“After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.”

Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

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.

I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].

I would still describe China as a vast, invigorating puzzle that will never make sense to my western upbringing.