The Chinese Lions of Missouri University

The recent ruckus at Missouri University made me wonder if the Chinese lions are still there? They were in the archway between Neff and Williams halls at the School of Journalism? Anyone know? They were certainly there a few years ago but I wondered if they got to stay.

The two stone lions, which once guarded a Confucian temple in Nanking, were given to the School of Journalism by the Chinese government as an act of international goodwill May 7, 1931, during the 22nd annual Journalism Week. Missouri trained a lot of American and Chinese journalists that went to China and Asia between the wars including Carl Crow, JB Powell, Benjamin Fleisher, HS Jewell, Morris J Harris, Henry Francis Frank Misselwitz, Joseph Glen Babb, Hollington Holly K Tong, Hin Wong, Kan Lee, David Wu, Woo Kya-tang, Yoshinori Bob Horiguchi as well as the female journalists Eva Chang and Louise Blakeney Wilson.

The first dean of the School of Journalism, Walter Williams (who himself visited China several times), left below, then University President, accepts the lions from Wu Chao-chu, right, minister of the Republic of China to the United States. Dr. H.H. Kung, China’s minister of industry and a descendant of Confucius, arranged to have the sculptures given to the school after he became acquainted with journalism alumni working in China. The figures were sculpted by an unknown artist around 1400, at the beginning of the Ming dynasty.