We should use this public sphere and redefine – beyond China’s borders – what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen’s privacy begins.
AI WEIWEII spend a lot of time talking to journalists.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.
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It’s very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.
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No state or society can claim to have established human rights once and for all.
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Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
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Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn’t really attract me at all.
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Whenever there is injustice, there is tension. But in China it is very hard to release your anger unless you burn yourself or you jump from a bridge. In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed.
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In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.
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If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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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 are not on – even just a step away from the most brutal and primitive crudity. To be very crude on those issues, which is always challenges and we always have to look at the situation like a mirror, to draw some understanding.
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A clear understanding of such differences will help the rest of the world understand China and all that is happening to the nation.
AI WEIWEI