By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
CHINATOWN — The mammoth snowman on Canal Street isn't smiling anymore after cold-hearted vandals recently attacked the snowy sculpture.
The nearly 10-foot snowman — which grew and grew in recent weeks, delighting passersby who frequently stopped to take pictures of the winter wonder — has endured assaults from people hell-bent on destroying him, said creator Chao Dong Wang.
Wang, who initially built the snowman outside his Shan Fu convenience store at the corner of Essex street following the Christmas blizzard, explained that attackers decapitated his creation on one occasion, and assaulted it again at night while his store was closed.
He saw one assailant strike the snowman with a piece of wood, and had a chunk of snow ripped from the figure and thrown inside his store when he tried to shoo the attacker away.
But Wang remains undeterred, saying he plans to rebuild his popular attraction if another blizzard hits before the end of winter.
"If the snow comes again, I want to try like before," he said, adding he plans to make the snowman an annual tradition.
