Ai Weiwei on china

AFTER being detained without explanation for three months last year, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was the subject of an international solidarity campaign. Posters with his picture and the inscription “free Ai Weiwei” became widespread whenever members of the Chinese government attended meetings outside the country. Beijing’s uneasiness dealing in with this case was almost similar to when Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, which he was prevented from receiving personally in Oslo.
The solidarity campaign towards Ai Weiwei was not only international. After Ai’s design company Fake Cultural Development Ltd. was accused of tax evasion – a charge that was interpreted by many as retaliation against his activism – many Chinese supporters sent him money so that he could submit a financial guarantee of USD1.3 million in order to get a review of his case.
He did so, but last week Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate Court rejected a second and final appeal, ruling that the artist will have to pay over 15 million yuan (USD2.4 million) demanded by tax officials. The artist said he doesn’t intend to pay the fine. Surrounded by journalists outside the court, he made some bold, blatant statements about China’s judicial system. It’s was good to see a man who speaks his mind, although probably what he said was not broadcast in the mainland.
“What surprises me is that this society, which is developing at such a rapid rate today, still has the most barbaric and backward legal system. I think it’s a bad omen,” he said, adding that the authorities denied him his legal rights and failed to follow basic procedures.
Despite having no passport and being barred from leaving the country, Ai Weiwei’s notoriety seems to have gained him the right to speak what he thinks. That’s more than many of his fellow citizens can claim.
Son of Ai Qing, regarded as one of the best Chinese modern poets, the young Ai Weiwei knew the barbaric consequences of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. His father was forbidden to write and exiled to the remote Xinjiang province. That’s where he spent his youth, while Ai Qing was given tasks like cleaning public toilets and had to burn “all his books because he could have got into trouble”. Back in Beijing, he learnt how to draw with some of his father’s friends and immersed himself in Beijing’s repressed art scene. In 1982 he had the opportunity to move to New York, where he befriended artists and poets like the great Allen Ginsberg.
When he returned to China, in 1993, because of his father’s ill health, he was not the same person. He had absorbed the influences of the New York art scene and became one of China’s freest voices. Working with several media, he saw the Internet as a means to artistic expression and opened a popular and short-lived blog where he wrote about everything. Commenting on the English translation of the blog, the art critic Hans Ulrich Obrist says, “It is a book about life and culture in China. It is about love, sex, identity, interviews, food, the tension between history and modernity, Olympics, music, TV, shopping, death, the government, religion, etc. Ai Weiwei has weaved an unbelievable net of thoughts and words.” There are no taboos with Ai Weiwei, that’s why he is a precious thinker and artist.   
Here are some ideas on his blog and China, that he shared with Hans Ulrich Obrist, published in the book ‘Ai Weiwei Speaks’: “I’ve already published over two hundred articles, interviews and writings, commentaries about art, politics, newspaper cuttings, etc., on it. I find that it is the most interesting gift to me, because we live in a society where self-expression is not encouraged and can even damage you, as it has two generations of writers. People are afraid to write anything down; any words put on paper can be used as evidence of a crime.”
(PB, Macau Daily Times)