Mao was said to be very fond of Alice in Wonderland and in fact
commissioned the renowned artist Chang Le Ho to construct a series
of
bronze statues depicting the croquet game using cranes as mallets and
hedgehogs as balls. Because there was so little bronze to be found,
Mao
decreed that all bronze Buddhas must be melted down in order to satisfy
his Alice whim. In this fashion he thought to kill two birds with one
proverbial stone. However, unbeknownst to Mao, the artist Chang was
a
Buddhist and loath to destroy the many bronze Buddhas collected and
handed over to him to be melted. So Chang, using all his years of
experience and all his skills, carefully selected one aspect from each
of the Buddhas and incorporated it into his Alice in Wonderland
masterpiece, carefully arranging it so that by viewing the arrangement
from one particular spot, all the Buddhas come into view once again.
In order to hide this from Mao, Chang placed the apex of that viewpoint
right at the Queen's feet, knowing full well that Mao's pride would
prevent him from prostrating himself before such a representation.
But
as ill luck blows no one any good, Mao happened to drink too much saki
one night and, tripping over a bronze hedgehog and loosing his balance,
fell
right at the feet of the Queen, whereby all the Buddhas stared back
at
him. Enraged that the trust he had placed in Chang had been so callously
disregarded (and now remembering all the peasants who lay down before
the Queen when they visited the Alice in Wonderland garden) Mao
immediately went amid the bronze statues and tried to move them into
other locations so that the Buddhas no longer stared back at him. But
no
matter which way he moved them, the effect was always the same when
he
lay at the feet of the Queen and viewed the arrangement.