TOPIC

/ people

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, Chinese artist and son of late poet Ai Qing, helped with the design of the "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is also involved with Human rights, and concerned with political corruption of mainland China.

Born

28 Aug 1957

Industry

Politics, Arts

Job Title

Artist, Activist

The M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Photo: Winson Wong

Hong Kong economy

Herzog & de Meuron makes second donation to Hong Kong’s M+ museum

Global architecture firm donates more than 200 archival items to art museum, which it designed, with exhibition slated for early September.

23 Jul 2026 - 7:21PM

Art

Inside Ai Weiwei’s gigantic UK art show, including China detention recreation

16 Jul 2026 - 7:15AM

Mainland China

As I see it | Outside its few red lines, China is the ultimate win-win country

11 Feb 2026 - 9:30AM

Italy

‘Violent, reckless, senseless’: sculpture by China’s Ai Weiwei smashed in Italy

The museum will replace the work “Porcelain Cube” with a print and label explaining the incident.

25 Sep 2024 - 12:01AM

The artwork Porcelain Cube by artist Ai Weiwei was destroyed by a Czech man in Bologna, Italy, on September 20. Photo: OperaLaboratori/AP

Luxury Hotels

The St Regis Venice puts a fresh, modern spin on the city’s palazzo hotels

In 5 restored palazzi on the Grand Canal – just a stone’s throw from St Mark’s Square – the hotel offers design-forward suites, high profile art, local cuisine and art-inspired cocktails

5 Sep 2024 - 12:00PM

Art

Review | ‘Art for art’s sake’ in M+ museum show? No, this Chinese art is political

Hong Kong museum’s second display of Chinese art from the Sigg Collection cannot be divorced from the context of its creation in the 1990s, a transformative decade in China.

24 Sep 2023 - 4:55PM

Art

Ai Weiwei, in Venice, warns against hubris in ‘troublesome times’

The sculpture’s title is intended as a warning to the world: ‘Memento Mori’ – Latin for Remember You Must Die. ‘We are talking about immigrants, about deaths, about the war … said the Chinese dissident and artist.

4 Sep 2022 - 12:13AMvideocam

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses in front of his glass sculpture La Commedia Umana at the San Giorgio deconsecrated church in Venice, Italy on Friday. Photo: AP

Art

China dissident Ai Weiwei makes operatic debut with ‘Turandot’ in Rome

Production of dark Puccini opera includes bloodshed, despotism, new geopolitical focus, with Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv conducting.

23 Mar 2022 - 3:04AM

Indonesia

Obituary | The legacy of Chinese-Indonesian art collector ‘Budi’ Tek

Budiardjo ‘Budi’ Tek, who died on March 18 aged 65, made his fortune in the poultry business, but he is best known for his Chinese art collection and for opening Shanghai’s Yuz Museum.

22 Mar 2022 - 11:01AM

Art

Recipes by Ai Weiwei and other artists keep museum going during Covid-19

When the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo closed during the pandemic, a digital programme was created to connect artists with viewers – they contributed recipes for a cookbook.

15 Nov 2021 - 5:15AM

Ai Weiwei’s contribution from Portugal to the Mori Art Museum cookbook - a photograph of ingredients - was more a concept than a recipe, but his fellow artists were more concrete with theirs.

Italy

Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao’s exhibit opens in Italy

Badiucao said he was “proud and happy” that the exhibit in Brescia was finally open to the public – despite pressure from the Chinese embassy to cancel it.

13 Nov 2021 - 11:27PM

Badiucao looks at a catalogue next to his artwork entitled ‘Carrie Lam, 2018’ at the opening of his exhibition in Brescia, Italy. Photo: AFP

M+ museum of visual culture

11,000 turnout for Hong Kong’s M+ museum opening, weekend visitors cut

Some have been waiting years for the opening, while others are drawn in by a recent controversy over a work by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

12 Nov 2021 - 11:12PM

M+ museum of visual culture

10 highlights of the opening shows at M+ museum in Hong Kong

Ai Weiwei’s whitewashed Neolithic pots that ask a question about history, Antony Gormley’s field of clay figures among the pick of exhibits in M+ museum shows.

12 Nov 2021 - 9:15AM

M+ museum of visual culture

Video | ‘Art is not above the law’, says M+ arts hub official

12 Nov 2021 - 8:43AM

‘Art is not above the law’, says official at opening of Hong Kong's new M+ arts hub and museum

00:57

M+ museum of visual culture

Hong Kong’s M+ will display works by Ai Weiwei, but also ‘comply with law’

Arts hub authority chairman Henry Tang reveals some of Ai’s works will be featured in opening exhibitions, but a photo of his that sparked controversy will not be among them.

12 Nov 2021 - 1:11PMvideocam

Visitors attend a media preview of the opening exhibitions at the M+ museum on Thursday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Art

Hong Kong’s long-awaited M+ museum announces early bird ticket details

Tickets for the museum of visual culture in West Kowloon will be available for booking from November 5, while free entry has been extended to include non-Hong Kong residents.

10 Nov 2021 - 8:59PM

Art

Review | Trousers as a symbol of Western imperialism’s spread, and other whimsies

A collection of essays by British cultural historian David Elliott about contemporary Asian art is as eclectic as it is erudite. Full of historical titbits, it is more a work to dip into than to consume at one sitting.

3 Oct 2021 - 4:45PM

Art

Hong Kong’s long-delayed M+ museum finally gets an opening date

Arguably the most important museum ever to be built in Hong Kong, M+ is also a litmus test for artistic and curatorial freedom under the National Security Law.

8 Sep 2021 - 8:28PM

M+, the new museum of visual culture in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, was originally slated to open in 2017. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Switzerland

Ai Weiwei says Credit Suisse closing account over ‘criminal record’ in China

The dissident artist says he was told to move funds out of his foundation’s bank account in Switzerland despite never being convicted of a crime.

8 Sep 2021 - 9:44PM

China’s soft power

Letters | China’s soft power goals hardly served by brash media drives

Interpersonal relationships might be one of the most effective mechanisms for shaping China’s image. Even if those relationships are made through Chinese individuals critical of their own government, China might benefit in the long term.

11 Jul 2021 - 11:07AMvideocam

Art

Review | Good art, but not enough by women, in UCCA Edge’s debut show

The inaugural exhibition at Beijing contemporary art centre’s Shanghai branch pays homage to an explosive era for art in China at the turn of the millennium.

4 Jun 2021 - 3:31PM

Huang Yong Ping’s work Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank features in the inaugural UCCA Edge exhibition in Shanghai. Photo: UCCA Centre

Art

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei picks Portugal for new show, new home

The biggest exhibition of his career, Rapture, opens in Lisbon on Friday; Ai says he has no plans to return to Germany or England, where he has also lived since leaving China.

4 Jun 2021 - 8:06PM

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses at his exhibition “Rapture” at the Cordoaria Nacional exhibition centre in Lisbon on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Art

Beijing art centre UCCA ready to feed Shanghai’s appetite for culture

Shanghai is mainland China’s biggest art hub, and the new branch of the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art, UCCA Edge, will celebrate the evolution of the city’s role.

21 May 2021 - 1:04PM

Hong Kong national security law

Head of arts hub insists embattled museum never planned to show controversial photo

The photo, depicting the dissident artist’s middle finger raised against the backdrop of Beijing’s Gate of Heavenly Peace, has been at the centre of a torrent of criticism aimed at the museum by the pro-establishment camp.

29 Mar 2021 - 7:56PM

West Kowloon Cultural District

‘No problem’ showing Ai Weiwei’s art in Hong Kong’s M+ museum

As the city’s newest museum, the centrepiece of the nascent West Kowloon Cultural District, is unveiled, its director offers an assurance about its artistic freedom in the wake of national security law’s introduction.

12 Mar 2021 - 7:48PM

The interior of the M+ museum of visual culture, unveiled on Friday. Photo:K.Y Cheng

China society

Woman’s public art protests in China over husband’s jailing

Giant inflatable balls emblazoned with words declaring her husband’s innocence released, live streams of volunteers ‘jailed’ for 24 hours in a cage in her flat – Tang Jie uses art to seek freedom for her husband, jailed on charges she says are false.

24 Sep 2020 - 5:52PMvideocam

A screen shot from a video showing five giant inflatable balls rolling across a suspension bridge in Fuyang, eastern China, as part of an art project initiated by Tang Jie, who is fighting her husband's conviction and imprisonment for being a triad leader. Photo: The Starving Artist Project

Art

Ai Weiwei on living in exile, activism and a secret Wuhan film

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gives his thoughts on the importance of activism, his artistic response to Covid-19 and latest film projects as a new documentary about his life, Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, is released this month.

28 Jul 2020 - 7:15PM

Fashion

Ai Weiwei puts his art on 10,000 face masks to sell for charity

Dissident Chinese artist living in exile in the UK teams up with Guggenheim Museum curator on face masks printed with his art, to sell in support of global humanitarian organisations.

29 May 2020 - 12:11PM

Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.

SUPPORT NOW

Ai Weiwei

Herzog & de Meuron makes second donation to Hong Kong’s M+ museum

Global architecture firm donates more than 200 archival items to art museum, which it designed, with exhibition slated for early September.

Inside Ai Weiwei’s gigantic UK art show, including China detention recreation

.css-1pcrwvc{color:#2aa191;}As I see it | Outside its few red lines, China is the ultimate win-win country

‘Violent, reckless, senseless’: sculpture by China’s Ai Weiwei smashed in Italy

The museum will replace the work “Porcelain Cube” with a print and label explaining the incident.

The St Regis Venice puts a fresh, modern spin on the city’s palazzo hotels

In 5 restored palazzi on the Grand Canal – just a stone’s throw from St Mark’s Square – the hotel offers design-forward suites, high profile art, local cuisine and art-inspired cocktails

.css-1f6sr3w{color:#727272;}Review | ‘Art for art’s sake’ in M+ museum show? No, this Chinese art is political

Hong Kong museum’s second display of Chinese art from the Sigg Collection cannot be divorced from the context of its creation in the 1990s, a transformative decade in China.

Ai Weiwei, in Venice, warns against hubris in ‘troublesome times’

The sculpture’s title is intended as a warning to the world: ‘Memento Mori’ – Latin for Remember You Must Die. ‘We are talking about immigrants, about deaths, about the war … said the Chinese dissident and artist.

China dissident Ai Weiwei makes operatic debut with ‘Turandot’ in Rome

Production of dark Puccini opera includes bloodshed, despotism, new geopolitical focus, with Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv conducting.

Obituary | The legacy of Chinese-Indonesian art collector ‘Budi’ Tek

Budiardjo ‘Budi’ Tek, who died on March 18 aged 65, made his fortune in the poultry business, but he is best known for his Chinese art collection and for opening Shanghai’s Yuz Museum.

Recipes by Ai Weiwei and other artists keep museum going during Covid-19

When the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo closed during the pandemic, a digital programme was created to connect artists with viewers – they contributed recipes for a cookbook.

Dissident Chinese artist Badiucao’s exhibit opens in Italy

Badiucao said he was “proud and happy” that the exhibit in Brescia was finally open to the public – despite pressure from the Chinese embassy to cancel it.

11,000 turnout for Hong Kong’s M+ museum opening, weekend visitors cut

Some have been waiting years for the opening, while others are drawn in by a recent controversy over a work by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

10 highlights of the opening shows at M+ museum in Hong Kong

Ai Weiwei’s whitewashed Neolithic pots that ask a question about history, Antony Gormley’s field of clay figures among the pick of exhibits in M+ museum shows.

Video | ‘Art is not above the law’, says M+ arts hub official

Hong Kong’s M+ will display works by Ai Weiwei, but also ‘comply with law’

Arts hub authority chairman Henry Tang reveals some of Ai’s works will be featured in opening exhibitions, but a photo of his that sparked controversy will not be among them.

Hong Kong’s long-awaited M+ museum announces early bird ticket details

Tickets for the museum of visual culture in West Kowloon will be available for booking from November 5, while free entry has been extended to include non-Hong Kong residents.

Review | Trousers as a symbol of Western imperialism’s spread, and other whimsies

A collection of essays by British cultural historian David Elliott about contemporary Asian art is as eclectic as it is erudite. Full of historical titbits, it is more a work to dip into than to consume at one sitting.

Hong Kong’s long-delayed M+ museum finally gets an opening date

Arguably the most important museum ever to be built in Hong Kong, M+ is also a litmus test for artistic and curatorial freedom under the National Security Law.

Ai Weiwei says Credit Suisse closing account over ‘criminal record’ in China

The dissident artist says he was told to move funds out of his foundation’s bank account in Switzerland despite never being convicted of a crime.

Letters | China’s soft power goals hardly served by brash media drives

Interpersonal relationships might be one of the most effective mechanisms for shaping China’s image. Even if those relationships are made through Chinese individuals critical of their own government, China might benefit in the long term.

Review | Good art, but not enough by women, in UCCA Edge’s debut show

The inaugural exhibition at Beijing contemporary art centre’s Shanghai branch pays homage to an explosive era for art in China at the turn of the millennium.

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei picks Portugal for new show, new home

The biggest exhibition of his career, Rapture, opens in Lisbon on Friday; Ai says he has no plans to return to Germany or England, where he has also lived since leaving China.

Beijing art centre UCCA ready to feed Shanghai’s appetite for culture

Shanghai is mainland China’s biggest art hub, and the new branch of the UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art, UCCA Edge, will celebrate the evolution of the city’s role.

Head of arts hub insists embattled museum never planned to show controversial photo

The photo, depicting the dissident artist’s middle finger raised against the backdrop of Beijing’s Gate of Heavenly Peace, has been at the centre of a torrent of criticism aimed at the museum by the pro-establishment camp.

‘No problem’ showing Ai Weiwei’s art in Hong Kong’s M+ museum

As the city’s newest museum, the centrepiece of the nascent West Kowloon Cultural District, is unveiled, its director offers an assurance about its artistic freedom in the wake of national security law’s introduction.

Woman’s public art protests in China over husband’s jailing

Giant inflatable balls emblazoned with words declaring her husband’s innocence released, live streams of volunteers ‘jailed’ for 24 hours in a cage in her flat – Tang Jie uses art to seek freedom for her husband, jailed on charges she says are false.

Ai Weiwei on living in exile, activism and a secret Wuhan film

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gives his thoughts on the importance of activism, his artistic response to Covid-19 and latest film projects as a new documentary about his life, Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, is released this month.

Ai Weiwei puts his art on 10,000 face masks to sell for charity

Dissident Chinese artist living in exile in the UK teams up with Guggenheim Museum curator on face masks printed with his art, to sell in support of global humanitarian organisations.

As I see it | Outside its few red lines, China is the ultimate win-win country

Review | ‘Art for art’s sake’ in M+ museum show? No, this Chinese art is political