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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

People visit a Spring Festival event at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing on February 7. Photo: Xinhua

Mainland China

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

While China has red lines regarding Taiwan, Communist Party rule and national unity, everything else is negotiable.

11 Feb 2026 - 9:30AM

Italy

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

25 Sep 2024 - 12:01AM

Luxury Hotels

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

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

Gu Dexin’s art installatoin “2021-11-12” features in “M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story”,
the second exhibition of the M+ Sigg Collection at Hong Kong’s M+ Museum of Visual Culture. Photo: Elson Li

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

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

Chinese-Indonesian businessman and art collector Budiardjo “Budi” Tek opened the Yuz Museum in a former airport hangar in Shanghai, China, in 2014. Photo: Enid Tsui

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

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

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

Hundreds turned up for the opening of the new M+ contemporary art museum on Friday. Photo: Felix Wong

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

Asian Field (2003), by Antony Gormley. Photo: Antony Gormley

M+ museum of visual culture

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

12 Nov 2021 - 8:43AM

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

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

Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture, part of the West Kowloon Cultural District, will open on November 12. Photo: Martin Chan

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

David Elliott. Photo: courtesy Kate Elliott

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

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

Portuguese professional football club players pose with Chinese children ahead of a game, during a brief ceremony to express solidarity with China’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, at the Luz stadium in Lisbon on February 15, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

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

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

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

UCCA in Beijing hosted a 2020 show, Immaterial/Re-material: A Brief History of Computing Art, sponsored by Chinese internet company Baidu. Photo: UCCA

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

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

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

Ai Weiwei’s life and work is the focus of a new documentary, Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, released earlier this month. Photo: AFP

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

Some of the masks designed by Ai Weiwei for charity.

Art

Where art meets activism: Hong Kong’s Human Rights Arts Prize

Shortlisted works have been assembled to provide a ‘platform for artists to share how they interpret and translate human rights issues,’ says one of the judges Chantal Wong.

8 May 2020 - 4:15PM

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Athlete protest ban at odds with Olympic history

Olympic protests are part of Games history despite IOC’s Tokyo 2020 ban while Mexico 1968 podium Black Power salute remains defining image.

15 Jan 2020 - 7:43PM

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Ai Weiwei

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}As I see it | Outside its few red lines, China is the ultimate win-win country

While China has red lines regarding Taiwan, Communist Party rule and national unity, everything else is negotiable.

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

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

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}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.

.css-rcruog{color:#C79A00;}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.

Where art meets activism: Hong Kong’s Human Rights Arts Prize

Shortlisted works have been assembled to provide a ‘platform for artists to share how they interpret and translate human rights issues,’ says one of the judges Chantal Wong.

Athlete protest ban at odds with Olympic history

Olympic protests are part of Games history despite IOC’s Tokyo 2020 ban while Mexico 1968 podium Black Power salute remains defining image.

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

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