As the first large-scale artistic project after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Monument to the People’s Heroes is a comprehensive endeavor integrating architecture, sculpture, calligraphy and various other disciplines. This “miracle in the Art History of a New China” was created by a group of outstanding artists from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, together with a roster of national leaders, architects, engineers, and masons. Liu Kaiqu was instrumental in the building of the Monument as one of the leading figures. Along with renowned architect Liang Sicheng, Liu contributed greatly to the sculpture and architecture of this enormous and arduous endeavor, making painstaking efforts and sacrifice to realize this accomplishment.

Relief Sculptures of the Monument of the People’s Heroes originates from the final drafts of Liu Kaiqu’s three relief sculptures: Crossing the Yangtze River to Liberate China, Support the Battlefront and Welcome the People’s Liberation Army. Amongst them, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers from Crossing the Yangtze River to Liberate China appear triumphant and firm. The two peasants from Support the Battlefront project their aspiration for victory through their rustic simplicity. Welcome the People’s Liberation Army conveys the ideal that people hold towards the future for an improved life of richness and quality. These sculptures of characters have great artistic, literary, and historical value, and have become evidence of how the artist explores – in a New China – the nationalization of the language of sculpture.

(Edited by Lijie Wang & Miao Zijin, 2019)