Implications of Anti-Japan fury in China – Wallace & Kempton English Talk

Implications of Anti-Japan fury in China – Wallace & Kempton English Talk

News re Ai Weiwei and his followers’ mass nudity protest

* Nov 29, Guardian, “Chinese police question Ai Weiwei’s wife – Lu Qing released after three hours of questioning, according to the artist and activist“

* Nov 29, Telegraph, “Chinese police question Ai Weiwei’s wife – The wife of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident, was taken in for almost three hours of questioning by police in Beijing on Tuesday and warned her not to leave the city.“

* Nov 26, Guardian, “Ai Weiwei: ‘Every day I think, this will be the day I get taken in again…’The more he is harassed by his government, the more Ai Weiwei becomes a symbol of activism in China. But how much longer can he continue to speak out?“

* Nov 26, Taipei Times, “Ma defends Chinese artist Ai Weiwei“

“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday called for China to respect human rights and defended Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s (艾未未) right to freedom of expression as he attended an exhibition of Ai’s work at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.”

* Nov 25, Seattle PI “Taiwan leader calls for artistic freedom in China“

“The distance between Taiwan and China will be determined by their views on human rights protection,” Ma [Taiwan President] said. “When our views get closer, the two sides will move closer.”

* Nov 23, Media Bistro, “Ai Weiwei’s Assistant Investigated for Pornography, Internet Supporters Go Nude (or Nearly) in Show of Solidarity“

* Nov 22, MSNBC, “Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei answers reader questions“

Q: How did you react to the love shown by your supporters who raised money to help you with your legal issues with the government? Were you at all surprise, and how did those who oppose you respond to this kind of support?

Ai Weiwei: I was deeply impressed, firstly surprised by the reaction of the people who openly support me, who was accused by the state with tax fault. This never happened in a nation like china where the authority is the law. And people really can express their feeling against the accusations. With my unique condition, because I have been working with internet for the past few years, and created a space where the oldest power structure seems much less powerful. So people used the money as a voting ticket to express their feelings against authorities, which was trying to manipulate judicial system, and to punish someone who have different opinions, or even a simple expression which reflects certain kind of freedom. In less than 10 days with restriction that my name can not even be recognized on Chinese internet, we got support over 9 million yuan(about 1.4 million dollars), and that not only came as a surprise to me, but a surprise o the whole society and the authorities as well. That would become a symbolic event which really announced a kind of people’s power from Internet.

[...]

Q: I didn’t think you were allowed to talk to the press after being released from prison, what’s changed?

Ai Weiwei: I’m not talking to press. I’m talking to people.

[...]

Q: Do you believe that you can beat the tax evasion charges?

Ai Weiwei: In current conditions I don’t think we can change the outcome of tax evasion investigation because we don’t have independent judicial system. We don’t even have independent tax department. Chinese media, tax bureau, and the court, they are all under one party’s control. There’s no miracle about it. But at the same time, we already won the trial outside the trial. People openly discuss it and support me. It’s already a victory. It will also be a reminder to the powers that they should never use justice as a means for revenge, otherwise that would really hurt themselves, and put the nation in a shadow when there’s no trust in justice.

* Nov 22, MSNBC, “The story behind the chat with Ai Weiwei“

* Nov 22, WaPo, “Ai Weiwei rallies his followers in protests“

* Nov 21, 2011 Guardian, “Ai Weiwei supporters strip off as artist faces ‘porn’ investigation“

* Nov 21, Telegraph, “Ai Weiwei’s followers’ mass nudity protest” (uncensored nude photo)

* Nov 21, HuffPost, “Ai Weiwei Supporters Tweet Naked Photos“

*******

WARNING THIS SITE CONTAINS FULL FRONTAL NUDE IMAGES:

“艾未粉果 Ai Wei Fans’ Nudity – Listen Chinese Government: Nudity is NOT Pornography“

I like this one “@yanglicai: 同光同罪”. In rough English translation, “if nudity is breaking the law, I am breaking the same law, sentence me the same way”)

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei held incommunicado for 43 days, allowed to see wife for 20 minutes – Ai in ‘good physical health but mentally conflicted’

The following are some news of Chinees artist Ai Weiwei after he was held incommunicado for 43 days where his family and lawyer have no idea of his whereabout.

To give you some context about “criminal justice in China”, I took time to first post the entries “Criminal Justice In China: An Empirical Inquiry” (an entry about a research study 16 years in the making) and a BBC Chinese report & more “獨立調查：中國沒有司法公正” (machine translated to “Independent Study: There is no justice in China”).

* AP, “Wife of detained Chinese artist finds him tense“

“Red-eyed and tense, the usually uninhibited and irreverent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei seemed a different man in custody as he sat for what his wife says was a brief, monitored meeting — his first contact with the outside world in 43 days.

Authorities have still not detailed why the avant-garde artist and government critic was detained April 3 and held incommunicado, in a case that has prompted an outcry in the art world and among U.S. and EU officials, who have called it a sign of China’s deteriorating human rights.

The burly, bearded 53-year-old appeared conflicted and his eyes were puffy when his wife Lu Qing was allowed to visit him Sunday, though he seemed healthy, Lu told The Associated Press.

“He has changed. His mood and demeanor are so different from the simple and spontaneous Ai Weiwei I know,” Lu said Monday. “It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me.”

Lu said she sat face to face with her husband during the meeting in a room at an unknown location and that they were watched by someone “who seemed to be in charge of Ai,” and another who took notes. Ai repeatedly assured her he was physically OK: “My health is good. I am fine, don’t worry.”"

* UK Telegraph, “Ai Weiwei limbo shines a light into the shadows of China’s police state“

* UK Telegraph, ”Ai Weiwei allowed to see family – The controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been granted his first family visit 43 days, appearing stressed but otherwise in good health, his wife has said.“

* UK Guardian, “Ai Weiwei in ‘good physical health but mentally conflicted’“

* For those that are not too familiar of Ai’s work, BBC has a good video “Celebrating the artwork of Ai Weiwei“

1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei

Toronto Star report, “1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei, Toronto version” (Facebook photos)

Torontoist, “Scene: Where is Ai Weiwei?“

Protest pictures, details and comments posted onto the worldwide 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei Facebook group. Pix from New York City here, here, here. Pix from Munich here.

NPR, “Art And Consequence: A Talk With China’s Controversial Ai Weiwei“

This Sunday, at Chinese embassies all over the world, protesters are planning a global sit-in to protest the detention of the internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Ai was taken into custody by Chinese authorities nearly two weeks ago for what government officials now say are questions about his finances.

The protesters will be bringing chairs to sit on. They aren’t worried about getting tired. The design of the protest is a homage to a piece by Ai that was exhibited in 2007 at Documenta 12, a major arts festival in Kassel, Germany.

Ai Weiwei still detained, whereabout unknown

* Guardian, “Ai Weiwei arrest protests at Chinese embassies worldwide – Inspired by artist’s installation with 1001 Qing dynasty seats, curator suggests taking chairs into street in silent protest“

“Demonstrators all over the world were sitting outside Chinese embassies on Sunday demanding the release of the detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Hundreds of protestors brought chairs onto the street tocall for the immediate release of Ai, and in support of the rights of all Chinese artists.

In Hong Kong there were scuffles as 150 protestors came up against lines of police, with reports of at least one detention. In Berlin, about 200 people took part in a largely silent protest. There was also a gathering outside the Chinese embassy in London.”

* Al Jazeera, ”Protest in Hong Kong over Ai Weiwei detention“

* CBC News, “Ai Weiwei: latest casualty of China’s crackdown on dissent – Q&A with Alison Klayman, a Beijing-based filmmaker who made a film about the Chinese artist“

You have spent a lot of time with Ai Weiwei over the last couple of years, during which time he has been increasingly publicly critical of the Chinese regime. Could you describe the issues about which he has been most vocal?

Ai’s denunciation of the Olympic Games and the Olympic stadium as the “false smile” of an authoritarian regime shed light on Weiwei’s activism in China, but the issue that he was most vocal about — and where he inserted himself into the Chinese conscience — was his citizen’s investigation into the deaths of more than 5,000 schoolchildren in poorly constructed schools during the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan. Over his Twitter feed, Ai solicited over 70 volunteers to independently record the names, ages, classrooms and villages of the dead.

Meet Wen Tao, Missing Along with Ai Weiwei on April 3, 2011

Documentary filmmaker Alison Klayman has an insightful piece in Huffington Post, “Meet Wen Tao, Missing Along with Ai Weiwei“. Here is her video putting a face to Wen Tao.

China’s human rights crackdown – interactive guide to “soft detention”, “disappeared” and “missing”

China’s human rights crackdown – interactive guide, UK Guardian

“Chinese authorities have made their biggest move against dissidents and activists for years, including artist Ai Weiwei. The crackdown followed an anonymous online call for protests inspired by Middle Eastern uprisings, although it is unclear if any of those held or missing were connected to the appeal. Information is from human rights groups and inquiries by the Guardian”

HK launches world’s first yuan IPO outside China

From BBC News “HK launches world’s first yuan IPO outside China“,

“The world’s first Chinese-currency shares to trade on a stock exchange outside mainland China will be listed in Hong Kong on April 29.

Hui Xian, a real estate investment trust, is selling yuan-denominated shares to investors in an initial public offering (IPO) at the end of the month.

The offer comes at a time when demand for investment products in the Chinese currency has been growing.

Hui Xian is controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.”

From Apple Daily,

“下周一登場　計及升值息率逾 7厘 匯賢招股不宜短炒” – 2011年04月09日

【本報訊】本港首隻人民幣計價房地產信託基金匯賢房託，市場消息指，每份基金單位定於 5.24至 5.58元（人民幣．下同），計劃發售 20億個基金單位，息率介乎 4至 4.3厘，最多集資約 111.6億元（約 132.67億港元）。證券界人士認為，博短炒獲利的投資者「買唔過」。　記者：陳健文
從長實（ 001）分拆出來的匯賢房託，市場消息指，按每手 1000份單位計算，不計手續費的每手入場費約 5580元（約 6633.39港元）。彭博資訊引述消息人士指，匯賢房託今次將發售 40%權益，上市後市值達 280億元。中銀國際、滙豐及中信證券為保薦人。

Release Ai Weiwe 艾未未i ! Where is Ai Weiwei?

The lawless Chinese government has detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei but his family, friends, and supporters have no idea of his whereabout.

More news from: The Independent, Newsweek “A Provocateur Finds Out Just How Far He Can Go“.

Who is Afraid of Ai Weiwei? Lessons for Canadians #elxn41

April 3, 2011: Ai Weiwei detained by Chinese gov.

Guardian, “The 53-year-old [Ai Weiwei] remains uncontactable more than 12 hours after officials held him at the capital’s airport. [...] His detention comes amid what human rights campaigners have described as the harshest crackdown on activists and dissidents in over a decade.“

The Telegraph, “Ai Weiwei stopped from leaving China“

The New Yorker by Evan Osnos, “Ai Weiwei Detained” – Highly recommended article.

Have a watch of the full PBS Frontline documentary: “Who is Afraid of Ai Weiwei?“

“All of a sudden, these people who’b been standing on the sidewalk, milling around doing things, turned out to be people who had come to have dinner with him [Ai Weiwei]. And everybody there knew that, by simply eating dinner there, it was an act of defiance.”

P.S. When I saw Ai Weiwei willing to risk his life in ”Who is Afraid of Ai Weiwei?” in order to fight for a better China, I am ashamed of the low voters’ turnout in Canada. It pains me to see my fellow Canadians, young Canadians, adult Canadians, born with the rights to vote easily giving up their rights/privilege to vote and ignoring their duty to vote in elections.

BBC reporter in China set upon by thugs – Beijing mobilized 739,000 police officers, officials, security guards

Bearing witness and for the record: BBC reporter in China set upon by thugs (with video). [HT @markmackinnon]

Reuters, “China state media warn against protest calls in capital“.

“Beijing has mobilized 739,000 police officers, officials, security guards and residents recruited into local patrols to guard against mishaps during the parliament, reported the official China News Service.

Police have rounded up dozens of dissidents since online messages from abroad urged pro-democracy gatherings inspired by the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia. Internet censorship also means that few Chinese residents are aware of the protest calls.”

President Obama and President Hu Press Conference – 2011, Jan 19

President Obama and President Hu Press Conference - Good to see the full press conference posted online.

The Q&A starts at about 16:54
(note: This YouTube clip has a very useful interactive transcript function where you can use to jump to various time codes. Highly recommended.)

17:00 Reporter asked President Obama and President Hu about human rights.
25:06 Question Chinese reporter from China Central Television.
39:34 Bloomberg reporter asked President Hu about human rights which wasn’t answered by President Hu because of “translation problems”.

Jan 25, 2011 Update: I have some harsh words in this entry, “Embarrassed conference interpreters at President Obama and President Hu Press Conference“. See the comments section for other people’s different views.

China’s Annual New Year Migration – CBC radio program “The Current” (中國農曆新年大遷徙)

From CBC radio program “The Current” about China’s Annual Migration. Highly recommended. The following are program info from CBC. See here, here, here, and my interview with Lixin for more info about Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” (some have video clips).

Last Train Home will be released on DVD on February 22nd, 2011.

“China’s Annual Migration
We are two weeks away from the Chinese New Year and the largest annual human migration on the planet. Nearly 150 million Chinese have migrated to cities in search of work. And the trip home for the holidays isn’t going to be easy.

PART THREE

China’s Annual Migration – Lixin Fan

We started this segment with the sound of the world’s largest annual human migration. It happens around Chinese New Year. Tens of millions of people who migrated to China’s cities in search of work leave those cities and go back home to their families in the countryside. There are at least 150 million rural migrant workers in China. And as you can hear, a lot of them pass through the Guangzhou train station in southern China.

In two weeks, that annual migration will begin again. Amidst the sea of humanity, it’s easy for individual stories to get lost. Lixin Fan is a Chinese-Canadian documentary film-maker who follows one family caught up in the move from the countryside to the city and back again in Last Train Home. The film has just been nominated for the Directors Guild of America prize. Lixin Fan was in New York City.

Last Train Home will be released on DVD on February 22nd.

While many Chinese migrate from the countryside to the cities, many others stay behind. We hear the story of one woman who lives in a small village called Hazelnut Valley or Da Jen Yu. It’s about an hour from of Beijing. She’s 58. All of her children have left home. Her son lives in Beijing and makes a living as a driver working for foreigners.”

Interview with Nobel Economist Ronald Coase on his 100th birthday

Check out this extensive interview with Professor Ronald Coase conducted by Wang Ning on December 28 and 29, 2010 at Chicago. [Source: University of Chicago Law School] The following are excerpts that I found particularly insightful to me from the interview (with emphasis added). Read the full interview yourself. Highly recommended.

WN (Wang Ning): First of all, happy birthday, professor Coase. As you know, Chinese economists are now holding a Conference in Beijing, “Coase and China”, to celebrate your 100th birthday. To my knowledge, no other western economist, probably with the exception of Karl Marx, has ever been so honored in China. The reason is twofold. It first has to do with the powerful influence of your ideas. Second, you clearly have a special feeling toward China. In Chinese culture, reciprocity is a high virtue. The first question many Chinese people have in mind is, what got you interested in China?

RC (Ronald Coase): I don’t know why I am interested in China. I have been interested for a long time, too long for me to remember. I read Marco Polo many years ago, probably as a schoolboy. It was an impressive book. I don’t think anyone can read the book without being impressed by the Chinese civilization. It went back many centuries. It made great achievements long before the rise of the West. That impression stayed with me forever.

[...]

RC: That wouldn’t happen. I was able to do my work at Chicago just as freely as I was at Buffalo.

WN: I think you were right. Given Steve‘s character, I don’t think anyone could stop him from developing his own thought.

RC: I am glad that I later strongly urged Steve to go to Hong Kong. I did not know how much good it would do. But given Steve’s influence in China, I think it was a good move.

China’s Confucius Peace Prize

If it wasn’t that sad and painful, China’s Confucius Peace Prize can be a good joke. Here is a video report of China’s Confucius Peace Prize by CBC.

Nobel crackdown in China

Nobel crackdown in China. An insightful piece for the record.

Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports [note: links added]

“For the first time since 1936, the Nobel Peace Prize won’t be handed over to the winner himself, Liu Xiaobo, or a member of his family.

That year, it was pacifist Carl von Ossietzky living in Nazi Germany who couldn’t attend.

In 2010, Communist China is the obstacle.

An uncomfortable comparison.

Ever since the Nobel announcement, China has responded angrily.

Putting not only Liu Xiaobo’s wife under house arrest, but human rights activists everywhere.

Even limited discussions in the country about political liberalization have been censored since the Nobel announcement.“

The case of Liu Xiaobo – Reflections on China and the Nobel Peace Prize

From CBC News “Q&A – The case of Liu Xiaobo – Reflections on China and the Nobel Peace Prize“

Dai Qing, “We are trying to avoid a new rebellion and revolution. We hope for evolution. There has been so much suffering over the past 60 years. There are models for us, like Desmond Tutu. He says: show truth and show justice. Then people can work together.

This is the way to change China from a dictatorship to a new political system.”

From Guardian, “Chinese dissident: A Nobel for the right man – Liu Xiaobo has earned this title and is paying a personal price for doing so“

“The list of 18 countries which will have declined invitations “for various reasons” to the ceremony in which the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo will be awarded this year’s Nobel peace prize tells its own story. There is only one reason – fear of displeasing a rising economic power. The foreign ministry spokeswoman of China, the 19th country to refuse, called the supporters of this year’s prize clowns perpetrating a farce.

The opposite is true. China is taking the snub implied by a man they have branded a criminal being honoured, entirely in earnest. Why else would they hurriedly concoct their own “Confucius peace prize”, a day ahead of the ceremony in Oslo? Why would they attack the choice of Liu as an attack on their sovereignty and an example of western ideological warfare? Encouragingly, India is not bending at the knees and will attend.”

Incidentally, what Chinese government has decided to do to “counter” Mr. Liu’s Nobel Prize has become practically farcical, see Huffington Post,  ”A Loyalist and a Tiananmen General Win China’s Peace and Harmony Awards“. Very sad.

Ai Weiwei, 100 million sunflower seeds, house arrest

Ai Weiwei

I first learned about Ai Weiwei when I saw him worked on the Bird’s Nest project.

Sunflower Seeds – 100 million sunflower seeds

And I am totally amazed by Ai Weiwei’s 100 million Sunflower Seeds at Tate and would love to see it. (Flickr photos here, here, here, here, and the warning) Here is an excerpt from Guardian (emphasis added),

It turns out that each seed is in fact a unique porcelain replica, hand-painted in Jingdezhen and fired at 1,300 degrees. Some 1,600 artisans worked for two years to make 100 million husks with a combined weight of 150 tonnes: a mass project, its collective spirit now abroad in London. The imagination runs fast from millions of tiny painted sculptures to thoughts of dismally repetitive labour.

Ai Weiwei chose sunflower seeds because they were a source of food and comfort during the famines under Mao; Jingdezhen was the porcelain capital of Imperial China; 100 million is five times the population of Beijing. Individual and mass, mass production and craftsmanship, eastern food, western consumption: associations inevitably form, but they are not – for me, at least – occasioned by the work itself.

There is the art; there are the facts; they converge in the artist’s eloquent statements, available in many different forms on the web (tate.org.uk/go/aww). But no matter how crucial the political context, I am glad I experienced the poetry of Sunflower Seeds first, with all its subtle nuances, before the wall-texts with their crushing insistence on statistics. Art – particularly this art, so open to all interpretations – cannot be read like data.

Ai Weiwei: Sunflower seeds – Created by Tate (highly recommended)

Check out the many videos of vistors’ questions and videos answered by Ai Weiwei.

I love these questions:

- Do you think one individual has enough power to change and make revolution?

- Will work like Sunflower Seeds be exhibited in your life time?

And questions here, here, here, here, and here. Addressing the prohibition of walking on the seeds. We might even be able to buy some seeds (don’t know how yet).

Ai Weiwei House Arrest

- Chinese artist Ai Weiwei under house arrest – Activist barred from attending razing of his new Shanghai studio, CBC News

- Supporters party for artist Ai Weiwei – Hundreds gather at Shanghai studio before demolition, CBC News

- Ai Weiwei supporters gather for party at condemned studio – China artist Ai Weiwei refuses to cancel party despite being under house arrest 650 miles away in Beijing

Dec 7, 2010 Update: The following is a BBC Chinese news report posted Oct 14, 2010

Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds – Tate documentary

I love the Tate documentary of Ai Weiwei: Sunflower seeds. Good art and good documentary make you think, make you question, and make you want to understand more.

I am a sentimental man at times and I got a bit emotional watching the Tate documentary, thinking about the plight of people living/working in Jingdezhen (景德鎮), Chinese people in general, and the Chinese political and economics systems.

See “Ai Weiwei, 100 million sunflower seeds, house arrest” for more.

More stills from documentary.

Made in China – World’s fastest supercomputer

China has used Intel and Nvidia technologies to build the world’s fastest supercomputer Tianhe-1A, at the National University of Defence Technology in Tianjin.

- Defense university builds China’s fastest supercomputer, Xinhuanet

“The title has gone to China’s Tianhe-1A supercomputer that is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second.

To reach such high speeds the machine draws on more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips.

[...] Tianhe-1A is unusual in that it unites thousands of Intel processors with thousands of graphics cards made by Nvidia.

The chips inside graphics cards are typically made up of small arithmetical units that can carry out simple sums very quickly. By contrast, Intel chips are typically used to carry out more complicated mathematical operations.

The machine houses its processors in more than 100 fridge-sized cabinets and together these weigh more than 155 tonnes.”

- China claims supercomputer crown, BBC News

- China builds world’s fastest supercomputer, UK Telegraph

- Is China a supercomputer threat? (Q&A), CNet