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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With New York City Councilman John Liu
Aired September 07, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: About 500 volunteers are gathering at New York's Battery Park to help with the 9/11 tribute. They'll take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, which will be surrounded by red, white and blue.
New York City Councilman John Liu is the chairman of the project.
He's here this morning to tell us all about it.
Thanks for being here.
We appreciate your time today.
This is a huge project. You say about 500 to 700 volunteers, is that right?
JOHN LIU, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Yes. We have maxed out at 700 volunteers to make this wonderful art event happen.
COLLINS: Tell us a little bit about it. This is going to be a huge unfurling of humongous banners and flags.
LIU: Yes.
COLLINS: What are people going to see?
LIU: Well, it is to celebrate life, liberty and beauty. There will be a five mile long banner put together by world famous artist "Pop" Zhao. And the banner will consist of 3,000 American flags with the Statue of Liberty emblazoned on each flag. And this five mile long banner will be unfurled along the perimeter of Liberty Island and along the base of the Statue of Liberty. It's going to be spectacular.
COLLINS: It sounds like it. Tell us a little bit about "Pop" Zhao, just in case people aren't familiar with some of his work.
LIU: "Pop" is a "Guinness Book of World Records" holder for putting together the longest art work in history, a 10,000 meter Olympic dragon that was draped on the Great Wall of China. And last year, in his September 11 tribute, he unfurled a six and a half mile long banner underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
And "Pop's" personal background is interesting, as well. He came to the United States about 15 years ago and just two years ago obtained his United States citizenship. And unfortunately a couple of months afterwards, the tragedy of September 11 happened. And this is his way of repaying the United States and the world for the good things that have happened to him.
COLLINS: Right. It sounds very much like this has a little bit of a personal meaning to him, obviously, as well.
We're looking at some video now of that project last year in San Francisco. Spectacular. So people are going to see a wonderful thing today.
Tell us about your role in the ceremony.
LIU: Well, I was honored that "Pop" asked me to help him coordinate this, along with the National Park Service and the American Red Cross, which is actually coordinating the hundreds of volunteers that we're going to have out there shortly. It's a major undertaking and I'm so pleased to have "Pop" decided to bring it to the East Coast and to New York City.
COLLINS: Well, we can't wait to see it. Tell us long it will be there, how long will it stay around the Statue of Liberty and then also if people can still come.
LIU: Sure. We're -- we could still use some volunteers in case we have some capacity at the end. If you get to the ferry terminal in South Ferry by 7:30, you'll be able to get on the boat. The exhibit -- the event itself will begin at 9:30 and it will last for two hours. It'll take some time to unfurl this entire banner.
COLLINS: All right, we appreciate you being with us, New York City Councilman John Liu.
Thanks so much and we hope you have a great day out there to go ahead and get this done.
LIU: It's my pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 7, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: About 500 volunteers are gathering at New York's Battery Park to help with the 9/11 tribute. They'll take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty, which will be surrounded by red, white and blue.
New York City Councilman John Liu is the chairman of the project.
He's here this morning to tell us all about it.
Thanks for being here.
We appreciate your time today.
This is a huge project. You say about 500 to 700 volunteers, is that right?
JOHN LIU, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Yes. We have maxed out at 700 volunteers to make this wonderful art event happen.
COLLINS: Tell us a little bit about it. This is going to be a huge unfurling of humongous banners and flags.
LIU: Yes.
COLLINS: What are people going to see?
LIU: Well, it is to celebrate life, liberty and beauty. There will be a five mile long banner put together by world famous artist "Pop" Zhao. And the banner will consist of 3,000 American flags with the Statue of Liberty emblazoned on each flag. And this five mile long banner will be unfurled along the perimeter of Liberty Island and along the base of the Statue of Liberty. It's going to be spectacular.
COLLINS: It sounds like it. Tell us a little bit about "Pop" Zhao, just in case people aren't familiar with some of his work.
LIU: "Pop" is a "Guinness Book of World Records" holder for putting together the longest art work in history, a 10,000 meter Olympic dragon that was draped on the Great Wall of China. And last year, in his September 11 tribute, he unfurled a six and a half mile long banner underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
And "Pop's" personal background is interesting, as well. He came to the United States about 15 years ago and just two years ago obtained his United States citizenship. And unfortunately a couple of months afterwards, the tragedy of September 11 happened. And this is his way of repaying the United States and the world for the good things that have happened to him.
COLLINS: Right. It sounds very much like this has a little bit of a personal meaning to him, obviously, as well.
We're looking at some video now of that project last year in San Francisco. Spectacular. So people are going to see a wonderful thing today.
Tell us about your role in the ceremony.
LIU: Well, I was honored that "Pop" asked me to help him coordinate this, along with the National Park Service and the American Red Cross, which is actually coordinating the hundreds of volunteers that we're going to have out there shortly. It's a major undertaking and I'm so pleased to have "Pop" decided to bring it to the East Coast and to New York City.
COLLINS: Well, we can't wait to see it. Tell us long it will be there, how long will it stay around the Statue of Liberty and then also if people can still come.
LIU: Sure. We're -- we could still use some volunteers in case we have some capacity at the end. If you get to the ferry terminal in South Ferry by 7:30, you'll be able to get on the boat. The exhibit -- the event itself will begin at 9:30 and it will last for two hours. It'll take some time to unfurl this entire banner.
COLLINS: All right, we appreciate you being with us, New York City Councilman John Liu.
Thanks so much and we hope you have a great day out there to go ahead and get this done.
LIU: It's my pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
