On the streets of Manhattan, the busiest part of New York, there stands a statue of Chinese.
Born in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, this Chinese served as the governor of Huguang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the governor of Yungui, and he once ordered the public destruction of opium at Humen Beach, and he was the famous national hero Lin Zexu.
So why is there a statue of a Qing Dynasty courtier in New York?
This brings us to the social background of the United States at that time.
In the 1950s and 1960s, American rock music began to be popular among young people, the most representative of which were the two rock bands of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Rock 'n' Roll uses unusually exciting tones, modern sound equipment and lighting to allow young people to vent their dissatisfaction with American society at the time in a more self-contained way.
Vulgar singing techniques and stimulating expressions have made rock music quickly spread throughout the United States, and a special culture has been formed: hippie culture.
More and more young Americans, influenced by hippie culture, despise tradition, reject morality, and are at odds with mainstream society.
There are also a large number of young people who have learned Uncle Yu Qian's three major hobbies: smoking, drinking, scalding, and even becoming addicts.
At that time, the Chinese living in New York were extremely rejective of hippie culture, and they were still down-to-earth and worked diligently.
In order to educate their next generation, not to learn from those Americans, let alone become addicts, they erected the statue of lin Zexu, the hero of the smoke, in Manhattan, New York. It is also a warning to those Americans who have gone astray, to restrain themselves from the precipice and turn back to the shore.
Later, the standing statue of Lin Zexu was expanded into a square and named "Lin Zexu Square".
Lin Zexu's influence was not only this, lin Zexu's sales in Humen began on the 22nd day of April in the nineteenth year of Daoguang, converted into the Gregorian calendar on June 3, 1839, and lasted until the end of June 25, which lasted for 23 days.
Later, the United Nations designated the International Day Against Drugs as the day after the end of the tobacco sale in Humen, on June 26 of each year.
Coincidentally, less than 200 meters away from the statue of Lin Zexu, there is a statue of Chinese, who is Confucius, one of the founders of the Confucian school.