CWEnder David Strom dishes about “China China”

(This post was written by David Strom, a computer techjournalist who lives and works in the CWE and blogs as the Strominator. His last article for readers of this blog was about
the Maryland Plaza Fountain read it here.)

Now that their expansion is complete, you almost can’t help walking past China
China on your way to Starbucks. I am talking about the quirky Zhu Wei metal
sculpture of two Mao-suited men that sits outside their Maryland Avenue
storefront. The sculpture is on extended
loan from the Gateway Foundation. This is the same organization that
has bought the many outdoor sculptures that are part of Citygarden and
scattered elsewhere around town. If you click on that link, you can navigate a
map to find the others, including a Botero and a Jim Dine.

Most of us know this, but it is especially true for cast
works: they aren’t unique. The sculptor makes several of them and finishes them
with different paint colors or other treatments. You can see in this particular
case how the China China sculptures are made in this short video:

In the video, you can see that they are made out of a fiberglass skeleton covered in aluminum. When I called the Gateway Foundation, they confirmed this. “We originally thought it was made out of bronze but after we had it repaired we realized it was aluminum,” one of their staffers told me. Several years ago the statue was defaced and repaired. The nameplate on our sculpture shows that there are at least 11 others.

So where are the other China China’s located? I happened to be glancing through an airline magazine recently and came across this reference:

This link  shows the sculpture outside the front entrance to the Ritz Carlton Singapore hotel. Its finish is somewhat modified from the version we have here in the CWE. Another Internet reference states that one was shown in the lobby of the IBM building in New York City several years ago.

If you know of where the others are, do share. It might be fun to collect pictures of them all.

David: Thank you so much for sending this informative post. Now we have even more to talk about when we walk past China China or sit beside it at newly-expanded Starbucks.