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Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.

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
Growing
State
Family
Experienced
Stories
Desperate
States
Disappointment
Much
Conditions
Joy
Enemy

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.
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In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.
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[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
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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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The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same there's still a one-party system and strong censorship.
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The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
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For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
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I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it. They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own - cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.
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I think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we'll have competition. And who is going to win the competition if U.S. cannot hold a strong ideology? And even the U.S. would've lost the ground to win.
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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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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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China has a rich history that has spanned millennia. It consists of the histories of many nations and regions.
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The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
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My work is always a ready-made... cultural, political, or social, and also it could be art - to make people re-look at what we have done, its original position, to create new possibilities.
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Civilization has evolved toward more acceptance, understanding and tolerance of global thinking. If we accept differences, our creativity booms. It makes life much more colorful. It also makes humanity much more safe. If we see pureness somewhere as something to be desired, the trouble starts.
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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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