The leadership knows that you cannot solve the issues of China's future with the means of the past. The demographic consequences of the one-child policy, the build-up of the welfare state, the jobs for 7 million university graduates every year, the immense corruption: Even some Western governments would have to scramble to find solutions to such problems.

I think we cannot have a double standard. We cannot see our art as different from the reality. We cannot use two different sets of judgment.

[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.

The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.

I never regret anything.

Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.

A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.