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At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year - 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me. These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.

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
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Social Activist
Peking
Wei-wei Ai
Weiwei Ai
Ai Wei Wei
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Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China's society is opening.
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You're still being looked at as somebody who - it's a very complicated issue.
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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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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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Maybe [success] is because I'm in China and I'm more open. Maybe it's my independent behavior, or because I participated in certain projects. I have no idea.
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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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The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
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The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it...it's very 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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Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
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The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.
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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.
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In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
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I remember one little rainy day I went searching for this apartment and I saw so many people standing on a stoop on the corner in the rain. Later I realized, that was drug traffic. They were all buying drugs.
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I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it's all we need.
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I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
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