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

I don’t think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism.

Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.

The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.

You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of.

I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.

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.

The rest of the world understands little about China’s changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.

To the media, I have become a symbolic figure, critical of China. According to the government, I am a dangerous threat.

Hopefully, other successes aren’t like me. It carries much more meaning to other people; my success story is irrelevant. It doesn’t make any sense.

Each year, more people want to become artists.

Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.

Nationality and borders are barriers to our intelligence, to our imagination and to all kinds of possibilities.

I don’t like China. Even today, I still feel I have no emotional relations with this place.

A state like China looks so powerful, but they are so scared of the Internet, so the Internet is more powerful than them.

Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.

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.

If I were to limit myself to the opportunities that were presented playing only Chinese-American parts, I would be virtually without a career.

I’m doing quite a few things now. In one day, I will go to Kassel, Germany, for a documentary project I’ve been preparing for half a year.

Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.

Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.

I think I’m just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there’s no bridge, you build one. I’m used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology.

To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.

Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

I taught a lot of art history, especially Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. But the painting classes came back. The nudes came back. Not so much the still lifes.