MLK monument outsourced, critics say
By Mitchell Landsberg - Los Angeles Times
Sphere: Related ContentCHANGSHA, CHINA - Someday, a great monument in Washington may bear the name of Lei Yixin. For now, you can find him down a pockmarked road in a grungy industrial suburb of this Chinese provincial capital. The monument won’t be built to honor Lei, who is scarcely famous in his own hometown, much less the United States. It is being built in memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and will rise along Washington’s Tidal Basin, between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Lei’s role will be to carve the statue of King that will be the centerpiece of the tribute. His selection as sculptor for the prominent memorial honoring the civil rights leader has outraged some who believe that an African American, or at least an American, should have gotten the job.’This is an AMERICAN monument - not a Communist Chinese one!!’ declared one entry in a website, kingisours.com, that is devoted to the controversy. Said another, ‘Can I just say one word? ‘Outsourcing.’ ‘ The outcry over the King statue recalls an earlier uproar over the choice of a young Asian American sculptor, Maya Lin, to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In the case of the King statue, critics of Lei have received a boost from CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who recently asked David Hamilton, a member of the committee who picked the sculptor, ‘What in the world were you folks thinking?’
A prominent African American sculptor who says he was pushed aside in favor of Lei believes he knows the answer. The sculptor, Ed Dwight, who also holds the distinction of being America’s first black astronaut, says the backers of the King memorial told him they hoped the choice of a Chinese sculptor would persuade the Chinese government to give $25 million to the King memorial fund, which has a target of $100 million.
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