<p>My wife and I were on campus last weekend with my sister and brother-in-law, visiting our Ds. We were walking the visitors around the Yard and had to wait for the crowd to clear in order to get a good look at the statue. And as is usually the case, the crowd around the statue was primarily Asian. The freshmen who live on the south end of the Yard joke about having to build in an extra couple minutes to get to class or to Annenberg in order to work their way through the crowd of Asian people clustered around the statue.</p>
<p>For anyone who's being truly objective, it's a silly statue. Since there was never any portrait made of him in the 17th century, no one really know what John Harvard looked like. The statue erroneously identifies him as the school's founder (he was only a benefactor), and even gets the date of the founding wrong! For this reason, it's widely dismissed by most people except for the cadre of intoxicated male freshmen who perpetuate the tradition of doing something unspeakable on John's (ironically appropriate name) foot in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>But throughout the day, every day, there is a constant swarm of Asian visitors who take endless photographs of the statue. They pose with it and take turns snapping each other's photo with it. Sometimes it appears that a large group may be part of a tour and that the statue is one of the tour highlights. All sorts of people may briefly stop to look at it or snap a quick picture, but for the Asian visitors it's clearly a relic of great renown and significance.</p>
<p>Yup, the Harvard statue, the block of 3 lies. Everyone needs a smaller, personified symbol of the thing they cherish. For America, it’s a flag. For Harvard, most people think it’s the John Harvard statue. There, they look at awe of this French student thinking he’s the foundation for this amazing university. Or maybe they’re trying to spot all the urine stains.</p>
<p>It’s not that the John Harvard Statue is especially famous in Asia. You are seeing Asian photography etiquette in force. At any statue or other touristy landmark, politeness requires taking turns snapping one another’s photo. It is also polite to honor others, especially your elders, by asking them to be in a photo with you, hence the combinations and permutations or photo subjects. After the tour, the tourists must present one another with prints of photos taken with one’s camera. I kid you not.</p>
<p>Although the statue of John Harvard is only symbolic, it is certainly well-sculpted and full of charm. The strong jaw, over-sized buff physique, intelligent gaze, and self-confident slouch combine to form an American ideal. And those rosettes on his shoes? Hot.</p>
<p>I recall reading somewhere that the school used to have one or more authentic portraits of John Harvard. But they were destroyed along with all but one of his bequest books when the libray burned down in 1764.</p>
<p>IMHO, most Asians living in the cities have definitely heard of Harvard. However, while the University is famous, the statue of John Harvard isn’t; as in it is not the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower in Paris where people will immediately recognize that it’s the John Harvard statue of Harvard Yard. I think the main reason for touristy Asians to flock to the statue to take pictures of/with it even though they’d never heard of it before, is because their tour guide probably had told them that this is THE FAMOUS John Harvard statue. So they automatically assume that they HAVE to have a picture of/with it. :)</p>
<p>On a side note, given Harvard’s eminence and out of reachability, if you told an Asian (in Asia) that you go/went to Harvard, you’re almost godlike. :D</p>
<p>There’s also a type of mass grouping effect. If a massive crowd of people were taking photos of themselves in front of some statue, wouldn’t you be inclined to do so too? So to be honest, all it takes is 4 to 5 people to get it going.</p>
<p>Wow. So there’s the answer. Speaking as someone for whom the era of online interaction occupies only the last third or so of a lifespan, I’m still floored when I ask an off-hand question on a forum such as this and learn something new from someone else out in the world somewhere. I was aware of the eminence factor that Evacuee mentions, so I’d assumed the crowds had something to do with that. It didn’t occur to me that I was watching a cultural norm that was different from my own.</p>
<p>Fauve - there’s another thread on this board that suggests Harvard is bereft of hotties. Perhaps you should post a photo of the statue on it! :)</p>