BEIJING — When the Swedish Academy selected Chinese writer, Mo Yan, as this year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the move was hailed by the state media, only two years after blasting the same committee for awarding the peace prize to fellow countryman and outspoken dissident Liu Xiaobo.

However, outside of the country,  some critics pointedly questioning Mo’s Communist Party membership, his unwillingness to speak up for freedom of speech on the mainland and his apparent reluctance to speak out for his fellow laureate. "Giving the award to a writer like this is an insult to humanity and to literature," declared noted Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei, at the time.

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Perhaps sensing the backlash, Mo spoke out the evening his Nobel victory was announced, telling journalists he hoped Liu — who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for his work on a direct call for political liberalization known as Charter 08 — could “achieve his freedom as soon as possible.”

The supportive words seemed to help give Mo the benefit of the doubt among critics and the foreign press, but comments he gave on Thursday regarding Chinese censorship and Liu’s plight have reinvigorated criticism of the acclaimed writer.

'The highest principle'
During an interview in Stockholm, Mo surprisingly defended China’s suppression of free speech, saying that censorship should not prevent the truth, but that rumors and defamation "should be censored."

"But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest principle," Mo added.

Mo Yan's Nobel win celebrated -- and panned -- in China

Mo went on to liken censorship to the airport security he passed through flying to Stockholm.

"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."

Special coverage of China: Behind the Wall on NBCNews.com

Mo caused further ripples when he told reporters he did not plan to sign an appeal being passed around by his peers calling for the immediate release of Liu and his wife, Liu Xia.

It has been signed by134 fellow Nobel laureates, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Always an 'independent'
Mo explained his unwillingness to sign as a desire to maintain his independence.

"I have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me to do something, I don't do it," he said.

For Chinese winner's wife, Nobel is no prize

Mo’s comments and reticence in voicing support for his compatriot, Liu, was seen as particularly appalling as it came the same day as the publishing of a distressing interview with Liu’s wife, Liu Xia.

The interview, made possibly only after AP reporters slipped by Chinese security away at lunch, was the first she had given in 26 months and graphically showed the emotional stress of being under home detention since her husband’s imprisonment. 

China’s reception of Liu Xiabo and Mo Yan’s Nobel victories couldn’t have been any more different.

While Mo Yan’s award this year has been hailed in state media – despite many of his books being censored in China – Liu’s victory was roundly rejected by Beijing.

In a statement issued by the foreign ministry soon after the 2010 announcement, the government wrote that Liu’s victory "runs completely counter to the principle of the prize and is also a blasphemy to the peace prize.”

BEIJING -- State media gave the official stamp of approval Friday over the decision to award the Nobel Prize for literature to Chinese novelist Mo Yan, giving him front-page coverage across the country.

The warm coverage of the award is unsurprising considering the prestige and recognition that China's ruling Communist Party will collectively bask in as a result.

But in another sense, the warm reception for the awarding is striking considering the anger and hysteria drummed up by Beijing following the 2010 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned political dissident, Liu Xiaobo.

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In the two years that have followed Liu’s win, which was heavily censored in state media, China has maintained a chilly relationship with the Nobel committee and its home country of Norway. Meetings with Norwegian ministers and trade delegations have been canceled and important talks regarding the eventual opening of the Arctic Sea route have been halting.

China even went so far as to develop its own ill-fated peace prize, while exports of Norway’s famed salmon fell victim to the frigid political atmosphere between the two countries.

China’s first Nobel-winning writer?
But Mo’s victory seems to have thawed the relationship long enough for China to celebrate the writer, who state media has hailed as the country’s first winner of the prize.

"This is the first Chinese writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature," gushed China’s People’s Daily newspaper. "Chinese writers have waited too long, the Chinese people have waited too long."

But critics of the Communist regime point out that Gao Xingjian, who won in 2000 in part for his critical writing of the government, was China’s first winner of the Nobel for literature. He had been exiled to France by the time the prize was awarded.

Mo Yan, which means "don't speak," is actually a pen name. The 57-year-old Mo's real name is Guan Moye.

Mo has been favorably compared to American author William Faulkner and is perhaps best known in the West for his 1987 book, Red Sorghum. That book heavily relied on his experience growing up in a farming community in China's northeastern province of Shandong.

That honest connection to the rural experience has been a central thread through much of Mo’s writing, according to Dai Wei, a professor of literature at China’s Jinan University.

Special coverage of China: Behind the Wall on NBCNews.com

"Mo's topics are typically about rural life and his own life experiences, his stories are very close parallels to the real circumstances he lived through," Dai told NBC News. "He often writes about suffering. ... Some people think he glorifies suffering for Westerners, but everything he writes is based on real experience."

'The dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature'
Mo latest book, Frog, tells the dark story of a midwife who enthusiastically goes about her work enforcing China’s family-planning laws through forced abortions and sterilizations. The story, a searing critique of China’s one-child policy, won China’s Mao Dun Literature Prize last year.

"A writer should express criticism ... at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression," Mo said in a speech at the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair.

Chinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize in literature

But despite the critical and popular acclaim and Mo’s willingness to confront sensitive social issues in China, Mo’s victory has not come without criticism.

“Giving the award to a writer like this is an insult to humanity and to literature,” declared noted Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei to the British newspaper The Independent. "It’s shameful for the committee to have made this selection which does not live up to the previous quality of literature in the award."

Ai’s diatribe toward Mo appears to be rooted in part to his work on a book last year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of a speech given by Mao Zedong.

More book reviews and news on TODAY.com

Mao’s speech, known as the "Speech at Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature" set the guidelines for appropriate subject matter for Chinese writers and artists of that revolutionary period, calling upon them to focus on and espouse the merits of Communism and threatening punishment to those who did not bend to the will of the party.

Mo Yan and around 100 other Chinese writers and artists hand-copied paragraphs from the speech for the book.

Criticism
That act, in conjunction with Mo’s position as vice chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writer’s Association, which has failed to voice support toward fellow writer Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize victory, has raised the ire of artists like Ai who wonder just how committed Mo Yan is to free expression.

Complete Asia-Pacific coverage on NBCNews.com

After all, critics argue, if a Nobel Prize-winning author with a leadership position in the national writing guild fails to stand up for a fellow artist, then who will?

Not fair, said professor Dai.

"I don’t agree with Ai Weiwei, it's just his personal opinion," said Dai. "People have different values, so they evaluate people differently. I think Mo Yan is a great author and Mo Yan is prized by the Nobel Prize council."

Perhaps sensing the backlash against him, Mo spoke out Friday afternoon from his hometown. Mo told reporters he hoped that Liu Xiaobo "can achieve his freedom as soon as possible." He also noted that he had read Liu’s literary criticisms from the 1980s and that the dissident had the right to research his "politics and social system."

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Other supporters of Mo have also came to his defense, noting that many of his books have been banned in China and that the Nobel victory will help put Chinese literature on the map.

But few believe that the victory will help put Liu Xiaobo back on the map in China, where his victory is still not acknowledged by the government. Liu’s name and the term "Nobel Peace Prize" remain blocked terms on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo.

Just this week, a BBC report on Liu’s imprisonment noted that the activist and his wife, who remains under illegal house arrest, have been facing extraordinary pressure to accept exile from China in exchange for their freedom.

NBC News' Johanna Armstrong and Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report.

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BEIJING – While Ai Weiwei didn’t get his day in court Wednesday, he did get his case heard.

The Chinese artist and social activist was noticeably absent from opening arguments at a Beijing courtroom after he was warned off by police. Instead, Ai, 54, stayed home at his studio while his wife, Lu Qing, represented their design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., with a team of lawyers.

Ai and his wife are challenging a ruling by the tax office that rejected their appeal against a steep fine imposed for alleged tax evasion, a charge roundly rejected as false and trumped up by Ai and his supporters.

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NBC News spoke to Ai Weiwei by phone late Wednesday afternoon, but he could not comment on how legal proceedings had gone.

The government previously ordered Ai’s company to pay a staggering 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in alleged back taxes and additional fines. Surprisingly, Ai raised the money needed to pay an 8.45 million yuan ($1.3 million) bond needed to contest the tax charges through donations and contributions from around 30,000 supporters after he called for assistance through social media, a favored tool of his and other activists in China.

Stunts like these as well as his pokes at authority – see the photo he posted yesterday on Twitter sporting a too-tight Chinese police uniform – anger authorities who view Ai as a troublemaker. 

In April 2011, Ai was detained without charge during a national roundup of activists and dissidents following the many pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East.

It was only after his 81-day detention that tax-evasion charges against Ai and his company were made, lending credence to claims made by human rights watchers and Ai supporters that the move was retaliation by the government.

The case against Ai has been shrouded in secrecy due to the government’s unwillingness, or inability, to reveal any original tax documents as evidence of tax evasion they purport to have.

A hearing held last July during which the government’s evidence would ostensibly have been revealed was closed and the company’s lawyers were barred from attending, a decision Ai’s lawyers claim was illegal.

It is a sensitive time politically in China as President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are poised to step down later this year. Despite the political drama swirling around the fleeing of dissident Chen Guangcheng to the United States and the ongoing Bo Xilai scandal, Beijing desperately wants to make the transition peaceful and is doing everything possible this year to mitigate sensitive stories.

Yet, as has sometimes proven the case when it comes to Ai, attempts to muzzle or contain him can backfire.

While Beijing police have discouraged local dissidents from going to the courthouse to support Ai, security was said to be intense around the court with a ring of police cars around it and officers telling foreign press to stay away as well. Still, supporters of Ai were seen outside holding small signs that said “Ai Weiwei, we love you” and “No justice without a fight.”

Meanwhile, the detention of Ai’s legal consultant, Liu Xiaoyuan, by security forces Tuesday outraged Ai, who announced it on Twitter and called for Liu’s immediate release. Ai told NBC News that Liu’s phone had been turned off and that he had been “taken away to the countryside for some sort of treatment by the police.”

Additionally, Ai has also been using Twitter to call attention to the heavy police presence outside his home. He pointed to a bust up at his home yesterday when someone in his studio took a photo of what Ai described as “30-40 police cars.” Ai alleges that police rushed the photographer to grab the camera, causing some minor scratches and bruises which were tweeted here.

As part of his conditional release late last year, Ai’s travel rights were taken away and he was told to refrain from criticism of the government through social media.

Friday was supposed to be the day those restrictions would be lifted, but in lieu of Ai’s continued defiance, it is hard to believe local authorities won’t extend these restraints in order to rein him in. 

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BEIJING – A day after installing home cameras to parody the Chinese police's 24-hour surveillance of himself, Ai Weiwei says he has not received any adverse reaction so far from authorities.
 
"Nobody cares I guess, or maybe they have no idea yet," Ai told NBC News in a phone interview. "Normally they don't respond so fast."

The slow response might also be attributed to the fact that China was observing the last day of a three-day holiday in observance of the Tomb Sweeping Festival Wednesday.
 
To mark the one-year anniversary of his detention at Beijing’s international airport amid a government crackdown on dissent, Ai installed home cameras positioned over his computer, bed and courtyard that stream a 24-hour video at weiweicam.com. At one point, he was shown sleeping like a log.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei sets up live webcams at his home

The site appeared be down – or perhaps blocked – when we tried it Wednesday.

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After he was picked up by authorities a year ago, Ai was detained and kept in isolation for 81 days on alleged tax evasion charges. Since his release in June, he’s been under house arrest which involves constant surveillance by Chinese authorities.
 
"They have 15 cameras around my house, and now I have four of them in my bedroom and around my home. This is to mark the day one year ago when they detained me," Ai said.
 
"But this is also a gift," he added. "This is a chance for people who miss me or who feel sad about my disappearance to see me anytime with the click of a computer. It's a kind of gift for them."
 
There is no mistaking Ai's political message. Referring to the authorities, he said this is also a way to "make them feel vulnerable about their invasion of other people's private space which is now a practice in many states, not just in China, as the technology of surveillance becomes very common."
 
"The issue of invading other people's privacy is a global issue, it exists in many countries in varying degrees, but I have a very strong experience with this issue in the past year and this is all a reflection of that," he explained.
 
Asked whether he is concerned about any adverse reaction from the authorities, Ai replied, “I am not really concerned about any reaction, this may not make them happy, but it's OK," he said.
 
"I am an artist, my work and thinking are all my artistic expression, which also reflects the time and place I am living in," he said.
 
Ai is still facing a $2.4 million tax case, and his one-year probation is expected to end on June 22.  Asked what his plans are when he recovers his freedom to travel, Ai sounded cautious. "I don't have much illusion," he said.
 
Referring to teaching offers abroad, he said, "As a citizen of the universe, I can work in different places, but if I can travel anywhere, I will still have to start from here. But I don't have much expectation because of the reality."
 

 

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei turned his life into an unscripted version of Big Brother when he set up four live webcams at his home, BBC reported. 

Ai told the AFP he hoped the cameras -- which include one filming him while he sleeps -- will encourage transparency from all sides, BBC reported.

The artist was detained for three months last year during an overall crackdown on dissent. Following his release, authorities demanded his design company pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines. Activists interpreted the penalty as punishment for his criticism of the authoritarian government. He is now banned from leaving Beijing.

Ai insists he has done nothing wrong. He said the tax case against his company appeared designed to damage his reputation while intimidating him and preventing him from "taking part in public affairs and criticizing the government."

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The artist was detained April 3 and released June 22. Chinese authorities have said that although Ai was released, he is technically still under investigation for at least a year and could be brought in for further questioning at any time.

According to the BBC, Ai said he had "no clear answers" about why he was placed under surveillance.

"In my life, there is so much surveillance and monitoring... our office has been searched, I have been searched, every day I am being followed, there are surveillance cameras in front of my house," he told the AFP news agency, according to the BBC.

"So I was wondering, why don't I put some [cameras] in there so people can see all my activities. I can do that and I hope the other party can also show some transparency."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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BEIJING – The sudden appearance and rapid disappearance of dissident artist Ai Weiwei on China’s version of Twitter has provided a window into the zany, fast-paced and utterly incomprehensible world of social media censorship in the communist state.

Ai told NBC News that he had been told that -- since new rules were introduced over the weekend on the mandatory real-name registration of every account on the Twitter-style Sina Weibo website -- his name was no longer being blocked on the site.

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“Before if you looked up my name on Sina Weibo you got a message that said that it was a ‘sensitive or illegal word being used,’” Ai told NBC News Monday. “Yesterday a friend told me that my name was no longer being blocked, so we thought we’d give it a try.”

Ai, whose outspoken criticism of China’ ruling Communist Party and alleged tax-evasion led to his detention for 81 days last year, has had his name censored by China’s “Great Firewall” and his physical travel has also been restricted.

So the sudden discovery that his name was suddenly viewable and searchable on Weibo spurred him to experiment.

“I just wanted to see if this policy really applies. They [new internet rules] said if you use your real name and identity, you can open your own Weibo account,” Ai said, “so we tried and found that it worked.”

"Ai Weiwei testing, 3/19/2012" would be Ai’s first and last post under his Weibo account.

Account deleted
In a little under two hours, 10,680 people flocked to follow him online before censors deleted his account.

Though unsurprised by the number of followers he attracted in such a short time, he still can’t explain why he was suddenly able to open an account.

“I have no idea. Some people said it may just be a mistake, I have no idea,” he said. 

Read more news from Behind the Wall

Curiously, the introduction of the new rules was followed shortly afterward by the banning of the Chinese term for “real-name registration.”

Weibo users had been comparing notes regarding whose accounts had or hadn’t been suspended for not providing their real names. The blocking of “real-name registration” appeared to happen because the discussion of the topic became so widespread.

Sildeshow: History of US-China relations

Sina has provided some information about how many of its users have opted to register their Weibo accounts with their real identities. The last official statistic released was a week ago when the company announced that it anticipated 60% of its users would be registered by last Friday’s deadline.

Earlier Monday, NBC News attempted to create a new Weibo account using an anonymous identity. While the site seemed to accept the information filled in, no confirming email required to start using the account ever showed up in our inbox.

'Jasmine Revolution'
However, some users who say they have not submitted any identification to Sina claim they have the ‘V’ badge that all users who verify their identity have on the site.

China’s government is sensitive about the destabilizing potential of social media sites as seen in places like Egypt, Libya and most recently Syria.

Chinese TV show 'Interviews before Execution' stirs controversy

An anonymous call for a “Jasmine Revolution” early last year sparked a tightening of restrictions on such sites and increased calls by Chinese regulators and officials for real name registration.

Another newly banned word was “Ferrari,” amid intense gossiping over the potential identity of the owner of a Ferrari who crashed their car early Sunday morning in Beijing, killing one and injuring two others.

The topic that was quickly censored after users speculated that the victim could have been the child of a high-level Communist official.

NBC News’ Bo Gu contributed research to this report.

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BEIJING – The wife of Ai Weiwei was questioned by Chinese police for several hours Tuesday in what appears to be a growing campaign against the outspoken artist and activist.

Ai Weiwei dismissed his wife’s police interrogation as a “pressure” tactic. “They are trying to put pressure on me,” Ai told NBC News in a phone interview after his wife was released.

But Ai’s long-running battle with authorities over tax evasion allegations – which critics say were meant to silence the politically outspoken artist—took a dangerous new turn when his wife was taken away by the police for questioning as a “criminal suspect.”

“It’s doesn’t make sense,” Ai said. “They can come to me directly.” He said his wife, Lu Qing, is “not involved” in politics.

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Criminal case?
Lu, the legal owner of the cultural company that manages Ai’s art projects, was suddenly taken away Tuesday by four policemen, one of them holding a video camera, and subjected to more than three hours of interrogation.

Initially refusing to go, she was brusquely told she had no choice.  “They were quite rough, they told me [I had no choice] while showing some document saying that I was a ‘criminal suspect,’’’ Lu said as she recounted the story to NBC News in a telephone interview. Her request for a lawyer was refused.

When she asked what crimes she had allegedly committed, they responded, “We cannot tell you now.”

“During the interrogation, I was seated on a chair meant for criminal suspects; they were very impolite,” she said, adding that except for a call from her husband, she was not allowed to contact her lawyer and other friends during the whole proceeding.

The interrogation itself dealt with many issues concerning the company’s operations that she said had already been touched upon in previous investigations.

She said she was asked about her income, but said that she firmly told the police, “No, you have no right to ask that.”

Taiwan connection
As a “criminal suspect,” she was told that she can be summoned again anytime and should not travel or leave Beijing.

Lu said she had been planning to travel to Taipei in early December to attend Ai’s art exhibition
aptly called “Ai Weiwei Absent.” 

The show, which began last month, features 21 works from 1983 to the present. It includes a new installation named “Forever Bicycles” – a 30-foot-high arrangement  of more than 1,000 bicycles that gives the illusion of a moving abstract which art critics say symbolizes China’ social changes.
  
Last Friday, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou visited the show and called on China to respect human rights and Ai’s freedom of expression, underscoring a major issue of contention with mainland China.

“I think they wanted to prevent me from going to Taipei,” Lu said, adding that authorities might have learned of her plans by monitoring her phone calls.

“It was not just for the art show, I really wanted to visit Taipei because I have not seen Taiwan before,” she said, lamenting the cancellation of the trip.

Widening punishment?
Lu’s temporary detention comes about a week after police also began investigating Ai’s assistant for allegedly spreading pornography online, and some two weeks after Ai deposited $1.4 million with the tax authorities, which were raised from supporters’ donations, to comply with a legal procedure that would enable him to challenge the tax evasion charges.

And on the day she was taken away for questioning, police conducted a probe of the law firm that is representing Ai.

“Two policemen of Fengtai district came to our office yesterday  while I was away and photocopied this year’s accounts, saying they wanted our help in dealing with some cases,” Pu Zhiqiang, Ai’s lawyer,  told NBC News. Pu has previously told the foreign media that he believes the tax evasion case against his client was “politically motivated.”

Asked whether the police raid was related to Ai, he said: “Nobody has said anything.” He added: “To worry is useless, and I am not worried.”  

Liu Xiaoyuan, another lawyer for Ai, told NBC News that he suspects “punishment” for his inability to renew the license for his law office, which has been pending “for exactly five months tomorrow.”

Unable to practice in Beijing, he has temporarily returned to his home province of Jiangxi.

“The authorities concerned have warned me not to talk to the media about Ai’s case but I didn’t stop talking, so I think all this is punishment,” he said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, repeated attempts to elicit comments from the police department involved in Lu’s case did not produce any response.

More on Ai Weiwei:
Chinese artist and activist answers readers' questions

BEIJING – Many readers wrote in after our chat with artist/activist Ai Weiwei with more questions about the structure of the event and how it worked. I’ll do my best to answer those questions and to give a little more background about what went on inside Ai’s house.

Q. How was Ai Weiwei allowed to do this chat if he’s under house arrest?
A: Ai Weiwei is not under house arrest; he is allowed to travel freely in Beijing, but is unable to leave the city without permission from the government. He is also free to bring guests and co-workers to his Beijing studio, which was the site of the live chat and has been a hive of activity the last few times we’ve come to visit him there.

As for why he was able to do this chat, Ai perhaps said it best during the live chat: “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people.” 

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Q: What were the Chinese saying about the chat?
A: None of the Chinese state media organizations appeared to report on the live chat. Ai’s name has been blocked on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo, so there was no obvious discussion of the live chat on there either.

Q. Why didn’t my question for Ai show up on the chat screen? Did he read my question?
A: Thousands of people from all over the world left questions for Ai to answer – he managed to get through 16 in a little over an hour. Had we put all the comments up inside the main chat box it would have been difficult for many of our readers to find Ai’s answers among all the questions, comments and criticisms – yes, there was a great deal of the latter in both English and Chinese – left by readers.

While I served as moderator of the event, controlling what showed up on the chat screen and what didn’t, Ai ultimately selected the questions he wished to answer. There were several reasons for this, but it was primarily for us a question of safety for Ai.

While he is free to talk to the public, the reality is that he is still faces serious legal charges for tax evasion and his colleagues are under investigation for pornography. Certain questions that pried deeper into those matters could potentially have brought him further legal trouble from China’s court system.

Similarly, questions that touched on big sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square, Tibet and Taiwan – the “Three T’s” as they are known among the journalist community here – were likely avoided by Ai as they have already been discussed so much previously and would only have inflamed what is an already tenuous relationship with the Communist government.

Ai initially was happy to listen to the questions read to him as they came in, but as readers began to flood the chat with questions and comments, he increasingly began to spend much of the time standing beside me reading the live feed and sometimes answering questions under his breath as my colleague gamely tried to keep up with him on the keyboard.

In fact, his answer, “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people,” came as we were preparing another one of his answers, so we had to track back through the trove of questions to find the one he had answered off the cuff.   

Q. Did Ai Weiwei really call the Occupy Wall Street movement “primitive” and “hopeless?”

A: This answer was slightly taken out of context by some commentators both in the chat and later in media reports on the event. His answer to a question about his impressions of the Occupy Wall Street movement is below:

9:27  Ai Weiwei:
First I didn’t pay enough attention, but as much as I have to say, I can certainly recognize the need to express the feeling of the people who have suffered from this Walstreet power, that kind of distrust, and misconduct from the Walstreet in many respects. But as a movement it’s a still in a very primitive form, and you can see the kind of hopeless struggle because it seems to have no structure to get the message across, or even let people know what kind of message that is. Or it has become lacking of content or successfully express its own purposes during the development. It’s lack of means to really create changes.

Ai’s intent here was not to call out the entire movement out as hopeless, but to note that from his view, Occupy Wall Street is still in its nascent stages and that it needs structure and cohesiveness to truly become an effective vehicle for meaningful social change.

As Ai noted later, coverage of Occupy Wall Street in the local Chinese media has been stilted. While coverage of Americans camping out to protest Wall Street excess initially drew gleeful editorials from some nationalistic newspapers here in China, censors tempered coverage when officials saw the movement spread to Asia, sparking concern that similar events could be staged on the mainland as well. With largely only official Chinese state media reports and scattered Western sources available, most citizens here are limited in their exposure to coverage of Occupy Wall Street.

As for Ai himself, with so much already going on in his life this year, it’s understandable that he hasn’t made the Occupy Wall Street movement a bigger priority in his life right now.

However, that isn’t to say that he doesn’t empathize with the general sentiment. As he said in his response to an angry reader comment about his answer above: “If I was in N.Y., I’d be a part of it [Occupy Wall Street].”

Q. What was up with the cats?
A: One of the first things you notice when you go to Ai’s studio is how animal friendly the place is. Cats lazily sun themselves out in the courtyard, stalk employees and visitors alike and generally roam freely. Joining them is a rotund cocker spaniel named Daniel who often holds court near Ai’s feet clad in an orange knit sweater.

The night of the live chat was very windy in Beijing and animals and humans alike were scurrying throughout the courtyard to escape the biting cold. Those cats that managed to get in during the live chat generally observed quietly from a distance, but a few of the more adventurous ones decided this was a fine time to curl into laps, walk over laptops and look gamely at the tangerines Ai was eating throughout the talk.

Ai had just finished giving an answer to a question and was busy reading through the live feed of questions when we heard a rattle and then the door suddenly flung wide open followed by two cats and a flurry of leaves flying in.

The howl of the wind and the sudden slam of the door gave some of us quite a start, since for half a second we weren’t sure if it was the Beijing police bringing an unceremonious end to the live chat.

But Ai didn’t bat an eye, “That cat is the smart one, he figured the door out a while ago.”

The cat’s ingenuity and contribution to the chat deserved a mention, but definitely better grammar. Rest assured readers, the bear/bare mistake was embarrassedly noticed by me the moment I hit enter. I promise it won’t happen again.

Q. Will Ai do another one of these live chats again soon?
A: Someone close to Ai once described him as a “social media junkie.” During this live chat, Ai seemed energized by the waves of questions readers sent him and eager to tackle them as best he could.

We here at Behind the Wall thank you for the great questions and comments you sent yesterday and hope that we can make this happen again soon.

Click here to read the complete chat

BEIJING – Since the 1970s, Ai Weiwei has been at the forefront of China’s experimental art scene which has blossomed over the years alongside the country’s economic standing. The 54-year-old’s work on the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, as well as high profile exhibits like the October 2010 installation project, Sunflower Seeds, in which Ai commissioned 100 million handcrafted porcelain “seeds” that were then poured into a room at the Tate Modern Gallery in London, have captivated audiences worldwide.

Such high-profile projects have gained Ai international acclaim in the artistic world, but it has been his transformation into social activist and outspoken critic of China’s authoritarian regime that has turned him into a global icon.

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This year, Ai has been a fixture in the news as he diligently worked to document the flurry of arrests of Chinese activists, lawyers and writers by the government following the wave of popular uprisings that erupted throughout the Middle East. Ai himself was detained in April 2011 and was held without formal charge by Chinese security for 81 days. He was released following what the government claims was a confession by Ai to charges of tax evasion.  

Ai Weiwei now finds himself fighting legal charges that include tax evasion and even pornography. In both cases, Ai’s supporters in China have rallied to his side by lending $1.4 million to the artist to pay a legal guarantee that will allow him to contest the tax charges and posting their own “pornographic” pictures online in protest. (See a slideshow of Ai Weiwei's art).

Speaking recently about the charges, Ai told reporters, “We must follow the legal procedure. As any individual citizen, my innocence is linked with the country’s innocence.”

Ai Weiwei answered reader questions earlier today. Both the questions and answers were provocative and interesting. Click on the link below to replay the chat.  

 

BEIJING – As the deadline approaches for paying a whopping tax bill of $2.4 million, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has collected nearly half that amount from supporters across China.

“I’m very surprised,” said the 54-year old Ai in his studio in northeastern Beijing.  “I never really [wanted] people to donate anything to us.”

Last Tuesday, the authorities presented the bill to his company, known as Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, and issued a deadline of November 15.  Fake, which is registered in the name of Ai’s wife, manages the artist’s affairs.  The government is seeking the back taxes and fines based on tax evasion charges they made earlier this year against Ai during his 81-day detention in an undisclosed location.

Ai immediately turned to his apparent favorite medium of expression these days, the Internet, to solicit donations from followers. 

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An unorthodox way of fundraising
While the artist said he has the means to find the money himself to pay the tax bill, he wanted to bring attention to how the government is treating him.  Ai’s family and supporters have maintained that the tax evasion charges come as retaliation for his constant attacks on the Chinese central government.

Ai has said he considers the donations a “loan” and intends to pay everyone back.  

The donations have come in many shapes and sizes.  Roughly 25,000 people have sent in donations by Alipay (a Chinese version of PayPal), money orders, and cash–wrapped around fruit or folded as paper planes thrown over the garden wall into his compound.

“Society should be more tolerant,” said Zhao Yangping, a retired engineer living in Beijing.  We found her leaving the studio, where she had just donated some money on behalf of relatives from overseas who wanted to show their support for Ai.  “Why should the government be so nervous?  He deserves more freedom.  The government is too harsh on him, too sensitive.”

The government maintains otherwise.

In the state-run newspaper, The Global Times, an editorial questioned whether Ai’s unorthodox response was legal, “Since he's borrowing from the public, it at least looks like illegal fund-raising.”

It also looks like people – even if still a small fraction given the size of China's population – are taking a stand in the battle between Ai and the government.  "It is obviously…about that,” Ai said.  “It’s about how people vote with very [limited] possibilities….  We use our money to vote.  It’s our ticket.”

Collateral damage?
Despite initial reports stating that he was unsure yet about whether to pay the fine and back taxes, Ai confirmed to NBC News he would do so by next Tuesday.

“I think we have to,” he said.  “If you don’t pay, then you violate another law….  And it’s not me now, they are not aiming at me.  The tax company said it’s not you.  It’s the company.  In the company, there are several people [who are] innocent.”

Nonetheless, innocent people are affected by Ai’s activism.

On the day NBC News visited Ai, a young woman was waiting to confer with him about a predicament.

Wu Hongfei, a writer-journalist whose main passion she says is singing for her rock band, Happy Avenue, had just learned a concert for a birthday party this weekend had been cancelled.

“The authorities told Yugong Yishan [a public concert venue] that they cannot hold the performance,” she said.  Managers at the club were not given any explanation, according to Wu, but she reckoned it had to do with their decision to give out sunflower seeds to ticket buyers as “a special birthday gift” from Wu to her audience.

Harmless or odd as it might seem, the gesture could be interpreted by authorities as an overt show of support for Ai. 

“Sunflower Seeds” is the name of a major installation Ai mounted late last year at the Tate Modern, a prestigious museum in London.  It was still on display in April, when the artist was detained in Beijing, and drew even more widespread attention as a result of his arrest.

Wu has already had one other concert shut down by local officials—again no reason was given although she suspects it’s because of her association with Ai.

“This is irrational.  We’re not even that close friends.  I don’t bother the government.  I don’t even understand politics,” she said.  “If I can’t perform, then what can I do?  I really love my band.”

Read more reports in Behind the Wall on Ai Weiwei

The show goes on in New York, minus detained Chinse artist

SLIDESHOW of Ai Weiwei's work