The newly released officially authorized “news” from China (as reported by Agence France-Presse) is that “Ai Weiwei is under investigation on suspicion of economic crimes. It has nothing to do with human rights or freedom of
expression. Other countries have no right to interfere.” Those were the words of China’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei, in a statement to journalists.
For the unofficial version of events, let’s turn to ChinaForbiddenNews. This Chinese-language (with English subtitles) YouTube channel of New York-based New Tang Dynasty (NTD) News, has posted a video that gives a tantalizing look at the Art of Enlightenment exhibition at the National Museum of China, and also pointedly contrasts the themes of freedom and human rights embodied in the 18th-century European art on display with the oppression of artists (including Ai Weiwei) and intellectuals in present-day China (a disconnect that CultureGrrl alluded to four days ago, here).
NTD describes itself as “a truthful, uncensored Chinese-language alternative to
China’s state-run media.” It “broadcasts directly into parts of mainland China via satellite,
providing a truthful, uncensored Chinese-language alternative to China’s state-run media.”
It’s packing a wallop.
UPDATE: The video that I originally embedded, which showed many views of the works installed in the “Enlightenment” show, appears to have been taken down, with the one below substituted. It doesn’t show the show, but provides a hard-hitting report on the Ai Affair:
The AFP article linked at the top of this post also describes a new, forcefully expressed U.S. response to Ai’s detention, made yesterday on Chinese soil:
The United States, France, Germany and Britain have joined Amnesty
International and other groups in calling for Ai’s release, with U.S.
ambassador Jon Huntsman defending the artist in a Shanghai speech on
Wednesday.In unusually blunt public comments, Huntsman—who
will soon leave his post—saluted Ai, jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu
Xiaobo and others who “challenge the Chinese government to serve the
public in all cases and at all times.”
If our political ambassador can do it in Shanghai, so can our musical ambassador: Bob Dylan performs there tomorrow, after playing it safe at yesterday’s concert in Beijing. We can only hope that he will drop the reticence he demonstrated in the nation’s capital and unleash “The Times They Are A-Changing” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” (which could use some pointed, updated lyrics for this occasion).
Perhaps yesterday’s dig at Dylan by Hao Ying in the state-run Global Times (perpetrator of the recent deplorable editorial about Ai’s plight) will have the fortunate effect of waving a Red flag in front of our country’s irritable poet laureate of dissent. (We also hope he will exert himself to enunciate clearly!) If Juanes could address Cuba’s political situation in his groundbreaking “Peace Without Borders” concert (scroll down) in 2009 in Havana, Dylan should manage to do no less.
“The answer, my friends, is…