Manifestos and immodest proposals from China's most famous artist and
activist, culled from his popular blog, shut down by Chinese authorities
in 2009.
In 2006, even though he could barely type, China's most famous artist
started blogging. For more than three years, Ai Weiwei turned out a
steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government
policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings.
He wrote about the Sichuan earthquake (and posted a list of the
schoolchildren who died because of the government's "tofu-dregs
engineering"), reminisced about Andy Warhol and the East Village art
scene, described the irony of being investigated for "fraud" by the
Ministry of Public Security, made a modest proposal for tax collection.
Then, on June 1, 2009, Chinese authorities shut down the blog. This book
offers a collection of Ai's notorious online writings translated into
English--the most complete, public documentation of the original Chinese
blog available in any language.
The New York Times called Ai "a figure of Warholian celebrity." He is a
leading figure on the international art scene, a regular in museums and
biennials, but in China he is a manifold and controversial presence:
artist, architect, curator, social critic, justice-seeker. He was a
consultant on the design of the famous "Bird's Nest" stadium but called
for an Olympic boycott; he received a Chinese Contemporary Art "lifetime
achievement award" in 2008 but was beaten by the police in connection
with his "citizen investigation" of earthquake casualties in 2009. Ai
Weiwei's Blog documents Ai's passion, his genius, his hubris, his
righteous anger, and his vision for China.
