Gao Zhen, a Chinese dissident artist and half of the Gao Brothers duo, was detained on August 26 while visiting family in the Hubei province in China for violating a law that prohibits mocking heroes and martyrs. The details of the 68-year-old artist’s arrest were first announced in an August 31 Facebook post on the Gao Brothers’ page.
Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei reposted the announcement on X the same day, sparking outrage over the ideological crackdown of the Chinese government’s severe anti-defamation laws. Later, Zhen’s brother Gao Qiang confirmed the arrest to Radio Free Asia. Qiang has not yet responded to a request for comment from Hyperallergic.
The sibling duo is known internationally for its work satirizing Mao Zedong, the former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, portraying him as a giant baby with breasts in the Miss Mao sculpture series. In 2019, the brothers were invited to join the Human Rights Foundation’s Art in Protest series in Oslo, where they displayed the sculpture “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head” (2009), featuring an absurdly small Mao atop a giant Lenin head.
Zhen’s arrest on account of his artistic dissidence, which largely relies on manipulating Mao’s likeness to challenge totalitarianism, follows an alarming legacy. The brothers’ father was taken political prisoner by Mao and died in detention after being labeled a “class enemy.”
The brothers were told their father’s death was the result of suicide, but they told the New York Times in 2009 that they never believed the state’s narrative.
Zhen was supposed to fly back to New York from Beijing today, September 3, but now remains detained in the city of Sanhe. According to the duo’s Facebook post, he was charged with damaging the reputation of a “national hero,” based on a notice of detention his wife received on his behalf. The brothers reportedly reside in the United States.
A law passed in 2021 under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping punishes the “slander” of national “heroes and martyrs” with up to three years in prison. Under these laws, according to the United States State Department, the Chinese government has charged journalists critical of official portrayals of Chinese history and internet users jabbing at war heroes, among others, with the bogus crime. The charges carry up to three years of imprisonment, according to that same report.
In 2021, the US State Department reported that seven individuals were arrested under the anti-defamation laws for insulting comments directed at the late “Father of Hybrid Rice” Yuan Longping.
The Gao Brothers are listed as represented by the Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston, Texas, for some of their artworks. The gallery said it was unaware of the arrest and declined to comment.
Artists have taken to social media to call for the immediate release of Zhen and other Chinese political dissidents held in detention. Among them was British-Chinese writer Ma Jian, who posted on X: “We only ask the media and righteous people in the literary and art circles to pay attention to the artist’s plight, call for Mr. Gao Zhen’s release as soon as possible, and give him and his family freedom.”