If you are old enough, you might remember the controversy of Chinese American Architect and Monument Designer, Maya Lin. In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate student(!!!), Maya Lin won the open design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out over 1400 other submissions. Her design - a black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face - is V-shaped. Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers. The design was initially controversial for what was an unconventional and non-traditional design for a war memorial. Opponents of the design also voiced objection because of Lin's Asian heritage, despite the fact she was born and grew up in America. (You know, the whole atavistic "gooks" motif, as well as the cultural blindness and egotism that Asians or Asian-Americans did not suffer in the Vietnam War.) Lin defended her design in front of the United States Congress, and eventually a compromise was reached. A bronze statue of a group of soldiers and an American flag was placed off to one side of the monument as a result.  Maya Lin has gone on to do many more memorials, artworks and architecture. You can check them out at www.mayalin.com As always, please NOTE: This gong was not designed by this individual, nor does our naming of it after him or her, imply any endorsement by them. This is just a series of small desktop gongs honoring the work of Chinese Americans. Xie xie General measurements: Gong Diameter - 4 inches Gong Stand Approximately - 11" Height x 9" Wide x 3" Depth |