Instructions on an Official Letter to the News Photography Bureau
(May 20, 1950)
Casting a copper statue has a bad influence, therefore it should not be cast.
Mao Zedong
May 20
[1]
This refers to the matter of the Shenyang Municipal People’s Representative Conference of All Circles deciding, in commemoration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, to build a Founding of the Nation Memorial Tower in the city centre and to cast a copper statue of Mao Zedong atop the tower. The Shenyang Municipal People’s Government sent a letter to the Central News Photography Bureau requesting the photographing of four full-length, eight-inch standing portraits of Mao Zedong. Beside the words “build a Founding of the Nation Memorial Tower” in the incoming letter, Mao wrote: “This is permissible”; beside the words “cast a copper statue of Chairman Mao”, he wrote: “This has only satirical significance.”

Volume 28
The Complete Works of Mao Zedong