2022-01-07 04:35:21
No Other Way to Live: Why Ai Weiwei Left China - 王亚秋
I am from a village in Zhejiang province, a daughter of farmers. Without the relatively free Internet in the 2000s, and the many free-spirited writers, journalists, lawyers, and artists like Ai who were eager to engage with young people, I would not have become who I am now. I mourn for the young people today, as few will have someone to tell them to read banned books they have never heard of, or to enjoy the companionship of like-minded people in activities like the River Crab Feast.
Ai eventually left China, and I did, too. Sometimes when I am sitting in my comfortable New York City office overlooking the East River, I am restless. I wish I were in China—handing out anti–domestic violence pamphlets to passersby, accompanying migrant workers to ask company owners why the workers have not been paid, or meeting up with activists to ramble on about the future. But that China is gone. At moments of longing, I would hum the verse of Ai Qing’s most famous poem, taught in school to all children in China, “Why are my eyes always brimming with tears? Because I love this land so deeply.”
Ai closes the book with this idea: “For me, the worst thing would be to lose the capacity for free expression, for that would mean losing the motivation to recognize the value of life and make choices accordingly. For me, there is no other road I can take.” Hopefully, Teacher Ai knows he is not alone on that road.
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