Instead, the activist is viewed as a threat to the harmonious society.
He has spent time in jail, been beaten by police, and is constantly under surveillance.
He was even barred from leaving Beijing for a whole year in 2011.
Simply put, aside from using one’s imaginationperhaps more importantlycreativity is the power to act.
Read on to discover six of his most famous works.
Here are six key works from across Ai Weiweis career.
The ancient artifact not only had considerable monetary worth, but it also had huge symbolic and cultural value.
The gatealso known as Gate of Heavenly Peaceis the former front entrance to the Forbidden City.
Its also the place where state soldiers shot and killed peaceful protesters in 1989.
AisStudy of Perspective Tiananmen Squareis part of a series of photos taken between 1995 and 2017.
In each photo, Ai uses the same offensive gesture to show his disdain for state power.
The series mimics tourists photos and invites viewers to question their acceptance of government authority.
However, Ais single finger also represents a theme from recent history that his interrogators could not talk about.
In China, tea is still compressed into cubes, although much smaller in scale.
The buildings were held up by steel rods that twisted and bent during the earthquake.
Aia self-taught architectwas outraged to discover that the childrens deaths could have been avoided with better structures.
He wanted the government to take responsibility.
Ai collected the broken steel bars from the earthquake site and began creating a memorial artwork.
He commissioned metalworkers to straighten the bars so that they looked as they did before the earthquake.
It took 1,600 artisans over two years to make the seeds.
Many products are still made by hand because machines are expensive and human labor is cheap.
He was watched over 24 hours a day by two guards who were forbidden to communicate with him.
Ai populated the spaces with fiberglass figures of himself and the two guards, revealing their activities.
The work gives a powerful insight into how grim and claustrophobic the detention experience was.
