In the 1980s, when China began to open to the outside world, local artists learned mostly from their French and Russian counterparts and began building statues of various kinds in the streets.

After two decades of hard work by local artists, almost 20,000 statues are now standing in city streets. Meanwhile, many Chinese-made statues have been erected in over 30 foreign countries and regions.

China's development of sculpture is still in its infancy in technical terms, but an increasing number of people are now interested in the art.

Wei Lu, a sociologist and a lover of statues, predicted that Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games will trigger off a new round of statue making in the country.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2003)