Ai Weiwei: Truth to Power
Artist Ai Weiwei (the self-proclaimed “most interviewed person in China”) has been interviewed by Index on Censorship. The full report is available as a PDF file here. Excerpts have been reposted on the Hui Ren Bu Juan blog in Chinese and English:
Simon Kirby: Your criticisms of the Olympic Games are not reported in the official media, but your blog remains online. What is the purpose of your blog?
Ai Weiwei: I do my blog because this is the only possible channel through which a person can express a personal opinion in China. No newspaper, magazine or television channel would ever present your argument or ideas. I am the most interviewed person in China, even domestically, and yet even if I say something it cannot be published here: so I am talking to myself – it is ridiculous. So I felt that a blog might be a good way to create one forum in which to open one’s mind. Yet every time I sit to write I still hesitate: should I do it? What will the consequences be?
POSTED COMMENTS: One Response
A few years ago Wei Hui (the author of Shanghai Baby) claimed to be THE most popular and influential writer in China (when corresponding with a German publisher). Come to think of it, Wei Hui and Weiwei are quite similar.