Dartblog

Ken Johnson, arts critic for The Boston Globe, picks apart the numbing genericism of the clumps of hair in Baker Library, stitched together by either Wenda Gu or his fakirs, and purchased by Dartmouth College for some unholy sum.

And in Johnson’s article, a revelation: “The braid…was created in China using hair from commercial wig makers…”

This refers to the hair in the main corridor of Baker Library. (Main Street, as it is officially known.) That’s as distinguished from the hair in the foyer, which, it has been advertised over and over, is the hair of community residents. But it’s that Chinese wig makers hair that’s awfully significant. Something that happens in China is that political and religious dissidents like Falun Gong are imprisoned. (Look up a hospital called Sujiatun for one example.) Some are tortured, killed, and their organs harvested to save the lives of aging Party elites. Many have their hair shaved off and sold to deep-discount Chinese wig makers.

It’s cheap wigs for Asia, income for the Party, and baldness for those who dare to support religious freedom in China.

And it’s also something that Dartmouth may have just funded. Attention Dartmouth Public Relations Unit: look into it. Dartmouth’s—and Gu’s—nice little effort to “unite humanity and encourage international understanding” may be aiding Beijing’s Stasi-like habits.