For the Chinese, the royal animal is the lion. Which is why public buildings and many commercial establishments in China—and Chinese restaurants the world over—have a pair of lion statues beside the entrance.
As you enter, the lion on your right is a male and has his right paw on an orb, symbolizing power and authority. The lion on your left, a female, has her left paw on a baby lion, symbolizing fecundity and life’s continuity.
Symbolizing authority is no problem: an orb is a globe or a ball, and the male lion has his paw on something round and solid. But the lion cub, neither round nor solid, generally becomes a wadded pulp beneath its mother’s paw.
Not in Shanghai’s Yuyuan Park, where we find the cub above, to which an exceptional sculptor 100 years ago, working in and against tradition, gave an identity despite the tiny creature’s helplessness.
