China: Giant gold Mao statue torn down

(CNN)A giant, golden statue of Mao Zedong, the father of modern China, was demolished because it lacked approval from authorities, state media said.
Images posted on Weibo, China's dominant social media service, showed the seated 36.6 meter (120 feet) statue partially destroyed, with a black shroud covering its head. The images also made their way onto Twitter.
A huge statue of Chairman Mao Zedong, reportedly 36.6 meters high, is under construction near Zhushigang village on January 4, 2016 in Tongxu County, China.
Businessmen and some rural communities chipped in nearly 3 million yuan ($459,000) to build the conspicuous tribute, according to Chinese state media.
It was reportedly constructed of steel and concrete, and painted gold. It was completed in December.
Before its destruction, seated amongst scrubby farmland, the statue had garnered its fair share of compliments -- and criticism -- on Chinese social media.
    Users of China's popular microblogging service Weibo appeared divided over the statue, with user shenqilei saying, "This is so embarrassing!," while beijiyisuoqianban took a more patriotic tack, saying: "Long live Chairman Mao!"

    Commentaires

    Enregistrer un commentaire

    Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

    Bara Bangal: A Himalayan village on the path of Alexander the Great

    Image
    Bara Bangal, India (CNN) To the naked eye, the terraced fields seem close enough to touch: hardly four kilometers as the crow flies. But in the ancient way of Himalayan travel, they're still 20 switchback roads and several torturous hours away. My blistered feet and the blighted weather have been my companion since I began my trek five days ago from Manali sanctuary in the same northern Indian state, Himachal Pradesh. But that doesn't matter anymore. I'll make it to Bara Bangal -- a village wrapped in legend, sandwiched between the Kalihani (4,800 meters) and Thamsar (4,766 meters) Passes, protected by impregnable mountains on the third side and the raging Ravi River on the fourth. A village hidden from the world If Google's the yardstick for measuring how much is known about our world, this village would rank pretty low. Some blogs and a handful of images are all that the search engine reveals, apart from travel agencies touting it as a hard or strenuous tr...
    Lire la suite

    Mob calls for assaults on foreigners in Sweden; clashes at UK migrant protests

    London (CNN) Tensions over Europe's migrant crisis led to arrests and violence in Sweden and the UK over the weekend, with a masked mob calling for attacks on foreigners in Stockholm and clashes between pro- and anti-migrant demonstrators in the British town of Dover. In Sweden, nearly 100 men gathered Friday night in the capital, handing out leaflets calling for attacks on migrants, Stockholm police spokesman Albin Naverberg told CNN. Some of the men were wearing black clothes and masks, he said. Reports of attacks on people from immigrant backgrounds surfaced in Swedish media and on social media, but police said they had received no reports of assaults on civilians. One man was arrested in an attack on a plainclothes police officer, although the officer was not seriously injured, and five others were detained for disorderly conduct, Naverberg said. All six were released Saturday morning. Police had known of the gathering in advance and had deployed a large presence...
    Lire la suite