AB: We have talked a little bit about these works you have done about
the city. But the other thing I am interested in is the way you live in
the city. You live in a village; you don't really live in the city.
AW: Well this city, Beijing, surprisingly enough is not a real city. I
cannot call it a city, it's still very flat, not dense enough, not
strong enough, it doesn't have enough variation and mixed conditions,
it's still very even.
Today I live in Beijing. I was also born in Beijing, but soon after we
moved to Xinjiang and I grew up there. My father owned a courtyard in
Beijing, but for years other people lived in it, because our family was
considered an enemy of the people, an enemy of the state, and an enemy
of the party. Three enemies. Being just one of them was enough to be
exiled. Then after 20 years away we returned and lived in different
parts of the city. We borrowed places, because our home was inhabited by
other people. We lived in different places: West, North, East or South,
so I have a very clear image of what the city looked like. At the time
the city was occupied by bureaucratic compounds: universities (of course
at that time were not open), government, military and so-called
scientific research institutes. All these different departments were all
under the same conditions, communist, without private property, everyone
belonging to the work unit. So there was only one condition: you were
either one of the people or an "enemy of the people." So simple. I guess
there weren't so many "enemies of the people," but from time to time
that vein was very consciously mined. They were trying to find out who
is an enemy of the people for years while I was growing up. It was one
political movement after another after another. It was crazy every day.
Today you talk about it and it sounds more like a joke: "what a joke,
why are you still talking about things like this?"? But this was true:
many people lost their lives. I think that that ghost is still haunting
China today. Not the communist ideology, the ideology may be good, but
the way that this power is maintained within society and how brutal the
state can be towards a human's basic condition, not to talk about human
rights, but essential needs.
So that is basically what this city was and still half of the city is
still based in this and the other half is the so-called new rich, after
Deng Xiaoping's getting rich first policy. Of course who is going to get
rich? It's not the ordinary person. But this is not a complaint, it's
simply the truth. You know in China, you still talk about people who
have the right to live in the city or not to live in the city. It's
called hukou, dividing people into locals, non-locals.
PZ: You need a license, or special registration to live in the city.
Throughout the entire world only North Korea and China have a policy
like this one.
AW: Locals don't have many rights, besides the privilege of enrolling in
school, but in the newspaper they often talk about the crimes caused by
non-locals. There is a crazy amount of discrimination against people who
are not local. A small example of this is that the city has laws against
illegal structures like this one (Ai Weiwei's home and studio). Think
about it this way: the city is built solely by migrants from the
outside, but none of them are locals except the boss and where are they
going to live? Nobody provides any space for them. Of course they gather
at the outskirts of the city...
PZ: And in the village in the city...
AW: Just to build a place that they can stay, whether it's legal or not.
cont'd....
http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=47035_0_23_0_M