# Portraits overlooking Tiananmen

* This article is part of a series aboutMao Zedong
Personal
Early life
Former Residence
Death and state funeral
Memorial Hall
Maoism
1st Chairman of the People's Republic of China
Tenure
Revolution
Land Reform Movement
Proclamation
Korean War
Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries
Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns
First five-year plan
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence
Bandung Conference
Sufan movement
Hundred Flowers Campaign
Anti-Rightist Campaign
Canton Fair
Great Leap Forward
Great Chinese Famine
Two Bombs, One Satellite
Seven Thousand Cadres Conference
Socialist Education Movement
Third Front
Cultural Revolution
UN representation
Richard Nixon visit
Works
Bombard the Headquarters
A Critique of Soviet Economics
On Contradiction
On Guerrilla Warfare
On New Democracy
On Practice
On Protracted War
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
On the People's Democratic Dictatorship
Oppose Book Worship
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung
Reply to Li Shuyi
Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan
Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung
The Shian Kian Weekly Review
Ten Major Relationships
Poetry
Changsha
The Double Ninth
Loushan Pass
Legacy
Cult of personality
Chairman Mao en route to Anyuan
Portraits overlooking Tiananmen
1989 vandalism incident
Statues
Young
Fuzhou
Chengdu
Long Live the Victory
North Park Commune inspection :
vte :
A hand-painted, framed, oil portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong overlooks Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The portrait weighs up to 1.5 metric tons and its dimensions are 6 × 4.5 metres.

## History
### Prior to the PRC (1420–1949)

Tiananmen gate was built in 1420 by the Ming dynasty as the entrance to the Imperial City, within which the Forbidden City was located. By the 20th century the monumental gate north of the square became a National symbol of China.
In 1925 the government of the Republic of China hung up a portrait of Chinese statesman Sun Yat-sen at Tiananmen gate, after his death in March that year. After the victory over Japan in 1945 the portrait of Sun Yat-sen was replaced with a portrait of the leader of the Republic, Chiang Kai-shek.
Continuing to commemorate the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1949 after the Pingjin campaign, which saw the peaceful seizure of Beijing (and Tianjin) by the People's Liberation Army, portraits of Zhu De and Mao Zedong were hung up at Tiananmen.

### In modern China (1949–)

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1st 1949 a singular portrait of chairman Mao had been hung up on Tiananmen gate. That portrait is replaced annually before National Day (every October 1st.) Only on two occasions has it been replaced by a different image, on March 9th 1953, it was temporarily replaced by a portrait of Joseph Stalin to commemorate his death four days earlier. And in late 1976 after Mao's death, around the time of the state funeral of Mao the portrait was briefly replaced by a black-and-white image of Xinhua News Agency.
During the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 a group of protestors, among them Yu Dongyue, vandalised the portrait of Mao Zedong by throwing eggs at it. Yu was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released on bail 17 years later in 2006.
In May 2007, the portrait of Mao caught fire, damaging about 15% of the portrait. A 35-year-old unemployed man from Urumqi, Xinjiang was arrested for the incident. The portrait had to be repaired later.
In April 2010, a protester threw ink in a plastic bottle at the portrait, he did not succeed and the bottle instead hit the wall near the portrait. He was then arrested by Beijing Police.

## Artists
### 1949–1964

Zhou Lingzhao was commissioned to paint the portrait of Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square for the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. His portrait of Mao was replaced in May 1950 by a portrait made by Xi Mang. From 1950 to 1957, the portrait of Mao was modeled after Zhang Zhenshi's (1914–1992) depiction of Mao.

### 1964–1976

In 1964, Wang Guodong replaced Zhang as the lead painter. Wang was the first artist to paint the portrait by himself, unlike all the previous versions, which were completed by a team of painters.
During the Cultural Revolution, Wang was harassed and put in a public struggle session. He was then forced to work as a carpenter at a framing factory for two years. He continued his work through the Cultural Revolution until 1976.

### Since 1976

In 1976, the year of Mao's death, Wang Guodong retired and Ge Xiaoguang, a student of Wang, took his place in early 1977.
Mao's portrait at Tiananmen Gate must be re-painted and re-hung yearly. It is a job that Ge Xiaoguang continues to this day in a studio near Tiananmen Square.

## Lead painters of Mao's portrait

* Zhou Lingzhao 1949–1950
* Xi Mang 1950
* Zhang Zhenshi 1950–1964
* Wang Guodong 1964–1976
* Ge Xiaoguang since 1977