Ai Weiwei
| Ai Weiwei | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ai Weiwei in 2008
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| Born |
28 August 1957 Beijing, China |
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| Nationality | Chinese | ||||||||||||||
| Notable work | Sunflower Seeds, Beijing National Stadium | ||||||||||||||
| Movement | Excessivism | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Lu Qing | ||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 艾未未 | ||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Ài Wèiwèi |
| Wade–Giles | Ai4 Wei4wei4 |
| IPA | [âi̯u̯êi̯u̯êi̯] |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | ngaai6 mei6 mei6 |
 Portrait of Ai Weiwei by Stefen Chow
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Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, 
English pronunciation ; born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese Contemporary artist and activist. His father's side's original surname is Jiang (). Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so-called "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, he was held for 81 days without any official charges being filed; officials alluded to their allegations of "economic crimes".
Ai's father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement. In 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1961, where they lived for 16 years. Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.
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