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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.

Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: May 18
Architect
Consultant
Contemporary Artist
Designer
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Painter
Photographer
Sculptor
Social Activist
Peking
Wei-wei Ai
Weiwei Ai
Ai Wei Wei
Behind
Every
Deals
Always
Political
Casualties
People
Firsts
Barely
Human
Treated
Humans
Ordinary
Behinds
First
Deal
Country

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New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
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I don't believe in a sense of home.
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Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.
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In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.
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There is no media freedom in China. As a result, the society is corrupt and lacks productivity. It is unable to adjust itself for progress. This will lead to the country's eventual downfall.
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I don't personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
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I think the pearls - one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl - really show a kind of [society] condition.
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New York is a city where you're so alone, you're an individual, you can disappear. You can make something happen. But it's very different to make something happen in the art world.
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.
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There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.
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If people are being abused or even killed during an arrest, this is highly disturbing.
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When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
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I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
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You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of. A state like China looks so powerful, but they are so scared of the Internet, so the Internet is more powerful than them.
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It's really rubbish that some kind of technical learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.
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