...Summary of A Conversation with Ai Weiwei, an interview conducted by Zheng Shengtian Ai Weiwei, a respected contemporary artist from China is the interviewee in Zheng Shengtian’s article, A Conversation with Ai Weiwei. Conducted in the artists’ studio in Caochangdi, Beijing on July 19, 2013, Shengtian delves deeply into Weiwei’s life before and after his foray into the art world. It is through this interview that we get a sense of what the underlying inspirations were and what the current motivating factors are for Ai Weiwei as an artist and activist. A privileged childhood was far from the reality for Ai Weiwei. At an early age, Weiwei was already grasping what it meant to be wrongly accused and the consequences it had. Weiwei and his family were sent to live in a military camp in Xinjiang, China after his father; Ai Qing was condemned as a “rightist” in 1957 (Shengtian 6). When asked about his life in the military camp, Weiwei did not have a clear recollection and only saved a few traumatizing memories. He recalled the time when their military camp fired the first shot of China’s Cultural Revolution on January 26th. “I remember hearing lots of explosive noises. I saw my family boarding up the door. I heard running footsteps on our rooftop. Because the rooftop was made of tiles, which were not soundproof, I could hear the bullets whistling by” (Shengtian 8). Seeing dead bodies, including classmate, Ma Lu, is still very much a vivid memory for Ai Weiwei. Such scenes would distress...
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...2013 Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei is an internationally celebrated Chinese artist whose voice is heard loudly through his art. He believes in freedom of expression and despises the Chinese Government’s power. Ai’s contemporary style comes in many forms; Sculpture, architecture, installation, film and photography, are only some of his great talents; his art exposes the very real hardships of the Chinese people and how their culture has been muted over time. The government has become such a major influence and has gained so much power that at one point they convinced the people to destroy their cultural reminders in hopes that they will leave behind an insignificant past. Ai Weiwei was born the 18 of May 1957 to father Ai Qing and mother Gao Ying. Ai Qing was well known throughout China for his very forward poetry. Qing would later be considered a liberal who spoke out by joining a very left wing Artist Association and in doing so he was subsequently arrested in the early 1930’s, this decision cost he and his family to be sentenced to live in a labor camp. For the first eighteen years of Ai Weiwei’s life was spent in Xinjiang and later they would be removed to Gobi Desert (with even worse conditions) then back again to Xinjiang before being released in 1975. Life was very hard for the family during this long period of time. The year of 1975, brought with it great change for their entire Weiwei family, they were allowed to return home to Beijing and in the year of 1978, Ai Qing would...
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...is a means of communication, a means of expression, of any experience, or of any aspect of the human condition. And that is what artists do. With the use of symbols and techniques, artists express their thoughts and emotions about particular views on things. But sometimes, artists tend to go further down the more serious path of activism and politics. Ai Wei Wei and Pablo Picasso are two perfect examples of these artists. Ai Wei Wei is a Chinese contemporary artist and political activist who wasn’t afraid of speaking out against the Chinese government; while Picasso is a Spanish 20th century artist whose opinion very much opposed the Spanish nationalists’. Both outstanding artists and well-known figures of their art periods, they exploit with different materials and media to utilise their artworks as a message of protest, or a political comment to inspire their audiences. Ai Wei Wei is a Chinese contemporary artist born in 1957, in Beijing. He is a social, political and cultural critic and a political activist who strongly opposes the Chinese government. Majorly interested in the issue of cultural anxiety of changes in China, Ai Wei Wei uses sculptures, installations, architecture, and photography to express his disapproval of political views in China. One of the more famous of his works is an installation entitled Sunflower Seeds (2010) exhibited in Tate Modern. This artwork consists of approximately 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds, each painted individually by one of...
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...I. Introduction 1.1 Significance of the Study The comparison between China and India is a popular topic in social sciences. Since these two very similar countries gained independence around the same time, one democratic in 1947 and another communist in 1949, many world leaders and scholars have come to view the economic, social and political performance of the two Asian giants as the best testimony of which is the better approach to modernity for developing countries (Gilley 21). Current scholarly interest tends to focus more on evaluating the different development models that China and India embrace. It is easy to find works contrasting the two countries’ economic reforms, political systems, social progress and human development, yet direct comparison between China and India’s building of soft power is lacking. However, the understanding of how China and India build their soft power strength is essential as the two Asian giants, both of which have splendid cultures and a long history, are on the rise and eager to shine in the world stage. To address such inadequacy, this paper intends to present an assessment on China and India’s soft power building and find out who has the lead in the race. 1.2 Structure of the Study The paper is divided into several sections. It begins with a literature review that goes over studies on China and India’s soft power strength. Then, it proceeds to explain the key concept “soft power” using Nye’s classic theoretical framework. Concerning...
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