Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2014
Abstract
Ai Weiwei is famous for crossing boundaries, especially the boundary between art and politics. To appreciate the often contradictory nature ofAis work, this essay employs multiple narratives: " Ai the Heroic Warrior" who cńticizes 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 afourth narrative can bńng together these three stones in a multicoded understanding ofAis 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 compańng Ais 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 ofactivists and public intellectuals who are creating a newform ofpolitical space in postsocialist China.
Discipline
Asian Studies | Political Science
Research Areas
Political Science
Areas of Excellence
Digital transformation
Publication
Journal of Asian Studies
Volume
73
Issue
4
First Page
899
Last Page
920
ISSN
0021-9118
Identifier
10.1017/S0021911814001004
Publisher
Duke University Press
Citation
CALLAHAN, William A..(2014). Citizen Ai: Warrior, jester and middleman. Journal of Asian Studies, 73(4), 899-920.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4338
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911814001004