Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei (/ˈaɪ weɪˈweɪ/ EYE way-WAY; Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, IPA: [âɪ wêɪ.wêɪ]; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile.[1] As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport for "economic crimes," and detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.[1]
This article is about the artist. For the documentary film about him, see Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and poetry in his many sculptures, photographs, and public works. Since being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Portugal, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Life[edit]
Early life and work[edit]
Ai's father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing,[2] who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement. In 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1961, where they lived for 16 years. Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.[3]
In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation.[4] In 1978, he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Mao Lizi, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Ah Cheng and Qu Leilei. The group disbanded in 1983,[5] yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).
Political activity and controversies[edit]
Internet activities[edit]
In 2005, Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China. He posted his first blog on 19 November. For four years, he "turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings."[30] The blog was shut down by Sina on 28 May 2009. Ai then turned to Twitter and wrote prolifically on the platform, claiming at least eight hours online every day. He wrote almost exclusively in Chinese using the account @aiww.[31] As of 31 December 2013, Ai has declared that he would stop tweeting but the account remains active in forms of retweets and Instagram posts.[32] In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked Ai's blog as the fourth greatest work of performance art ever, with the writer arguing, "Much in the way early performance artists documented with film and video, Ai used the prevalent medium of his time—the web—to examine the increasingly fine line between public life and the artist's work. Ai here used his presence to create something full and tangible rather than just a symbolic representation of his critique."[33] In 2023, he created a mobile app to which gives users a picture of Ai's own middle finger which they can insert over another image of any place on earth (from google earth) which they disapprove of.[34]
Citizens' investigation on Sichuan earthquake student casualties[edit]
Ten days after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province on 12 May 2008, Ai led a team to survey and film the post-quake conditions in various disaster zones. In response to the government's lack of transparency in revealing names of students who perished in the earthquake due to substandard school campus constructions, Ai recruited volunteers online and launched a "Citizens' Investigation" to compile names and information of the student victims. On 20 March 2009, he posted a blog titled "Citizens' Investigation" and wrote: "To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility, and for the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a 'Citizens' Investigation.' We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will remember them."[35]
As of 14 April 2009, the list had accumulated 5,385 names. Ai published the collected names as well as numerous articles documenting the investigation on his blog which was shut down by Chinese authorities in May 2009.[36] He also posted his list of names of schoolchildren who died on the wall of his office at FAKE Design in Beijing.[37]
Ai suffered headaches and claimed he had difficulty concentrating on his work since returning from Chengdu in August 2009, where he was beaten by the police for trying to testify for Tan Zuoren, a fellow investigator of the shoddy construction and student casualties in the earthquake. On 14 September 2009, Ai was diagnosed to be suffering internal bleeding in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and the doctor arranged for emergency brain surgery.[38] The cerebral hemorrhage is believed to be linked to the police attack.[39][40]
According to the Financial Times, in an attempt to force Ai to leave the country, two accounts used by him had been hacked in a sophisticated attack on Google in China dubbed Operation Aurora, their contents read and copied; his bank accounts were investigated by state security agents who claimed he was under investigation for "unspecified suspected crimes".[41]
Shanghai studio controversy[edit]
Ai was placed under house arrest in November 2010 by the Chinese police. He said this was to prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his brand new Shanghai studio.
The building was designed by Ai himself with assistance, and potency coming from a "high official [from Shanghai]" the new studio was a part of a new traditionally design by Shanghai Municipal jurisdiction. He was going to use it as a studio and mentor different architecture courses. After Ai was charged with constructing the studio without the required approval and the knockdown notice had been processed, Ai said officials had been anxious and the paperwork and planning process was "under government supervision". According to Ai, a few different artists were invited to create and structure new studios in this area of Shanghai because officials wanted to create a friendly environment.
Ai stated on 3 November 2010 that authorities had let him know him two months earlier that the newly completed studio would be knocked down because it was illegal and did not meet the needs. Ai criticized that this was biased, stating that he was "the only one singled out to have my studio destroyed". The Guardian reported Ai saying Shanghai municipal authorities were "upset " by documentaries on subjects they considered delicate—in particular a documentary featuring Shanghai resident Feng Zhenghu, who lived in forced separation for three months in Narita Airport, Tokyo, and one focused on Yang Jia, who murdered six Shanghai police officers.
At the end of the term, the gathering took place without Ai. All of his fans had a river crab, an allusion to "harmony", and a euphemism used to jeer official censorship. Ai was eventually released from house arrest the next day.
Like other activists and intellectuals, Ai was stopped from leaving China in late 2010. Ai suggested that the higher ups wanted to stop him from attending a ceremony in December 2010 to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo. Ai said that he was never invited to the ceremony and was attempting to travel to South Korea where he had an important meeting when he was told that he could not leave for reasons of national security.
On 11 January 2011, Ai's studio was knocked down and destroyed in a surprise move by the government, who had previously told him the studio would be destroyed only after the beginning of the New Year on 3 February 2011.[42]
2011 arrest[edit]
On 3 April 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport just before catching a flight to Hong Kong and his studio facilities were searched.[43] A police contingent of approximately 50 officers came to his studio, threw a cordon around it and searched the premises. They took away laptops and the hard drive from the main computer; along with Ai, police also detained eight staff members and Ai's wife, Lu Qing. Police also visited the mother of Ai's two-year-old son.[44] The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 7 April that Ai was arrested under investigation for alleged economic crimes.[45][46] Then, on 8 April, police returned to Ai's workshop to examine his financial affairs.[47] Ai's assistant Wen Tao, studio partner Liu Zhenggang and driver Zhang Jingsong were also detained following Ai's arrest.[48] Ai's wife said that she was summoned by the Beijing Chaoyang district tax bureau, where she was interrogated about his studio's tax on 12 April.[49] South China Morning Post reports that Ai received at least two visits from the police, the last being on 31 March—three days before his detention—apparently with offers of membership to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A staff member recalled that Ai had mentioned receiving the offer earlier, "[but Ai] didn't say if it was a membership of the CPPCC at the municipal or national level, how he responded or whether he accepted it or not."[50][49]
On 24 February, amid an online campaign for Middle East-style protests in major Chinese cities by overseas dissidents, Ai posted on his Twitter account: "I didn't care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"[51][52]
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