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I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.

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
Never
Chinese
York
Lived
City
Cities
Artist

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
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The biggest obstacle in interacting with China is the difference in perspectives about basic values. These include issues such as human rights, the concept of law and constitution.
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That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
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I don't think I was very structured in that society and I don't really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.
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This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.
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Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don't think there's anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.
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Had I to create a name for these times, I’d say it is the age of craziness
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The so-called culture nowadays is only a fake one with a superficial front. It is an empty lie.
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I think Donald Trump should cool down a little bit. To pay more attention to the history. To really understand what U.S.'s value is about. I think, as a president, those things you always have to ask.
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Of course, people will call you an old artist or young artist, which is just a character of you. But personally, I don't think my work and my understanding of art is so much related to being Chinese, but the character of that. Maybe it's beyond my own consciousness.
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Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.
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Beijing is constructing a 100,000 m2 modern art museum, yet it will not feature any of my work.
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China is at a different stage of development, human rights are violated here much more often. And still, we see improvements even here.
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China seems unpredictable because it has a distinct culture and social system. It is still a mystery to other parts of the world, even though the veil of China has been lifted many times as a result of globalization.
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My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.
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China spends a lot of resources and effort on gaining soft power over culture. The hope is that it can be the last lifeline for the Party's survival. Obviously, the idea will fail.
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The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.
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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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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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All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.
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