Letter from China: Ai Weiwei: Disturbing the Peace : The New Yorker
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Around the same time, in no theatres anywhere, Ai Weiwei put out his own film entitled Disturbing the Peace, a no-budget documentary shot with a handheld camera, which documented a bizarre day in Chengdu, in which Ai, the lawyer Pu.
Pu: You are Section Chief Xu?Xu: Yup.Pu: You are the one the police station chief told us to look for?Xu: Right.Pu: He told us he made an appointment with you, and told us to hurry over. We came here and have been waiting since 6 P.M.Xu: I had so many cases in my area to deal with. I haven&8217;t even had my dinner yet.
Ai: No matter how chaotic it is, Chengdu is still under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, is it not?Xu: It certainly is!Ai: And as a Party member, do you know how you should treat the people?Pu to Ai: Maybe he&8217;s not a Party member. You haven&8217;t asked him. We don&8217;t want to know if he&8217;s a Party member or not; it makes no difference.Ai: Maybe he&8217;s a democrat!Pu: Now we&8217;ve come here to solve the problem but you&8217;ve already decided that it&8217;s just an ordinary criminal case.Xu: It&8217;s an ordinary security case.Pu: What kind of ordinary case begins at 3 A.M., when a girl is asleep in her room?
his current encounter with the justice system will end; Ai has been incommunicado ever since Sunday morning, when border guards took him into custody as he boarded a flight from Beijing to Hong Kong. Police also searched his studio, a warehouse, and other spaces, and carted off thirty computers and hard drives. His wife and eight assistants were questioned and released. (One aide, Wen Tao, was picked up by a black sedan and has not been seen since.) Beijing police say they know nothing of Ai or Wen.
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