China is an old nation with a colourful history. Its booming economy has triggered an appetite and a curiosity around the world for its art and culture, one that continues to grow. I can, however, tell people that it is a show with no actor.
Ai Weiwei
Related It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes. E.M. FORSTER You want a political culture that works to create conditions under which an economy can thrive? Sinc... JOHN PODHORETZ Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell t... MARSHALL MCLUHAN A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a natio... JOHN F. KENNEDY China has become a major presence for most countries around the world but notably for its neighborin... NAOTO KAN Art at its most significant is a distant early warning system that can always be relied on to tell t... MARSHALL MCLUHAN A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia. DAVID MCCULLOUGH A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia. DAVID C. MCCULLOUGH We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philoso... JOHN F. KENNEDY We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philoso... ALEXANDER POPE As China's economy continues to grow, its outbound tourism will also continue to increase. China is ... JACQUES BURELLE For centuries, the Yangtze River - the longest in Asia - has played an important role in China's... REBECCA MACKINNON Tea culture has a long history in China and is an inseparable part of China's traditional culture. SONG SHAOXIANG I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER It is no accident that this country has been blessed with its abundance and its history as the frees... BURGESS OWENS Nevada once again has shown double digit increases in tax revenue... Nevada continues to show econom... KENNY GUINN Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the coun... AI WEIWEI I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can alwa... MARSHALL MCLUHAN Daring to dream is not difficult, it's making them come true that is hard... NANETTE L. AVERY The saddest death I think that happens in a persons life, is not the one that happens in old age, no... NOLAN BANKS America knows it has got to deal with its deficit problems so that it, too, can promise it is making... GORDON BROWN Envy is impotent, numbed with fear, never ceasing in its appetite, and it knows no gratification, bu... ANGUS WILSON What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow... OSCAR WILDE China's own recent history proves that when it opens itself, there is nothing its people cannot ... GARY LOCKE Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM Our culture has become something that is completely and utterly in love with its parent. It's become... MALCOLM MCLAREN China is an interesting factor, in that it has a massive economy of people, and is starting to build... GARY FRY For me as an actor, daring is to tell the truth - to be yourself, no matter how the world interacts ... TAYLOR SCHILLING I love to read history; at its best, it is an art. DAVID EBERSHOFF Google has withdrawn from China, arguing that it is no longer willing to design its search engine to... PETER SINGER As the U.S. trade deficit, and the portion of that deficit attributed to China, continue to grow, ou... JO ANN EMERSON History isn't like that. History unravels gently, like an old sweater. It has been patched and darne... TERRY PRATCHETT India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how mo... ANITA DESAI History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not... NELSON MANDELA “It is said that no-one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should ... NELSON MANDELA India has many customs and rituals that may seem bizarre to anyone not used to its distinctive cultu... HANADI FALKI I admire Ai Weiwei for his art and his activism. His art is beautiful in form, and in function embod... SHEPARD FAIREY The beauty of the Catholic church is that it has a sacramental structure that can hold its own with ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Compared to the size of its economy and the fact that it is the biggest broadband market -- with 30 ... JOE LIN I'm a thinker. That is what I do, in great depth and detail, every waking moment of the day. I like ... BRIAN HERBERT Unification of differences is power. SHESH NATH VERNWAL This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. 'Made-in-China' g... AI WEIWEI It there any nation that acknowledges its errors and its sins and its crimes and the things it has d... BILL BENNETT I think rap definitely has its place in the art world. I think it is an art form. But, just like any... RICK JAMES His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. I... OSCAR WILDE An amazing fact is that, 'the journey with God has no map!' Its a journey of Faith. KIMTO OCHE EMMANUEL In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of... EDWARD HOPPER Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows... WASSILY KANDINSKY I have no doubt that the government of this great nation will work with its people to lead New Orlea... HARRY CONNICK, JR. Life is a re-discovery. BRIAN BLESSED If you think that life is a celebration full of party poppers and merry go rounds it's not it's a ga... GARY F EVANS... Life Is a Misconception. DEYTH BANGER Life is a desire! DEYTH BANGER To trust someone you must firstly remember that it is a two way street that will go all the way if y... GARY F EVANS... A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline o... LEE KUAN YEW We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philoso... JOHN F. KENNEDY I love the arrival of a new season — each one bringing with it its own emotion: spring is full of ... GIOVANNA FLETCHER China is starting an English-speaking television network around the world, Russia is, Al Jazeera. An... HILLARY CLINTON I believe that life is a journey towards God, and that no one has the right to insist that you go a ... PAT BUCKLEY One must make allowances for a parental instinct that has been starving for twenty-five or thirty ye... MARK TWAIN A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death... MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death... MARTIN A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death... MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Ai Weiwei, who is both a widely admired conceptual artist and a fearless human-rights activist, has ... TERRY TEACHOUT It is a great help for a man to be in love with himself. For an actor, however, it is absolutely ess... ROBERT MORLEY America's largest trade deficit is with China, a nation that enjoys Permanent Normal Trade Relat... JO ANN EMERSON Bedlam: an institution with a history so fearsome it gave its name to a synonym for chaos and pandem... JON RONSON Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. No nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No stru... MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one h... G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG The basic idea was that if a country would put its economy as an integrated piece of the world syste... JEFFREY SACHS Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul w... JOSEPH ADDISON If China is helping its domestic industries charge an artificially low price for solar panels and ot... RON WYDEN They tell me, Lucy, thou art dead, that all of thee we loved and cherished has with thy summer roses... JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER We can tell that the gap between China and France is rather limited. However, we still need a way to... LI DESHUI China's history is marked by thousands of years of world-changing innovations: from the compass ... GARY LOCKE To me the purpose of art is to produce something alive...but with a separate, and of course one hope... HENRY GREEN This kind of painting with its large frames is a bourgeois drawing-room art. It is an art dealer'... EDVARD MUNCH The big disconnect in China is that despite how strong its economy has been, its stock market has la... ARIJIT DUTTA Obedience is bondage, if God wants to be adored he should make himself more loving. LAURA WHITCOMB If thinking is your fate, revere this fate with divine honour and sacrifice to it the best, the most... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Life is a divine blessing for those who live life to add values in the lives of others. SEEMA BRAIN OPENERS I think, ladies and gentlemen, and I particularly address those of you who have a socialist outlook,... ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN Life is an audition. THOMAS FLAJNIK - ANTICHIMERAPODAL Those at the top would do better with a smaller share of a booming economy that elicits a positive p... ROBERT REICH This is a landmark CAS decision and one that the IAAF welcomes as it continues to pursue its anti-do... LAMINE DIACK Today, the paparazzi are not just photographers: everyone has a cell phone with a camera. If they se... RANBIR KAPOOR In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break... ERNST FISCHER Mother Superior jump the gun... -The Beatles, Happiness is a Warm Gun LAUREN MYRACLE For me, my life is a journey. JAY ELECTRONICA I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art. VINCENT D'ONOFRIO I hope that America as a whole, and especially its architects, will become more seriously involved i... TADAO ANDO I can recall no parallel in history where a great nation recently at war has so distinguished its fo... DOUGLAS MACARTHUR Architects design buildings; that's what we do, so we have to go with the flow; and, even though... RICHARD ROGERS To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN PIG, n. An animal (_Porcus omnivorus_) closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity... AMBROSE BIERCE Israel is a wonderful place to be an artist - a place where imagination flourishes. Israeli culture ... RYAN KAVANAUGH
More Ai Weiwei
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AI WEIWEI China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In... AI WEIWEI We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian... AI WEIWEI Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise ... AI WEIWEI The Chinese art world does not exist. In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates h... AI WEIWEI The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of... AI WEIWEI Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics. AI WEIWEI The 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody th... AI WEIWEI Since the global economic crisis began, the change in global attitudes is clear to see - and I think... AI WEIWEI If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is sayin... 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