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China partially wants to become part of the world. By hosting the Olympics and the Expo, they made a big effort to tell people: Look, we are the same. They want to be accepted by the international community.

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
Look
International
Looks
Wants
Made
Effort
World
Community
Hosting
People
Bigs
Partially
Tell
Olympics
Become
Accepted
Part
China

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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Artists are the worst [people]. They are selfish, self-centred they don't care what happens.
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Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart...
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If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
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I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
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I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
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I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much. It was just a city with one emperor and the rest of them just rats or meaningless people.
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Art needs to stand for something.
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The motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that's all I know.
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My musician friends are banned from playing concerts in China because they share the same views as I do. My name cannot appear on the web, because my opinion is different from the Party.
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Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
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A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
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My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable
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Everything is selected by the central government without good judgment or an understanding of culture to make it really safe. They will become nobody to maintain their power and be raised to the next higher level.
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