Citizen Ai
Warrior, Jester, and Middleman
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3620172 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William A Callahan (0000-0001-6103-0586, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 899-920 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021911814001004 |
| OpenAlex | W2167136221 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 27 |
Ai Weiwei is famous for crossing boundaries, especially the boundary between art and politics. To appreciate the often contradictory nature of Ai's work, this essay employs multiple narratives: "Ai the Heroic Warrior" who criticizes the Chinese government; "Ai the Court Jester" who plays with the Chinese state and Western media; and "Ai the Middleman" who acts as a broker between China and the West, between young and old people, and between civil society and the state in the PRC. The essay concludes that a fourth narrative can bring together these three stories in a multicoded understanding of Ai's work: "Ai the Citizen Intellectual" who sometimes works with the state, and at other times against it-but always for the good of China. By comparing Ai's work with that of other public intellectuals and placing it in the context of debates about civil society, the conclusion argues that "citizen intellectual" also tells us about a broader movement of activists and public intellectuals who are creating a new form of political space in postsocialist China
Art · Boundary-work · China · Civil society · Context (archaeology) · Government (linguistics) · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Philosophy
The socially engaged practices of artists in contemporary China
Sensible Politics
Professors as Intellectuals in China
History, Tradition and the China Dream
‘Opacity, scale and abstraction in Ai Weiwei’s migration trilogy’
Practice makes perfect
Camouflaged Histories
The Prospects and Challenges of Socially Engaged Urban Planning and Architecture in Contemporary China
Citizen Intellectuals in Historical Perspective
The Communist hero and the April Fool's joke
Praying for Blue Skies
Socially Engaged Municipal Statecraft in Urban China? The Shenzhen Biennale as Situated Planning Experiment
In the Red
From Comrade to Citizen
Social Organizations and the Authoritarian State in China
Metahistory
The Gay Science
No Enemies, No Hatred
Literary Dissent in Communist China
Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More
Social Connections in China
Worrying about China
Fools Are Everywhere
Media, the Olympics and the Search for the “Real China
The Media and the Public Sphere in Contemporary China
Globalization and Cultural Trends in China
In the Red
Contours of an Anthropology of the Chinese State
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |