At the time,1989, I was glued to the TV in my Los Angeles studio watching the burning news of Chinese students who were protesting at Tieneman Square demanding "Freedom and Democracy”. The whole world was seeing the event through the viewpoint of the western media. Meanwhile, the majority of the Chinese people had no idea what was going on in their own land.
An inspiration for me in creating this painting is that Mao was the liberator of old society, and after the revolution the ruling class was challenged by a desire for more liberty. Sometimes History itself is an irony!
