The Chinatown Business Improvement District and NYC Parks Dept. have announced they will place a sculpture of a ‘Dog-Man’ at Chatham Square by the Arch named for Lt. Benjamin R. Kimlau who died in WWII while serving in the U.S. military. The Arch honors all U.S. Service members of Chinese descent who fought and died serving the country.

This insulting image of a ‘Dog-Man’ has no place next to this sacred and solemn community site where we honor our community heroes.

Moreover, there are 3 commemorative statues in Chinatown. Adjacent to the Arch is the statue of of Minister Lin Zexu, a 19th-century Chinese official who banned opium. Nearby, the statue of the sage Confucius whose philosophy is a pillar of our culture. And in local Columbus Park is Sun Yat Sen, Father & Founder of Modern China.

Equating this ‘Dog-Man’ with these other cultural heroes is deeply offensive.

This is especially offensive in light of the long history of degrading caricatures of Chinese as ‘dogeaters’ in American popular culture.

This statue of a man with a doghead holding a red apple does not respectfully reflect our Chinese American community or culture.