He puts it pretty well, the feeling that I’ve been trying for some time to describe:
“After living in China for awhile — I was there from 2006 to 2009 — you get used to so many shocks that they’re no longer surprising. The combination of breakneck development, deeply rooted cultural ties and the giant panopticon of an unpredictable authoritarian state can make you feel like you’re living in an unending magical realist saga, the kind that yields the sort of spectacles that in quick retrospect make as much sense as anything else. Of course that makes sense, you mutter to yourself.”
—Alex Pasternak, MIA: Ai Wei Wei: Is China Scared of One of Its Most Fearless Artists?
Ai Weiwei, committing one of his many economic crimes
Both photos from Ai Weiwei’s “A Study in Perspective” series (1995 ‑2003)