China will erect two statues for Iris Chang, the late author of the best-seller The Rape of Nanking. The move is to commemorate Chang for her exposé of "atrocities committed by Japanese aggressors" in China.

A group of eminent Chinese artists and scholars discussed the clay model of the works in Beijing on Tuesday.

"We have received the approval from Chang's family members to make the statues in memory of her tenacity in exposing the atrocities committed by Japanese aggressors and her spirit to dig up the historical truth," said Yang Zhengquan, vice-chairman of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development, at the discussion session.

The China Foundation for Human Rights Development proposed the action at the end of last year after untimely Chang's death. The statues will be finished before August 15, the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War.

Chang, born to a Chinese immigrants' family in Princeton, New Jersey, was briefly a reporter for the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune. She later went to become a full-time author and lecturer. She published her book The Rape of Nanking -- The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II in 1997 after two years of research and interviews on the Chinese mainland.

She also played a key role in retrieving the diaries of John Rabe, which provided a crucial record of the Nanjing Massacre.

The book, written in English, revealed to Europeans and Americans the details of the Nanjing Massacre for the first time. It has been published more than 10 times, with nearly 1 million copies having been printed.

Chang reportedly committed suicide in San Francisco last November. She was 36.

Wang Hongzhi, president of the Nanjing Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute and undertaker of the project, said he wishes to highlight the demure beauty of the oriental woman in the statues.

"The more important thing is to portray her (Chang's) sense of historical responsibility and intrepid fighting spirit," said Wang, who started his design work five months ago.

The statues, to be made of white marble or bronze, will between 1.8 and 2 meters high.

One of the statues will be placed in the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The other one will be given to Chang's family in the United States.
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(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2005)