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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.

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
Relationship
War
Government
Like
Chinese
Cold

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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It's really rubbish that some kind of technical learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.
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The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
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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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[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.
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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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My image of what a city should be - the super-rich and all the poor and desperate and the people who have some kind of a desire. It's a surviving game, people trying to survive on many different levels.
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[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I've been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
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To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
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The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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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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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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This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.
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If I look at it, I would laugh. I don't know how I became successful.
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The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.
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All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.
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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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So-called Chinese art and culture is under control of the Party. They exist to serve the official agenda. I call it fake art and culture.
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