You've heard by now, but Ai Weiwei did something yesterday. And while most reactions to Dumbass, his foul-mouthed song about his 81 days in prison, were predictably enthusiastic, there's a segment of commentators who believe Ai Weiwei is overexposed, and have reacted with what amounts to a protracted and very loud sigh. ...

Ai Weiwei's 81 days in detention in 2011 is the inspiration for his latest work, "Dumbass," a song he wrote with music by rocker/artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou. The accompanying video was released minutes ago, in which he recreates scenes from his imprisonment. "He also portrays fantasies he imagines flitting through the guards’ minds," reports the NY Times. The cinematography is by Christopher Doyle, who has worked ...

On top of everything else, Ai Weiwei is a barber. A good one? Hm. Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start here: exactly what kind of haircuts does he give? “The kind that will make you want to cry," he said. “Just don’t make it boring,” I told him. “It won’t be boring.” ~ We were sitting on outdoor benches on Wednesday evening at the restaurant Fodder Factory in Caochangdi, a tiny urban enclave ...

The outspoken agitator you know as Ai Weiwei -- who, last we checked, is still not allowed to leave the country -- might be weary and beat down (or just mugging for the camera), judging by these pictures by Jamie Hawkesworth, who recently visited the artist in his Beijing studio, commissioned by the magazine AnOther. As Rob Alderson writes on It's Nice That: ...

Since accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature on December 10, the controversial Mo Yan has turned down every formal interview request from every publication in the world. But he finally broke his silence last week, granting a sit-down with Germany's Der Spiegel, one of Europe's largest news weeklies. The article was published in this week's (February 25) issue, roughly coinciding with the German debut of Mo ...

A weekly column in which Chinese media is taken to the stocks. By TAR Nation On Tuesday night, the Global Times published an article damning Elton John for dedicating his performance to Ai Weiwei and encouraging Chinese people to boo future similar performers off the stage. On the same day, GT published “‘Top thinkers’ list a reflection of US values,” a scathing indictment of Foreign Policy’s list, which fe ...

There's no question Bo Xilai has had an eventful year, directly responsible for outrage, consternation, confusion, exhilaration, and joy (he was manna from heaven for China's foreign correspondents). As Time's Austin Ramzy writes, "Bo was favored to win a seat on China's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee this fall after having boosted his popularity by reviving Mao-era culture, expanding social safe ...

This picture (and the ones after the jump) is via Gonzalo the 3rd (update: originally posted to Ai Weiwei's Instagram), and appears to have been taken today. Tipster Mark D writes in: Elton John dedicated this evening's show to Ai Weiwei. Not exactly on the Bjork-Free Tibet scale of scandal, but still interesting nonetheless. The Bjork scandal, of course, refers to a March 2, 2008 Shanghai concert when the ...

Hosted by Big Think, The Way of Ai Weiwei is Ai Weiwei’s first blog since the government shut down his previous one in 2009. From the “About” section: The first blog by the most important contemporary artist in the world, Ai Weiwei, since Chinese authorities shut down his original blog and twitter feed in 2009, prior to his arrest and nearly three months of detention and psychological torture. It will featu ...

We have officially just seen what happens when a 120-year-old man time travels from the 1910s to the 2010s and is told to "put that Ai Weiwei Gangnam video on the Internet." His head doesn't explode, but we wish it did. Look at the above. Just look at it as you would a Millie Brown art exhibition of vomit and bodily goo. "Raw Video," Washington Post calls it in its headline. If this didn't bum me out so muc ...

If there's anyone in China who might understand what it means to parody something -- actually, truly parody, and not just copy or co-opt -- it's Ai Weiwei. He's an artist, you know. Who better than he to skewer China's nouveau riche and be this country's answer to PSY? You think Gangnam, South Korea is a district of gross decadence and put-on fakery? ...

Ai Weiwei + Instagram + Gangnam Style = This Inevitability. No context necessary. We never would have pictured him doing PSY's famous dance with friends in any other way. This deserves to be turned into a caption contest. Picture by XuYe1226, via @aiww. ...

On Tuesday, while most protesters were gathering around the Japanese embassy, about 50 people splintered off toward the US embassy, where they happened to catch Ambassador Gary Locke in his official black embassy car. Police very quickly came streaming in from two directions and walked the car down the street, where it took the next left and disappeared. The vehicle sustained minor damages. All else was pea ...

What happens when you’re a socialist Chinese blowhard and you get your ass handed to you by a girl after challenging her to fisticuffs in a Beijing park? You tell everyone you won, of course. In one of those weird "This is China" moments, while the rest of Beijing came to a grinding halt over some light rain at 1 pm on Friday, a whole bunch of Web users and bloggers – all of whom were carrying at least four ...

Showcasing the best in Asian-related memes. Source: Fast Company, We Know Memes. ...