8 Nov 2010 | Uncategorized
Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known dissident artist, is called God Ai by his supporters. Ai helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and more recently his Sunflower Seeds installation created a splash at the Tate Modern; but Ai continues to be a thorn in the side of the Chinese state. His blogs and microblogs were long ago been blocked in China after his controversial investigations into events such as non-accidental deaths in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake angered the authorities.
His international standing presents difficulties for the authorities: should he be ignored or co-opted? Ai claims that two years ago, the Shanghai authorities asked him to build a studio to help develop an arts district it was developing to increase the city’s cultural status. Now the same authorities have ordered that his USD$1.1m studio be torn down. They claim the building is illegal — that the correct permissions were never obtained.
Ai declared that he would have one of his sensational parties to “celebrate”: this time everyone would have something in-season to eat: 10,000 river crabs. For anyone in-the-know the word “river crab” is important. According to the New York Times the river crab is:
…a sly reference to the Mandarin word hexie, which means both river crab and harmonious. Among critics of China’s censorship regime, hexie has become a buzzword for opposition to the government’s call to create a harmonious society, free from dissent.
On Friday, Ai was placed under house arrest meaning he would be unable to attend his own party, planned for this weekend. Reports of his angry reaction are here and here.
Ai’s detention focused the media’s attention on the party and the studios pending demolition. Within China there has been criticism and accusations that Ai is seeking free publicity from the foreign media; some argued that he advertised the party for too long, almost seeking a reaction. However much the Western media report it, no reports have appeared in the Chinese press.
Ai’s house arrest was due to end at midnight last night — his supporters took it upon themselves to celebrate in Shanghai without him. Ai told AFP the police left his Beijing home a little earlier at 11pm, too late for him to reach the party. Nonetheless at the Shanghai banquet his fans had their say.
PLUS: READ INDEX ON CENSORSHIP MAGAZINE’S INTERVIEW WITH AI WEIWEI HERE
8 Nov 2010 | Asia and Pacific, China
Ai Weiwei, China’s best-known dissident artist, is called God Ai by his supporters. Ai helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and more recently his Sunflower Seeds installation created a splash at the Tate Modern; but Ai continues to be a thorn in the side of the Chinese state. His blogs and microblogs were long ago been blocked in China after his controversial investigations into events such as non-accidental deaths in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake angered the authorities.
His international standing presents difficulties for the authorities: should he be ignored or co-opted? Ai claims that two years ago, the Shanghai authorities asked him to build a studio to help develop an arts district it was developing to increase the city’s cultural status. Now the same authorities have ordered that his USD$1.1m studio be torn down. They claim the building is illegal — that the correct permissions were never obtained.
Ai declared that he would have one of his sensational parties to “celebrate”: this time everyone would have something in-season to eat: 10,000 river crabs. For anyone in-the-know the word “river crab” is important. According to the New York Times the river crab is:
…a sly reference to the Mandarin word hexie, which means both river crab and harmonious. Among critics of China’s censorship regime, hexie has become a buzzword for opposition to the government’s call to create a harmonious society, free from dissent.
On Friday, Ai was placed under house arrest meaning he would be unable to attend his own party, planned for this weekend. Reports of his angry reaction are here and here.
Ai’s detention focused the media’s attention on the party and the studios pending demolition. Within China there has been criticism and accusations that Ai is seeking free publicity from the foreign media; some argued that he advertised the party for too long, almost seeking a reaction. However much the Western media report it, no reports have appeared in the Chinese press.
Ai’s house arrest was due to end at midnight last night — his supporters took it upon themselves to celebrate in Shanghai without him. Ai told AFP the police left his Beijing home a little earlier at 11pm, too late for him to reach the party. Nonetheless at the Shanghai banquet his fans had their say.
PLUS: READ INDEX ON CENSORSHIP MAGAZINE’S INTERVIEW WITH AI WEIWEI HERE
4 Nov 2010 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features
Ali Abdulemam’s trial is an important test case for free speech in the Middle East. Ashraf Khalil explains why
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4 Nov 2010 | Uncategorized
The tight-knit world of Middle East bloggers and electronic activists is rallying forcefully around the case of Ali Abdulemam, a prominent Bahraini blogger and online activist, who was arrested in September as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on human rights activists and representatives of the country’s disenfranchised Shia Muslim majority.
The Shia activists are charged with being part of a “sophisticated terrorist network” aiming to overthrow the government, but the exact charges against Abdulemam are murkier and harder to unravel. He is charged with “spreading false news” through his popular portal, Bahrainonline.org.
A married father of three and an IT consultant by day, Adbulemam has become a fixture over the past decade in forums and conferences dedicated to Arab digital activism and online freedom. He is regarded as one of the region’s web pioneers, and is described by one of his defenders as “driven by his passion for effecting change” in Bahrain and the wider Arab world.
In 2002 Abdulemam made waves by abandoning a pseudonym and publishing under his own name. Three years later he was jailed for charges that included fomenting hatred of the government. He later told the Wall Street Journal, “I believed you could speak and not go to jail.”
His latest trial started last week under heavy security and tight restrictions on local journalists covering the proceedings. A vibrant online campaign has sprung up in his defence.
Abdulemam is a Shia Muslim, described by friends as generally secular. An estimated 70 per cent of Bahrain’s 530,000 citizens are Shias, but the country is completely controlled by its Sunni royal family. The tiny island kingdom remains a close ally of the USA and serves as a host and staging point for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. As a result, it has been given a largely free hand to roll back democratic freedoms that once set it apart from other Persian Gulf nations.
In parliamentary elections last week, Shias held onto their bloc of 18 seats in the 40-member chamber but are not expected to gain enough allies for a majority. And even if they did, control of the largely powerless assembly would be purely symbolic, and would do little to change the way the country works.
