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.
AI WEIWEII lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that’s the 1980s. New York in the ’80s was not so interesting.
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There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.
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The rest of the world understands little about China’s changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.
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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. Art should live in the heart of the people.
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We’re different, and you’re dangerous.” That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It’s dangerous to create that kind of tension.
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[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don’t care about culture.
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I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.
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Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.
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The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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We should also leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth; and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves.
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It’s not really an ideology, but a method of control. But China’s problems are not just China’s problems – they’re human problems. Humanity has always worked better when you see it as one.
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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.
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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.
AI WEIWEI