Pop Culture Mount Rushmore in South Korea

[CalMeacham]

From the “Fluff Column” in this morning’s WSJ:

EUMSEONG, South Korea—Round a bend on a two-lane country road in central South Korea and Chung Geun-hee’s life work comes into view: dozens of giant granite heads.

Like a Stonehenge gone wild, they stretch down a ridge line, up another and around a hill. Turn in to a parking lot and hundreds more come into view.

For 20 years, Mr. Chung has ordered 12-foot-high busts of famous people from a sculpting school he owns in China, then has shipped them to the grounds of a psychiatric hospital and elderly care facility that he owns in the mountains of central South Korea.
…

The park has some interesting juxtapositions. A giant bust of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hangs out next to one of Valentina Tereshkova, the Russian who was the first woman to fly in space. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is near David Beckham. Hillary Clinton keeps company with Madeleine Albright and Margaret Thatcher. Tiger Woods is next to Korean golf great Se Ri Pak. Elvis is beside Michael Jordan.

There is a row of big heads of world leaders from about a decade ago, including George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Kofi Annan. And there is even a row of global rogues that includes Idi Amin, Kim Il Sung, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler. Mother Teresa anchors a line of women winners of the Nobel Prize.

This is, of course, just the sort of thing you need on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital – something to make the patients doubt their own sanity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578328792050346094.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Third

Pictures of some of the sculptures: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324128504578344431476448300.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Third#slide/1