Goddess of Democracy statue removed from Student Centre

Hufsa Tahir
Contributor
Students returning to Keele campus for the new semester will see a change — or rather, an absence — in the Student Centre.

Standing at four metres tall, the Goddess of Democracy statue was a campus landmark for almost 20 years and was erected in memoriam of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, the donor group of the statue created by York’s fine arts students, escorted a visitor from Hong Kong to Keele campus to pay their respects to the monument. He was dismayed to find that the statue was gone.
Kwan received a formal letter from Scott Jarvis, executive director of the Student Centre, which explained the removal was made due to a health concern.
“The materials used in its construction have exceeded their life expectancy,” says Jarvis. The letter explained that years of maltreatment had damaged the statue, and the holes were filled with garbage, which attracted fruit flies.
Rob Castle, senior advisor to vp finance and administration, expressed his disappointment. He oversaw the installation of the statue in 1992 as the executive director of the Student Centre at that time.

“It was not only socially and historically significant […] it was a replica of the one in Tiananmen Square, made of the same material as the original statue,” he says. “Fine arts students often repaired it; it wasn’t costly to maintain.”
But Jarvis noted there was suspicion that there would be mould in the statue itself.
“When [the statue] was taken out, they did find mould in the cavities,” he says, confirming the surrounding floor area was disinfected for spore residue. “It was bagged and removed from the building. We don’t want that in the food court, especially when some people have allergies to it.”
Though Kwan understands the statue had to be removed for these reasons, he still expressed disappointment.
“We thought they would have let us know before they just threw it out,” he says. “It was a trademark [of York]. It’s a symbolic point in history. It’s a memorial to what happened in China.”
Kwan mentions that replicas of the Goddess of Democracy statue at other Canadian campuses had been vandalized and wonders whether the Student Centre’s decision was in part due to pressure from the Chinese government.
“That was not the case, not at all,” counters Jarvis. “It was not a political issue.”
Jarvis said there would be talks with the Toronto Association for Democracy in China about a replacement Goddess statue, though the location of the new piece is yet to be determined.
“We will most likely speak about having a bronze casting made by a York student,” he says. “There was some indication that a certain amount of money will be donated to this project for funding this new art piece.”
With files from Yuni Kim