AI Weiwei: What I Wish I Had Known About Germany Earlier

It's not the first piece of criticism of Germany by Ai Weiwei, but it always leaves me with a weird impression. On one hand, he's a great artist, and I want to see - and sometimes do see - some deep insights into Germany's mind there. The points he criticizes are also mostly valid, and many of them well-known, but the way he criticizes them are somewhat confusing.

Rigid rules - yes, lack of social mobility - yes, no sense of good taste for food or anything else including ethics - yes, and it's not new. But we do have dispute, sometimes pretty heated one - in parliament, in the press, among ourselves. E.g. the silence over Nord Stream is rather a silence of confusion, not fear.

He admits not knowing German in this very article, so I really wonder what Germany looks like to him. He's a great mind, but also lack of knowledge in the local language would mean an important part of reality would be missing from your picture.

I must say, regardless of whether his criticisms of German culture and society are justified or not, it is no surprise to me that Zeitmagazin rejected his proposal, them having requested a column titled 'What I would have liked to know about Germany earlier'. The text as written by Ai Weiwei does not even make an effort to follow the prompt, but rather is simply a rant on implied problems that he sees in Germany.

Did Ai Weiwei not already 'know' each of the general aphorisms he wrote in his article? What is specific to Germany about his critique and not, say, to his native China or to any other country? Why would he have 'liked to know' about these things earlier, and what impact would it have had on his life or his decisions?

I was talking to a German engineer that moved to here (Switzerland) for work. At some point he had to register his car for Switzerland, transferring it from Germany. He thought the process would be like in Germany and would take hours so he took a half-day off work. Ends up it was just a few minutes of someone stamping some paper and printing his new car registration...

Sounds like Japan actually. All highly regimented societies are alike and can be very successful when the laws and incentives are aligned or a total disaster otherwise

Maybe the author does have some interesting things to say, after all there's many things one could pick at when considering any country, but the writing style is beyond obnoxious. Nearly every paragraph is one or two sentences, tops. It feels like reading a series of tweets, rather than coherent thought.

As an art afficionado, I must note that Ai Weiwei is one of the greatest living artist of our times. His works are showcased all over the world. Also, he is a prominent critic of the Chinese government and now lives in exile, after being imprisoned by the Chinese authorities. All that should be taken into account and his article not so easily dismissed, despite the apparent "ragebait" that some commenters have noticed. His lens of the world if probably much denser and refined than most of us will ever hope to achieve. And yes, I believe the essence of the article is correct - I can sense a decline in the West overall that I have a hard time putting into words.

Germany is not the only society which is like this. But there is one difference I've noticed lately:

When you read online commenters from Nordic countries, they are usually against this oppressive mindset described in the article, and ashamed for that aspect of their country. Under the guise of online anonymity, the dissenters are greater than the system loyalists. Or maybe they are even system loyalists blowing off steam.

However, Germans I see online - even under the guise of anonymity - will strongly defend and support their system. Are the German dissenters all offline, or are they way fewer than in other similar countries?

Comes to germany, does not like it, makes a picture of a middle finger to Bundestag. This smells like ragebait low effort content I come to HN in order to avoid!

the picture is a play on/update of https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117098

probably should edit the author's name, but it is a pretty good article, also I find it applies to a lot of countries on the Germanic model.

Germans are used to and give much harsher criticism. He is still too friendly. Much to learn he has.

”AI” Weiwei…?

Why is this flagged? :D

Like literally, let contrasting dissenting opinions be said and exist.

Especially on HN of all places.

What a disgraceful cover photo. Not everything is perfect in Germany, on the contrary. But that goes for every country on earth. But a middlefinger to the Bundestag? It's disrespectful to the German people as a whole...

well I’m an English speaker with limited German skills that lived in Munich for years

despite this it is clear that even Bavarians have a well developed and caustic wit

One thing is for sure, he is not a gifted writer.

westerners often have these idealized images of opposition leaders in authoritarian regimes when in reality they are the same products with a different paint. Navalny, Aung San Suu Kyi, Machado and all the others.

> The variety of food and cooking methods is so limited here that people from all over the world feel compelled to open restaurants: Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish — you name it.

I mean, you could say this of basically anywhere in northern Europe, really.

Sidenote:

> AI Weiwei

Looks like he's fallen victim to autocorrect, there.

“Germany has welcomed me as my new home. Now please enjoy the following borderline racist generalisations.”

Being famous doesn’t make it ok to be an huge ass.

What does he say? He does not like a few things. Germany is bureaucratic, look at that. Something with reflection that does not further gets explained. No solutions on offer, of course. Some stereotypes feel like they are true. Well, well, what an insight.

He does not like some food, but likes others.

But the best bit is: Germans (the way he writes it, all Germans) have no humor.

Reads like a rant. He probably feels enraged that the f%*king establishment dares to offer him money. He is an artist. And then they have the audacity not to publish his master piece rant.

I mean, it's the expression of a personal view, that's fine. But I can see why newspapers did not want to print it. Not much there, really.

Sounds like somebody went to some other peoples place and was disappointed that the place isn't functioning like the place they came from or the way they imagined it. Turks are having this all the time for example, they are disappointed that Europe isn't just like rich neighborhood of Istanbul.

Very typical for people who have a stylized mental model of a place based on rumors and memes. Unlike for people with clean slate, they tend to be very aggressively sticking to their wrong ideas and attempt to transform it instead of building it from scratch. You can see very wrong interpretations based on layers and layers of misunderstanding and fantasies. Can be easily detected if the person speaks about the locals as if they are a different species, which is different than making an observation of the psyche.

You can see it in people who think that in US the poor straight up die when get sick or Americans who think that in Europe no one works, live off on museum tickets revenues.

It sounds like a rant of an immigrant going through the stages of adaptation(admiration->confusion->disillusionment->anger->understanding->making peace).

AI Weiwei is such a crybaby. Is he seriously offended because for once one of his thoughts is not published in the biggest newspaper?

The times ive heard about him or have involuntarily had too see his art because of his astroturfed hype, this is hard to seriously

Maybe chill out for a while and pay your taxes while you are at it