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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.

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
Important
Yardstick
Yardsticks
Speech
Civilization
Level
Levels
Society
Freedom

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.
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Artists are the worst [people]. They are selfish, self-centred they don't care what happens.
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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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We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.
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I don't think China has professional museums - not in the past, present, or near future.
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I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that's the true crime.
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Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
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What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.
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I don't believe in the so-called Olympic spirit. I speak from personal experience. When China hosted the Games, it failed to include the people. The event was constructed without regard for their joy.
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
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I always admire writers. My father was a writer, a poet. I always admire people who can clearly state their mind.
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I call on people to be 'obsessed citizens,' forever questioning and asking for accountability. That's the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
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If there's the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.
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If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection then? That's why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or I am so charming. People feel: This guy is fighting for us.
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In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that's beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone's emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment, he will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn't trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.
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If you just turn to your paper or television each day, there are thousands of stories that are much more shocking than the gallery artworks.
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I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.
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