined the five thousand years of Chinese civilization, killed 80 million lives, and mercilessly destroyed humanity. He is the first of the three mass murderers of the twentieth century (Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler).”
The article goes on to say: “Mao should kneel in front of all the Chinese people and repent. He should kneel in front of the Chinese culture and repent. He should kneel in front of the conscience of mankind and repent.”
Predictably, the essay was met with sharp rejoinders from the 50 Cent Army (individuals hired by the Chinese regime and paid a putative fifty cents for every Internet post)—but it was also heavily supported.
“He knelt down. He sincerely knelt down! He knelt down with both knees in confession for the monstrous crimes he had committed. He put his left hand on the leg and right on his heart. His hair and eyebrows are like frost. With his eyes tightly closed, he looks old and serious, showing the pain caused by countless sins,” posted one blogger using the literary handle “Quiet flowers with permeated fragrance covering the path.” His essay, posted on China’s NetEase, one of the largest web portals, was later removed by censors.
Others commented, “kneeling down is too easy for Mao!”
The kneeling Mao is one of the latest works from Chinese artists Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang. They also exhibited pictures of their family during the Cultural Revolution.
The two were born in Jinan, Shandong Province: Gao Zhen in 1956 and Gao Qiang in 1962.
In 1968, their father was declared a “counter-revolutionary” and detained. He reportedly committed suicide on the 25th day of custody.
The two brothers began working together in Beijing in 1985. They have since published a number of books about their art and have held successful exhibits around the world.
Another sculpture by the Gao brothers: “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head,” a large stainless steel sculpture, also attracted a lot of attention and controversy in the Chinese community when exhibited last year at the intersection of Elmbridge and Alderbridge Way, Richmond, Canada.
The general feeling of the discussions was that such starkly critical assessments of modern Chinese history—and especially the destructive role played by the Communist Party—are exceedingly rare among Chinese intellectuals. Most are cowed by threats of state reprisal, and the fearless critics, like Ai Weiwei, are actually punished.
Read the original Chinese article.
