Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.
AI WEIWEIYou know about the fantasies related to the classics, but there is no real discussion about today’s life and no discussion of the real conditions – which is really sickening.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it.
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Now many enterprises are made by individuals, so the attitude has started to change.
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Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
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So for too long Americans take liberty as granted. We think we are in the safe hand, the democracy and the liberty, which is not true. And it can be even getting much worse than today.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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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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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society’s level of civilization.
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At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year – 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me.
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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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What counts in the end is what the government does.
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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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You don’t have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
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They 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.
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My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.
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We never really see the global situation as a total situation. Today’s political leaders are still lacking of the vision.
AI WEIWEI