Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T04:50:24.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Citizen Ai: Warrior, Jester, and Middleman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2014

William A. Callahan
Get access

Abstract

Ai Weiwei is famous for crossing boundaries, especially the boundary between art and politics. To appreciate the often contradictory nature of Ai's work, this essay employs multiple narratives: “Ai the Heroic Warrior” who criticizes the Chinese government; “Ai the Court Jester” who plays with the Chinese state and Western media; and “Ai the Middleman” who acts as a broker between China and the West, between young and old people, and between civil society and the state in the PRC. The essay concludes that a fourth narrative can bring together these three stories in a multicoded understanding of Ai's work: “Ai the Citizen Intellectual” who sometimes works with the state, and at other times against it—but always for the good of China. By comparing Ai's work with that of other public intellectuals and placing it in the context of debates about civil society, the conclusion argues that “citizen intellectual” also tells us about a broader movement of activists and public intellectuals who are creating a new form of political space in postsocialist China.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 73 , Issue 4 , November 2014 , pp. 899 - 920
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Agence France-Presse. 2010. “Once-Banned Director's Film Showcased at Expo.” September 2.Google Scholar
Qing, Ai. 1982. Ai Qing: Shi Xuan / Selected Poems. Edited by Eoyang, Eugene Chen. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2005. “The Multiple Predicaments and Upturns of Chinese Contemporary Art.” In Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, eds. Fibicher, Bernard and Weiwei, Ai, 13–14. Berlin: Hatje Cantz.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2010. “Da zhaohu” [A heads-up]. Beijing: Ai Weiwei Studios. October. http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000000990334/a-heads-up.html (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2011a. Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interview, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. Edited and translated by Ambrozy, Lee. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2011b. Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads. New York: AW Asia.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2011c. “My Opinion on Mao Tongqiang's Work.” In I Have A Dream: Mao Tongqiang's Installation, Tongqiang, Mao and Boyi, Feng, 22–26. Beijing: China Art Archives and Warehouse.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2011d. New York 1983-1993. Berlin: Distanz Verlag.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2013a. “Every Day in China, We Put the State on Trial.” The Guardian. April 15.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai. 2013b. “NSA Surveillance: The US Is Behaving Like China.” The Guardian. June 11.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai with Merewether, Charles. 2003. “Changing Perspective.” In Ai Weiwei: Works: Beijing 1993-2003, ed. Merewether, Charles, 20–35. Hong Kong: Timezone 8.Google Scholar
Weiwei, Ai with Yap, Chin-Chin. 2003. “Conversations.” In Ai Weiwei: Works: Beijing 1993-2003, ed. Merewether, Charles, 46–57. Hong Kong: Timezone 8.Google Scholar
ArtReview. 2011. “The Power 100.” October. http://www.artreview100.com/power-100-lists-from-2002-through-2008/2011/ (accessed June 21, 2013).Google Scholar
Australian Centre on China in the World. n.d. The China Story. http://www.thechinastory.org/ (accessed July 17, 2014).Google Scholar
Barmé, Geremie R. 1989. “Arriere-pensee on an Avant Garde: The Stars in Retrospect.” In Stars 1989 exhibition catalogue, ed. Ching-shuen, Hui, 76–82. Hong Kong: Hanart 2 Gallery.Google Scholar
Barmé, Geremie R. 1999. In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Barmé, Geremie R. 2011. “A View on Ai Weiwei's Exit.” The China Beat blog. April 27, http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=3371 (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Ling, Bei. 2011. “Grin and Bare It.” South China Morning Post Magazine. August 28.Google Scholar
Brady, Anne-Marie. 2008. Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Braester, Yomi. 2005. “Chinese Cinema in the Age of Advertisement: The Filmmaker as a Cultural Broker.” China Quarterly 183:549–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callahan, William A. 2013. China Dreams: 20 Visions of the Future. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Callahan, William A., dir. 2014. China Dreams: The Debate. Video. New York: Asia Foundation. https://www.chinafile.com/library/books/China-Dreams (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
CCTV. 2002. Da Han tianzi [The prince of the Han dynasty]. Beijing: CCTV.Google Scholar
CCTV. 2010. Dongfang Shuo. Beijing: CCTV.Google Scholar
Koonchung, Chan [Guanzhong, Chen]. 2009. Shengshi: Zhongguo, 2013 nian [The golden era, China 2013]. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Koonchung, Chan [Guanzhong, Chen]. 2011. The Fat Years. Translated by Duke, Michael S.. London: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Cheah, Pheng. 2012. “Entering the World from an Oblique Angle: On Jia Zhangke as an Organic Intellectual.” In The Postcolonial Gramsci, eds. Bhattacharya, Baidik and Srivasta, Neelam, 137–64. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Weiqing, Chen and Weiwei, Ai, eds. 2007. Ai Weiwei: Fragments Beijing 2006. Hong Kong: Timezone 8.Google Scholar
Cheung, Esther M. K. 2010. “Realisms without Conundrum: The Personal and Authentic Appeal in Jia Zhangke's Accented Films.” China Perspectives 1:11–20.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joan Lebold. 1990. “The New Generation of Chinese Art.” Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Cotter, Holland. 2011. “An Artist Takes Role of China's Conscience.” New York Times. April 5. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/arts/design/ai-weiwei-takes-role-of-chinas-conscience.html (accessed July 22, 2014)Google Scholar
Davies, Gloria. 2007. Worrying about China: The Language of Chinese Critical Inquiry. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
FakeCase.com. n.d. The Fake Case. http://fakecase.com (accessed July 17, 2014).Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1991. “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, eds. Burchell, Graham, Gordon, Colin, and Miller, Peter, 87–104. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Global Times. 2011a. “Law Will not Concede before Maverick.” April 6.Google Scholar
Global Times. 2011b. “West's Support of Ai Weiwei Abnormal.” April 16.Google Scholar
Gold, Thomas, Guthrie, Doug, and Wank, David, eds. 2002. Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture and the Changing Nature of Guanxi. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Merle. 1967. Literary Dissent in Communist China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Merle. 2005. From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 2006. Time of Transitions. Edited and translated by Pensky, Max. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna. 1991. “Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, 149–81. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Havel, Vaclav. 1987. Living in Truth. New York: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Havel, Vaclav. 2012. “Foreword.” In No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems, eds. Link, Perry, Martin-Liao, Tianchi, and Xia, Liu, ix–vii. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hildebrandt, Timothy. 2013. Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Angang, Hu. 2013. “Renmin shehui weihe youyu gongmin shehui” [Why mass society is superior to civil society]. Renmin ribao. Overseas edition, July 19.Google Scholar
Angang, Hu and Yilong, Yan. 2010. Zhongguo: Zouxiang 2015 [China: Moving toward 2015]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Angang, Hu, Yilong, Yan, and Xing, Wei. 2011. 2030 Zhongguo: Maixiang gongtong fuse [2030 China: Toward common prosperity]. Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Tianxue, Hua, Weiwei, Ai, and Boyi, Feng, eds. 2000. Bu hezuo fangshi-Fuck Off [An uncooperative approach-Fuck Off]. Shanghai: Eastlink Gallery.Google Scholar
Baolian, Huang. 1989. “Buxiejiang Ai Weiwei” [Ai Weiwei the cobbler]. In Stars 1989, ed. Ching-shuen, Hui, 57–58. Hong Kong: Hanart 2 Gallery.Google Scholar
Ching-shuen, Hui, ed. 1989. Stars 1989. Hong Kong: Hanart 2 Gallery.Google Scholar
Human Rights Foundation. 2012. “Inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent Awarded.” May 2. http://humanrightsfoundation.org/news/inaugural-vaclav-havel-prize-for-creative-dissent-awarded-0068 (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Zhangke, Jia. 2009. Jia xiang: 1996-2008 [Jia thinks: 1996-2008]. Beijing: Peking University Press.Google Scholar
Kaiser, Walter. 1963. Praisers of Folly: Erasmus, Rabelais, Shakespeare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, John. 2011. “China: Only Talking about a Revolution.” Global Voices. December 26. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/12/26/china-only-talking-about-a-revolution/ (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Kraus, Richard Curt. 2004. The Party and the Arty in China: The New Politics of Culture. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Latham, Kevin. 2009. “Media, the Olympics and the Search for the ‘Real China.’” China Quarterly 197:25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, Liu. 2004. Globalization and Cultural Trends in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Mingfu, Liu. 2013. Zhongguo meng: Hou Meiguo shidai de daguo siwei zhanlue dingwei [The China dream: The great power thinking and strategic positioning of China in the post-American era]. 2nd ed.Beijing: Zhongguo youyi chuban gongsi.Google Scholar
Liu, Qing, and McCormick, Barrett. 2011. “The Media and the Public Sphere in Contemporary China.” boundary 2 38(1):101–34.Google Scholar
Xiaobo, Liu. 2012. No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems. Edited by Link, Perry, Martin-Liao, Tianchi, and Xia, Liu. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yiheng, Liu. 2011. “Ai Weiwei zhen mianmu: Wu wan yishujia—wu du ju quan” [The true face of Ai Weiwei: Five play artist—five poisons]. Wenhui Bao (Hong Kong). April 15.Google Scholar
Yin, Long. 1999. Zhisheng Dongfang Shuo [Dongfang Shuo the wise sage]. http://www.shuku.net/novels/history/zhshdfsh/zhshdfsh.html (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Mair, Victor H. 2007. The Art of War: Sunzi's Military Methods. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Barnaby. 2013. Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Mason, Wyatt. 2011. “The Danger Artist.” GQ. December.Google Scholar
New Statesman (London). 2012. October 19–25.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. [1887] 2001. The Gay Science. Edited by Williams, Bernard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Osnos, Evan. 2009a. “The Long Shot.” New Yorker. May 11, 88–95.Google Scholar
Osnos, Evan. 2009b. “Jia Zhangke and Rebiya Kadeer.” New Yorker blog. July 24. http://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-china/jia-zhangke-and-rebiya-kadeer (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Osnos, Evan. 2010. “It's Not Beautiful: An Artist Takes on the System.” New Yorker. May 24, 54–63.Google Scholar
Osnos, Evan. 2011. “Ai Weiwei: ‘We Want to Shame You.’” New Yorker blog. August 12. http://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-china/ai-weiwei-we-want-to-shame-you (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Otto, Beatrice K. 2001. Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wei, Pan. 2009. “Dangdai Zhonghua tizhi: Zhongguo moshi de jingji, zhengzhi, shehui jiexi” [Modern Chinese system: Analysis of the China model of economics, politics, and society]. In Zhongguo moshi jiedu renmin gongheguo de 60 nian [The China model: Reading 60 years of the People's Republic], ed. Wei, Pan, 3–85. Beijing: Zhongyang bianshi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Pieke, Frank. 2004. “Contours of an Anthropology of the Chinese State: Political Structure, Agency and Economic Development in Rural China.” Royal Anthropological Institute 10:517–38.Google Scholar
Pilling, David. 2010. “Lunch with the FT: Ai Weiwei.” Financial Times. April 23.Google Scholar
Shan, Shen. 2010. “Duihua Cui Weiping: Hawei'er jiule wo” [Interview with Cui Weiping: Havel saved me]. Economic Observer. April 12. http://www.douban.com/group/topic/10771768/ (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Qian, Sima. 1982. Shiji [Records of the historian]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju chuban.Google Scholar
Simon, Karla W. 2013. Civil Society in China: The Legal Framework from Ancient Times to the ‘New Reform Era’. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Veg, Sebastian. 2010. “Building a Public Consciousness: A Conversation with Jia Zhangke.” China Perspectives 81:58–64.Google Scholar
Waldron, Arthur. 2007. “Foreword.” In The Art of War: Sunzi's Military Methods, trans. Mair, Victor H., xi–lii. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 1999. Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
White, Hayden V. 1973. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Edward. 2013a. “Jia Zhangke on Violence, Censorship and His New Film ‘A Touch of Sin.’” New York Times Sinosphere Blog. October 18. http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-film-a-touch-of-sin (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Wong, Edward. 2013b. “Jia Zhangke on His New Film ‘A Touch of Sin’, Part 2.” New York Times Sinosphere Blog. October 21. http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/q-a-jia-zhangke-on-his-new-film-a-touch-of-sin-part-2/ (accessed July 21, 2014).Google Scholar
Jilin, Xu. 2011. Dangdai Zhongguo de qimeng yu fan-qimeng [Enlightenment and anti-enlightenment in contemporary China]. Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yurchak, Alexei. 2006. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Xiaojun, Zeng, Weiwei, Ai, and Bing, Xu. 1994. Heipi shu [Black cover book]. Beijing: Hongqi.Google Scholar
Xiaojun, Zeng and Weiwei, Ai. 1995. Baipi shu [White cover book]. Beijing: Hongqi.Google Scholar
Xiaojun, Zeng and Weiwei, Ai. 1997. Huipi shu [Gray cover book]. Beijing: Hongqi.Google Scholar