{"id":326,"date":"2007-12-03T18:39:39","date_gmt":"2007-12-03T22:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=326"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:37:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:37:13","slug":"norman-bethune-square-gets-a-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/12\/03\/norman-bethune-square-gets-a-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman Bethune Square gets a makeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Norman Bethune is getting a bath. His statue, which normally stands encrusted in bird poop at the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve, in the most pigeon-infested square in Montreal<\/a>, has been removed for restoration<\/a>. Norman Bethune Square, meanwhile, will be redesigned and expanded, part of the ongoing Quartier Concordia project that aims to turn Concordia’s downtown campus into an attractive, pedestrian-friendly environment. <\/p>\n

There are no details on what the newly-reconfigured square will look like, although preliminary renderings<\/a> released by Concordia in 2005 offer an idea. Pretty much anything will be better than its current state<\/a>, which is filthy, dilapidated and uncomfortable, despite the high number of people that pass through it. Apparently, the square was a bit of an afterthought, a traffic island that became home to the statue of Bethune only after it had already stood at several other locations. The Gazette has more:<\/p>\n

Bethune was a surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. Seventy years ago, he went to China to join Mao Zedong’s long march.<\/p>\n

He died of blood poisoning in 1939 while administering to the wounded soldiers of Mao’s 8th Route Army.<\/p>\n

His monument in Montreal is a copy of one that stands outside the International Peace Hospital at Shih-chia-chuang. Known in China as Pai Ch’ui-en, Bethune is revered for his humanitarian work. His name appears in Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book as “the ideal communist. We can all learn the spirit of selflessness from him.”<\/p>\n

Even before Bethune went to China, he had an international reputation for his advances in surgical techniques. He had also organized the first mobile blood transfusion units during the Spanish Civil War.<\/p>\n

He is said to have once performed 115 operations, working 69 hours at a stretch. He is buried in China’s mausoleum of martyrs in Shih-chia-chuang.<\/p>\n

His reputation in Canada was given a boost in the 1970s after Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau established diplomatic relations with China. The statue was first offered to the city in 1971 and a memorial committee was established to accept it.<\/p>\n

However, many at the time felt it would be politically incorrect to honour a Communist sympathizer on city streets.<\/p>\n

The statue was carved in Beijing and is the work of four sculptors: Situ Chieh, Hsieh Chie-sheng, We Chang and Tsui Wu-chin.<\/p>\n

It arrived in Montreal in 1977, and was moved around to several sites before finally being unveiled in its present location in August 1978.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The newly-renovated Norman Bethune Square will be unveiled next October, just in time for the 70th anniversary of Bethune’s death. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norman Bethune is getting a bath. His statue, which normally stands encrusted in bird poop at the corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve, in the most pigeon-infested square in Montreal, has been removed for restoration. Norman Bethune Square, meanwhile, will be redesigned and expanded, part of the ongoing Quartier Concordia project that aims to turnContinue reading “Norman Bethune Square gets a makeover”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7839,7842],"tags":[1254,1256,283,1253,1246,319,1250,82,48,1243,1249,1242,125,526,530,1244,5,1251,1248,1255,1247,1252,1245],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-urban-design","tag-8th-route-army","tag-beijing","tag-canada","tag-chairman","tag-chang","tag-china","tag-chinas-mausoleum","tag-concordia","tag-downtown","tag-hsieh-chie-sheng","tag-international-peace-hospital","tag-mao-zedong","tag-montreal","tag-norman-bethune","tag-norman-bethune-square","tag-pierre-elliott-trudeau","tag-planning","tag-prime-minister","tag-royal-victoria-hospital","tag-royal-victoria-hospital-in-montreal","tag-statue-of-bethune","tag-surgeon","tag-tsui-wu-chin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNorman Bethune Square gets a makeover - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2007\/12\/03\/norman-bethune-square-gets-a-makeover\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Norman Bethune Square gets a makeover - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Norman Bethune is getting a bath. 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