I think the government regrets having Sina Weibo, but they cannot shut it down. That would definitely be suicidal.
AI WEIWEIThey 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.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
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They very often just try to cope with their own election, their own popularity, solving the problem or selling the ideas to meet their own voters. By doing that, it creates a great imbalance in terms of making deals or treaty or all those things.
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It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we’ll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
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You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.
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It [success] is really by mistake.
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Any individual can contribute its own belief. And our society or even our government are made by the people. The people would have the final voice, but it requires each individual to act. If we don’t act, then the result is very clear.
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…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
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A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.
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I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
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The museums used to be exhibition halls for government propaganda, and now every city wants to build a museum.
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Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.
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If there’s the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.
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I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
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If people are being abused or even killed during an arrest, this is highly disturbing.
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I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.
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I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.
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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.
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Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.
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The whole attitude of society has become much more open and realistic. They realize that the only way to make a more democratic and free society is to let different opinions come out.
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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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[Therefore] holding a trial outside the court. I think that is fairness, that is justice, that is a civil society. Otherwise call it an evil society because everything is hidden.
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We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
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I will bring 1,001 Chinese to participate as my artwork there – any Chinese who is a Chinese passport holder and over eighteen years old could apply through my blog.
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Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
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In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
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Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one’s imagination – perhaps more importantly – creativity is the power to act.
AI WEIWEI