2010-06-21 17:21

CHANGSHA - Central China's Hunan province on Monday promulgated standards for the manufacture of Chairman Mao statues to curb the production of substandard products.

The Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision in Hunan province officially promulgated the technical standards in Shaoshan city, Mao Zedong's hometown.

"The move is expected to curtail the production and sale of low-quality Mao statues that harm the tourism market and people's feeling for the great man," said the bureau's chief engineer, Jiang Tao.

Tourists visiting Shaoshan - known as one of China's "red tourism" sites - have complained about the inferior quality of the statues peddlers and small stalls sell.

Some souvenirs sold were physically disproportional while others were made with low-quality materials in a slipshod way, said Jiang.

From July, Mao statues failing to meet the new technical criteria may be confiscated and destroyed by relative authorities, said Yu Guoxin, a Shaoshan Municipal Government official who participated in drafting the standards.

The regulation will take effect from July 1.

The Shaoshan souvenir market reported sales income of 124 million yuan ($18.2 million) in 2009, 70 percent of which was from Mao statues, the city's tourism bureau said.