Truth, No Matter the Power: Controversial Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei’s only fear is silence

Image Gallery To view a slide show of art by Ai Weiwei, visit the image gallery. All images courtesy Ai Weiwei

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Chinese artist and blogger Ai Weiwei has a knack for audaciously bold statements, whether he’s helping to design the iconic “bird’s nest” stadium for the Beijing Olympics, dropping a Han dynasty urn in an act of performance art, or writing a fiery post for his blog, which circumvents Chinese state media to grapple openly with his government’s policies.

Widely interviewed by both Chinese and international journalists, Ai has emerged as a digital-age dissident who—for the time being—is allowed to speak his mind in a country often known precisely for its absence of free speech.

In this interview with Index on Censorship’s Simon Kirby, conducted at the artist’s studio in Beijing, Ai holds forth on art, politics, censorship, and the new China.

—The Editors

After your work on the Beijing Olympic stadium, you withdrew your support for the project and have been critical of the way the Olympic Games were used for political purposes in China. How were the games misused?

The controversy concerning my attitude toward the Olympic Games arose from an interview one year before the opening of the games. I was asked if I would be participating in the celebrations. We were already witnessing the triumphant public mood and the nationalistic public message that was being sent out by the government, but I had the very strong impression that politically nothing has changed in this country. I have lived as an individual and an artist through the past 30 years of Reform and Opening Up in China [Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms], so this realization was a huge disappointment to me.

China is facing tremendous problems that are part of opening this new path. In fact, it is not only China that is facing these new kinds of difficulties—the whole world is facing them. But the difference here is that the old political structure remains fully intact. I believe that the primary concern and main struggle within that structure is to stay in control, and everything done within that structure is related to this mission. This is absolutely ridiculous to me. Even in a democratic structure it is very difficult to maintain power—and the pursuit of maintaining control generates more problems than can be solved.

Of course all this relates to democracy, to freedom of speech, to individual responsibility, and to censorship. The fundamental problem is not that there are limits on voicing different opinions here. The problem is that the whole society is dying through lack of responsibility or involvement. The government should be leading in generating this sense of active responsibility. It should be elected by the people and act according to the will of the people. But this is impossible because the government has not been selected by the people.

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