HONG KONG, Dec 23 — Dissident Chinese artists, including Ai Weiwei, have decried a Hong Kong university’s removal of a statue honouring protesters killed at Tiananmen Square, telling AFP that artistic freedoms are evaporating as Beijing tightens control.
Ai, one of China’s best known dissident artists, said he was not surprised by the statue’s removal, given how dramatically Beijing is transforming Hong Kong into a mirror of the authoritarian mainland. The law has criminalised much dissent and transformed the once outspoken city. Any talk of artistic freedom in this context is futile, Ai argued.In November, Ai became the centre of attention in Hong Kong after the newly opened multimillion-dollar M+ museum decided not to display one of his photo series.
“A lot of us appreciate the existence of the pillar, particularly in a university in Hong Kong. It is something that always makes us feel hope, passion and vision for the future,” Badiucao told AFP.The 35-year-old cartoonist, whose work regularly mocks Beijing’s leaders, recently held his first international solo exhibition in the Italian city of Brescia, after organisers defied warnings from Chinese authorities.