PUBLIC sculpture was introduced to China from Western countries in the early 1900s. The few sculptors back then had all studied in France.

They worked on art creation and education under extremely difficult conditions. Enlightenment and saving the nation from extinction were the primary themes in that era.

Immediately after Liberation in 1949, public sculpture prospered, with the People's Heroes Monument as a representative piece. The dominant theme of the time was singing the praise of "Socialist China".

From the mid-1960s to 1980, city sculptures consisted mainly of simplified images of China's leaders. In almost every Chinese city, a sculpture of Chairman Mao - portrayed standing and waving his right hand - can be found occupying a prominent position.

The leaders were sculpted in such a unified style that people could hardly tell the difference between them. Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi, and Zhu De, in uniforms, all stand in a similar pose to Mao.

It was not until the 1980s that ideology in art reached a turning point and sculpture recovered its artistic integrity. The boom in urban construction offered unprecedented opportunity for a proliferation of urban sculptures.

Regular exhibitions promoted outstanding works of sculpture. While keeping an eye on modern Western art, Chinese sculptors gradually built up their confidence to assert their independence of vision in relation to the previously dominant Western standards and models.

(Star News)