Mao Zedong Statue

The large statue of Mao Zedong at the east end of People's Park is an unexpected presence in the middle of Central Asia. At around fifteen metres tall, it is one of the largest surviving Mao statues in China, and the sight of him gesturing across the Id Kah square — one of the great Islamic public spaces of the region — encapsulates something essential about the tension at the heart of Kashgar's modern history.

The statue is not a sight in any conventional sense, but it is one of those things you find yourself looking at for longer than you expected. In the early morning, local people exercise on the paths nearby without appearing to pay it particular attention; at national holidays, it is festooned with flowers. It is, either way, very much there. The park around it is pleasant and worth walking through on the way between the old town and the main road.

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A story
The Kashgar statue is one of the largest remaining Mao statues in China — most were quietly removed during the 1980s and 1990s. Standing at the edge of a predominantly Muslim Uyghur city, with its subject's hand raised toward Central Asia, it has an odd, slightly confrontational quality. Over the years it has been the site of both officially organised celebrations and, periodically, the starting point for demonstrations.

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