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Top 10 Guys Sit, Stand Tall
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From founder of modern China Sun Yat-sen to
creator of the Communist nation Mao Zedong to reformist Deng Xiaoping, they're all here.
The Great Men Wax Museum features the 10 most influential figures in the nation's modern
history:
Other party greats are here: Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai. Writers Soong Qingling and Lu Xun are included, as is revolutionary martyr -- and ever-shining example -- Lei Feng. Even President Jiang Zemin -- the heart of modern communism -- has an honored position as the last exhibit, lighting the way to the future, torch held high. |
Believe It or Not
This is no "Ripley's Believe It or Not." The artisans who hand-crafted these statues spent countless hours looking through thousands of photos, films and speeches and interviewing acquaintances to capture more than just a semblance of these men.
Unlike the more evocative medium of sculpting, waxworks requires absolute faith to reality. It's like a 3-D picture with every bump, pore, blemish and mole sharply detailed. Mao Zedong sits before a vast horizon, his eyes set in thought, a cigarette dangling from his lip.
There is, let us say, a rumor about a certain leader entombed in a certain very large square. Mediocre embalming has left him vulnerable to the ravages of time, or so the gossip goes.
Horrified officials from relevant departments sought experts to make a perfect wax replica. Switch the real McCoy with the fake in the middle of the night and -- voila! -- embarrassing problem solved.
Hogwash, horse hockey and balderdash spread by counterrevolutionaries. But should the government ever really need an emergency stand-in for any number of great leaders, they're all conveniently located here.
Lei Feng stands guard in the night, Zhu De commands a snowy dale. Where possible, the same tailors these men used in real life also sewed these clothes, which are changed with the seasons.
Anything You Can Do
Quality aside, the museum has special ranking as the only one with government approval. As museum head Zhang Molei puts it, dozens of officials from concerned departments all had an opportunity to examine the figures and critique their appearance. "Everybody came and had an opinion," he says. "I didn't change a thing."The idea for the museum, which opened this summer, first came about when Zhang and five fellow businessmen were abroad on a business trip.
Stopping in Madame Tussauds in London, they observed a figure labeled 'Deng Xiaoping' that they felt looked like someone else. Their national pride wounded by such a shabby job, they demanded to see the manager to point out the gross error.
When the manager learned that they were only businessmen -- not wax masters -- he told them off.Incensed, the six decided to start their own museum that would do better. Each put down 10,000 yuan and Zhang was put in charge of the 600,000 yuan project.
But he quickly found that criticizing the chef is easier than cooking a dish. A tour of Chinese wax museums quickly proved that the craft's development lagged far behind.
Zhang decided to recruit leading Chinese sculptors. At one point, he had 16 working for him. But even for people like Wang Keqing, director of the China Art Research Institute, and Cheng Yunxian, vice-chairman of the China Sculpture Guidance Association, the challenge was great.
If at First You Don't Succeed
One leader always looked angry. Another took four tries to get it right. Each time, the artists would carefully study their mistakes and apply their new gleaned knowledge.
For his part, Zhang sweated bullets. He was running out of money and had nothing to show despite years of effort. At one point, he called other museums to ask for their help. All refused to divulge their secrets, and would only sell a finished dummy.
The price -- tens of thousands of dollars -- was too high. And it would mean accepting defeat. "To make teeth is difficult," Zhang, a bearded man with a blunt manner and casual dress, explains, as he sits in his large office, "we even needed to find a dentist."
Eyebrows proved the most difficult. But as with everything, Zhang refuses to share his trade secrets. Even the origin of the Red Flag limousine behind Deng Xiaoping is shrouded in mystery.
Top government officials gave it to him, letting him understand that it was a national relic. Zhang says he promised not to say who rode in the car.
The Long March
In 1998, more than five years after the project started, the figures were complete. That's when the round of official approvals began.Getting permission to house the exhibit in the Revolutionary Museum had been easy, but now every government hack wanted his say. Zhang preferred instead the counsel of people who knew the leaders, such as the four former personal secretaries to Deng Xiaoping who declared the likeness perfect.
"Now that I'm the best in the world, there's no reason for me to be modest," exclaims Zhang eschewing traditional modesty for braggadocio.
As good as the museum is, Zhang feels his project is accorded little respect in the West. Throwing down the gauntlet, his workshop has produced Princess Diana.
As soon as her clothes are finished, they plan to take her own tour to England, where she will be auctioned. A spokeswoman for Madame Tussaud's had this to say: "We are aware of the existence of small wax museums in various locations, none of which match our quality of portraiture or scale of fame, size and history."
In fact, they had never heard of Zhang's undertaking.Says Zhang: "Tell them Diana is coming."