All artists, well those worth their sort, are to some extent politically socially aware, if not active. But few have to contend with the comparable might of the Chinese communist government. The fact is, despite the external trappings of a rampant capitalist economy, as far as Chinese human rights go, little has changed since the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
One of China's most prominent artists has to be Ai Weiwei, famous around the world, mainly due to the power of the Net, for his conceptual art such as the recent installation Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern. However he's as well known for his highly vocal criticisms of the Chinese government and its notoriously regressive leadership. His father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution and sent to a labour camp in Xinjiang with his wife, Gao Ying. He was particularly focused at exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the 2008 Szechuan earthquake.
Obviously the Chinese government have their sights set on stopping Ai Weiwei from spreading his criticism of corruption and lack of human rights in China without the worldwide media frenzy that has surrounded such cases as the Nobel Prize winning Liu Xiaobo. Here's the story courtesy of the BBC:
'The 53-year-old, one of China's most famous and controversial artists, said the demolition started in the night and he flew from Beijing to Shanghai as soon as he heard.Mr Ai told the BBC Chinese service why he believed the building was destroyed: "They wanted to demolish it overnight without us finding out because they were worried the demolition would attract attention."We asked why it was demolished earlier than when we were told and they just answered that sooner or later, it would have been done anyway."'
To find out more read the full story at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12174873
That’s how government(s) works. It also happened in my country, especially during the new-order era. Many artists and authors were banned by the government because of the political criticism in their works. I guess the government was so paranoid that those works will reveal their “wrongdoings” to the people.
Too right. You can find it all the way back through history across the world though. Russia is now buying back all it’s previously banned art. Thanks for the comment…