The size of Chairman Mao’s profile picture in Tiananmen Square

The portrait of Chairman Mao on the Tiananmen Gate Tower is 6 meters high and 4.6 meters wide. Together with the frame, the total weight reaches 1.5 tons. This is the largest hand-painted portrait in the country, Asia and even in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Since 1949, the portrait of Chairman Mao on the Tiananmen Gate has been replaced eight times. For sixty years, it has attracted the attention of countless people in Beijing, the capital of the motherland, and has become one of the iconic components of the Tiananmen Gate Tower.

From 1949 to 1966, the portrait of Chairman Mao on the Tiananmen Gate was not hung every day. During these seventeen years, it was hung every May Day and National Day. During major holidays, the portrait of Chairman Mao is hung on the Tiananmen Gate Tower for about ten days.

Since August 1966, the portrait of Chairman Mao has been hung on the Tiananmen Gate every day, and a new portrait of Chairman Mao has been replaced every year before National Day. Chairman Mao's portrait will forever hang on the Tiananmen Rostrum.

In the sixty years since 1949, the Tiananmen Gate Tower has replaced eight pages of Chairman Mao’s portrait. Seven painters and more than ten assistants have painted the portraits. Portrait of Chairman Mao on the Tiananmen Gate Tower. The frame of the portrait was revised several times and was finally determined to be 6.4 meters high and 5 meters wide.

Extended information

Chairman Mao badge

Chairman Mao badge refers to the badge with Mao Zedong's portrait as the main body, also known as "badge". Some Chairman Mao badges produced from 1966 to 1970 are also called "red treasure badges" and "commemorative badges."

According to the relevant provisions of the "Cultural Relics Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" passed in 1982 and the "Cultural Relics Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" amended and passed in 2017, on September 9, 1976 Chairman Mao badges produced before Japan are modern cultural relics and are protected by the Cultural Relics Law.

The earliest silver Chairman Mao Medal was issued by the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces in 1937. In 1942, Yan'an produced the first Yan'an Mao Zedong badge. In 1945, film artist Ling Zifeng designed the earliest metal badge of Mao Zedong. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, some places began to produce Mao Zedong medals and commemorative medals in limited quantities. The climax was when the revolutionary committees at all levels were established from the spring of 1967 to the summer of 1969.

About 10,000 types and a total of 2 billion pieces were produced in five years. Except for a few original versions of the reliefs used in the side relief head badges, most of the others came from multiple versions of the reliefs created by the sculptor Zhang Songhe since the 1950s or were copied and modified. The craze for badge production ended with Mao Zedong's humorous words: "Give me back my planes" (because both badges and planes are made of aluminum).

From the reference source Baidu Encyclopedia - Newly Painted Portrait of Chairman Mao

Baidu Encyclopedia - Eternity on the Red Stage: The Drawing of the Portrait of Chairman Mao on the Eighth Edition of the Tiananmen Gate Tower

Baidu Encyclopedia-Chairman Mao Badge