The Martin Luther King Jr National Memorial Project Foundation partly chose Lei because he is one of the world’s top sculptors for large human forms, Jackson said.
The foundation, which evaluated 900 entries from 52 countries, chose Lei’s design because it “captured the essence” of King’s struggle to achieve his ideals, he said.
To prepare for the job, Lei has studied everything he can find about King. As a child, his father read him King’s I Have a Dream speech. Since being chosen to sculpt King, he has searched out dozens of the Civil Rights leader’s less well-known writings.
“What has moved me most is that King combined non-violence and persistence to achieve his goals,” Lei said. “He was steadfast in his ideals.”
“My sculpture is not abstract. It attempts to represent King as the person he was.”
Addressing criticisms that an American should sculpt the statue, Lei said that it is common for top artists to work outside their home nations.
“Some of the world’s top architects are in China and they are contributing to society,” he said. “We shouldn’t look at the color of someone’s skin.”
Born in 1953 in China’s central Hunan Province, Lei taught himself to draw during the Cultural Revolution, when schools were closed and millions of youth were sent to work as farmers.
After universities reopened in 1977, he won a spot at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating he taught and worked on commissions, including several statues of Mao.
While many artists depicted Mao as heroic, Lei tried to show him “more as an ordinary person,” he said.
Lei has strong supporters in the US.
Isaac Newton Farris Jr, president and chief executive officer of the King Center in Atlanta and nephew of the civil rights leader, said that Lei’s design correctly depicts King’s legacy.
Jackson said the foundation chose Lei partly because he had experience working with granite, one of the hardest and most durable stones.
Lei said he is preparing a workspace in Hunan Province and will need at least six months to finish the work. “I don’t want this statue to become political,” he said. “I just want to focus on King’s ideals.”
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