Ai Weiwei

This piece originally appeared in our Daily newsletter. Sign up to receive the best of The New Yorker every day in your in-box. Last month, when Elon Musk announced that he planned to buy Twitter, I thought of “South Park,” the rowdy animated comedy series about grade schoolers. One 2016…

It was supposed to be a symbol of China’s new openness. The National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, was the centerpiece of the Olympic venues built for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. The saddle-shaped structure got its nickname from the latticework of twisting steel that wraps around it,…

Ai Weiwei is one of China’s most famous artists, and many regard him as one of the world’s greatest living ones. Working with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, he helped design the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the centerpiece of Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympics. The stadium in northern Beijing,…

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Xi Jinping’s tenure has been marked by harsh crackdowns on human rights activism. January 6, 2022 “I refuse to accept the idea that the state’s authority can’t be opposed, challenged, or interrogated. In the face of power, I would always be at a disadvantage, I knew, but I was a…

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses for a portrait in front of his new work titled 'Pequi Tree', a 32-meter-high iron tree displayed at the park of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art as part of his exhibition "Intertwine" in Porto, Portugal, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura ZURICH, Nov 8…