Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years, anyone with a dissenting opinion has been suppressed. Chinese art is merely a product: it avoids any meaningful engagement. There is no larger context. Its only purpose is to charm viewers with its ambiguity.

There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.

Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.

We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.

China is at a different stage of development, human rights are violated here much more often. And still, we see improvements even here.

The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.

I'm always interested in people who are not orientated in art circles to become part of it.