If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.

I never think any place is better than others.

It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.

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.

To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.

Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.

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.