Ai Weiwei, Confucius and harmony in China

According to the information service China Post , the monumental bronze statue of Confucius has gone to Tiananmen Square in Beijing in just 4 months of being installed at the site to recognize the cultural greatness and respect to the harmony of the country . The New York Times has a short animation before and after the monument.

There are those who qualify the installation of the statue of Confucius to be a hoax by the government and now it was harmonized, the museum director responsible for the statue asked to please not be associated with the policy to be considered the possibility I had to do with the arbitrary arrest of artist Ai Weiwei. and persecution of dissidents, artists and intellectuals is happening today in China, since the rise of the revolutionary spring of Jasmine .

Harmonize is also the Chinese slang referring to censorship , to which the Chinese government has never had any problem accepting. However, the deletion of Confucius's view coincides with the increasingly strong demand for international society to demand the release of the artist Ai Weiwei , who was kidnapped by the authorities since last April 3 and held incommunicado until the time on suspicion of economic crimes.

Ai Weiwei is a less recognized symbol in China than abroad, despite having participated in the design of the Olympic Stadium when he later called a fake smile for the world-China, where his name points to an art star contemporary, respected, admired and quoted. But besides Ai Weiwei is a true Internet celebrity via Twitter , your blog , Google Docs and file-sharing sites (and VPNs), managed to cross the Great Firewall and display (often live) the implications of being a outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party , but also the need to expose abuses of power and simply exercise our rights, such as freedom of expression.

Ai Weiwei's use gives social networks for documenting their daily lives beyond its facilities and large exhibitions also has earned respect within the digital realm and more diverse audiences. Weiwei China believes that tools like Twitter are more important as the fact that society can learn produces great frustration in government. In addition to it, the Internet is a tool that creates a new human condition which sees a great future.

Many call activism Ai Weiwei's work, of course. Although for me it's more like a hacker who uses art as a way to expose a (political) rather complicated.

PBS recently released the mini-documentary Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?, which provides a clear outline of political commitment around the exciting and challenging character of Ai Weiwei and the obvious reasons for his arrest.

But this time, Ai Weiwei's arrest may have effects contrary to those desired. The press China attaches small samples to go beyond the limits set by the Department of Central Progaganda reporting actions support and rating Ai Weiwei defamation of the Communist Party's arguments for his arrest, which include tax evasion, bigamy and distribution of pornography.

The Chinese government wanting to send the message that nobody can pass the line maybe that society has the courage to imitate China Ai Weiwei. According to BBC over 1000 people took to the streets in Hong Kong (a city with little influence in the internal affairs of China) to protest his detention. Interestingly, some protesters even wore masks Anonymous.

A government that fears its own history as the only alternative is repression. Try away the statue of Confucius, Ai Weiwei, or anything that questions their hard-won harmony system and above all, may have the opposite effect, especially since the persecution, which is being extended to friends and family of Weiwei, is attracting too much international attention.

Confucius is not much but said he did not just give themselves never want to go home, Chinese society is gradually rising volume of protest and Ai Weiwei has to go home.

Image via Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, Confucius and harmony in China written in ALT1040 April 25, 2011 by geraldine
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