Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so interesting. I think it's quite narrow-minded. There wasn't much encouragement or opportunities for any artist - not just Chinese artists.

I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.

I never felt like a Chinese citizen because I was pushed away at a very young age. My father, a writer, was a national enemy of the Communist Party. He was forbidden to write for 20 years. We literally lived underground. We dug a hole and lived there for years. My father cleaned public toilets, even though he was a highly respected poet. Nationality and borders are barriers to our intelligence, to our imagination and to all kinds of possibilities.

I don't think I was very structured in that society and I don't really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.

This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.

I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].

There's no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.