Students unimpressed by 20ft high cabbage statue at entrance to campus

Students at a school in southern China were baffled when a 20ft high statue of a cabbage appeared at the entrance to their campus.

"Statues are supposed to inspire us to produce great work. What's a cabbage supposed to inspire?" said one pupil at the Qianshan No. 2 Middle School in Jiangxi province.

The fibreglass statue is a tribute to a 17th century leader Da Jiliang who painted a cabbage to inspire himself to work hard. In Mandarin, cabbage is pronounced 'baicai', with 'bai' meaning white, or impossible to corrupt.

Headmaster Liu Wang explained: "Students who don't know why this statue is here don't know their own history. This cabbage should inspire them to produce their best work with a pure spirit," he added.