15 Facts About Lei Yixin

Lei Yixin was born on 1954 and is a Chinese sculptor.

Lei Yixin was born to a family of scholars in Changsha, Hunan, China.

Lei Yixin was one of millions of "bourgeois educated youth" sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

Lei Yixin's diary became his scrapbook, with a few lines of comments of his drawings.

When Lei Yixin applied to college, he submitted the diary as his portfolio.

Lei Yixin was among the first class of students after the Cultural Revolution to be able to go to art school in 1978; he graduated in 1982.

Lei Yixin first found work in a publishing company as a draughtsman, but was spotted by a local government official, who asked and encouraged him to build monuments.

Lei Yixin won top prizes in national competitions three consecutive years, and was recognized as a master sculptor, which came with a lifetime stipend from the Chinese government.

Lei Yixin has sculpted some 150 public monuments, including statues of Mao Zedong.

Lei Yixin came to the attention of the American public when he was named artist-of-record and commissioned to sculpt the centerpiece for the proposed monument to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

The announcement of Lei Yixin spurred an international protest spearheaded by Gilbert Young and Lea-Winfrey Young, co-founders of the organization "King Is Ours", a multi-racial and multi-cultural organization formed to protest the decisions made by the King Memorial Project Foundation which included choosing Lei Yixin without due process.

Lei Yixin was "discovered" under a tree, taking a nap after he was pointed out to the King Memorial Project Foundation committee with the words, "you should talk to that guy over there," pointing to Lei Yixin.

The 2.3 metres tall sculpture at the International Stone Sculpture Conference drew attention to his work, yet Lei Yixin has revealed that the sculpture he created at the conference was the first he had ever carved on his own.

The stoic, unsmiling pose of King in Lei Yixin's sculpture has been criticized by some since the initial rejection of Lei Yixin's design, due to its perceived severe divergence from a popular media image of King as a unifying, hopeful leader and peace campaigner.

African Americans in particular noted the avoidance of mythology in the "confrontational" expression of King, suggesting Lei Yixin showed King facing the challenges of the present rather than dwelling in nostalgia.