Media coverage of a new colossal statue of Mao Zedong went viral this week after a news blog in China posted the image above, and more. Located near the city of Kaifeng in Henan province, the statue stands 36 meters high.

The statue was sponsored by locals, who reportedly raised 3m yuan (about $460,000), according to The Guardian. Its placement in one of the poorest areas in China, which saw the death of millions due to famine brought about the Chairman's Great Leap Forward campaigns, in an attempt to rapidly industrialize the country from its agrarian foundations. 

Liu Jianwu, dean of China' Mao Zedong research center said, “In contemporary China, Mao Zedong represents the embodiment of fairness and justice,” Liu claimed, “so people hold these kinds of emotions towards him.”

However, the golden effigy drew online criticism. “How about using the money for poverty alleviation first?” one Chinese blogger, wrote, according to the Hong Kong Free Press website. Others complained that the statue does not at all resemble Chairman Mao.

Portaits of Mao, one of which still looms above Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, have commemorated the Great Helmsman far better than the colossal statues that dot the countryside. In one of these, located on Orange Isle, Changsa, Hunan Province, the Dear Leader bears a strange resemblance to Beethovan (row 1, above). Others, like the one below it, are almost as generic as the new golden colossus in Henan province. 

The official portrait by Chen Shilin (above, center), which formed the basis of ongoing poster versions of the Great Leader as he aged (left and right), was also used as reference by Andy Warhol for his silkscreened series of portraits of the Chairman Mao (below).

As a young man, The Chairman cut a striking figure, as seen in photographs left to right, below: Mao Zedong as a young revolutionary, ca. 1925; Mao Zedong during the War of Resistance against Japanese Agression (1937-1945); in Wuhan, 1927. CV19.FEAT.PHOTO