Goddess of Democracy - Replicas

Replicas

The original statue has become an icon of liberty and a symbol of the free speech and democracy movements. The Chinese government has tried to distance itself from any discussions about the original statue or about the Tiananmen Square protests, and in the case of the Victims of Communism Memorial it called the building of a replica an "attempt to defame China."

Several replicas of the statue have been erected worldwide to commemorate the events of 1989:

• A replica erected at a vigil attended by tens of thousands of people in Victoria Park, Hong Kong on June 4, 1996.
• A bronze sculpture was begun in 1989, dedicated in 1994, by Thomas Marsh, leading a group of volunteers. It weighs approximately 600 pounds (272 kg) and stands in Portsmouth Square, in San Francisco's Chinatown.
• A copy at the University of British Columbia, erected by the school's Alma Mater Society.
• A gilded replica stood in the foyer of the Student Centre at York University in Toronto, Ontario. It was removed in 2011 (allegedly due to its allegedly deteriorating condition) and replaced outdoors by a smaller bronze replica outside the Student Centre in June 2012.
• A replica of the San Francisco statue was erected in an outdoor museum in Freedom Park Arlington, Virginia to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the protests.
• An unknown artist's fiberglass copy was erected at the University of Calgary in 1995, commemorating students who died in the uprisings six years earlier.
• A lantern sculpture of a figure wearing native Taiwanese dress, but standing in a two-handed torch-bearing pose recalling the Goddess of Democracy, was erected in advance of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The start of the games coincided with the twentieth anniversary of the events in China.
• Two small-scale replicas were built and set up in Hong Kong in 2010 for the Tiananmen Square protests memorial gatherings, but were confiscated by the Hong Kong Police Force after a public display at Times Square Public Space. It was subsequently returned due to serious public opinion pressure, and was displayed at the vigil on June 4, 2010 at Victoria Park. After the candle night memorial gathering, the new 3-meter bronze statue of the Goddess of Democracy was moved to the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus for permanent display at its entrance of University Train Station. The erection of this bronze statue of the Goddess of Democracy was not approved by the university administration but 2000 Chinese university students, staff and alum with many other Hong Kong citizen worked together after the Victoria Park gathering to guard the statue to move to Chinese University campus.

• The Democracy Award given by the National Endowment for Democracy is a small-scale replica of the Goddess of Democracy.
• A 3-meter bronze replica, Victims of Communism Memorial, is in Washington, D.C..
• An augmented reality version of the statue created by the artists collective 4Gentlemen, part of Tiananmen SquARed, a two part augmented reality public art project and memorial.

Tsao Tsing-yuan, an advisor to the students who built the original, writes "I myself envision a day when another replica, as large as the original and more permanent, stands in Tiananmen Square, with the names of those who died there written in gold on its base. It may well stand there after the Chairman Mao's Mausoleum has, in its turn, been pulled down."