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AI Weiwei: What I Wish I Had Known About Germany Earlier
- romankolpak 1y agoComes 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!
- pimeys 1y agoAnd in many ways it reflects well to us who also moved here for work and witness similar issues in the society. There are a lot of good things too in Germany, but he really nailed on the issues I witness in my daily life.
- readthenotes1 1y agoPerhaps It reminds me of commentary of 1900 Germany in the book _3 Men in a Bummel_. And "When the majority believe they live in a free society, it is often a sign that the society is not free. " Is a pertinent observation
- thenaturalist 1y agoWhile I chuckle at the fact Ai Weiwei choose to dump on Germany while enjoying unbothered refuge here, this sentence I disliked the most. It reeks of over-thinking, philosophical elitism. As someone who was raised by parents born in Communist Romania, talk to anyone born in an Authoritarian regime and they’ll tell you what the absence of freedom means like. When it comes to assessing freedom, I’d stick closer to German-Romanian literature Nobel prize winner Hertha Müller. Coincidentally, just like Ai Wewei she’s been living here in Berlin and seems not to feel particularly unfree.
- twixfel 1y ago> talk to anyone born in an Authoritarian regime and they’ll tell you what the absence of freedom means like You mean like Ai Weiwei, born in Beijing in 1957?
- Fricken 1y agoI was initially dismissive of the photo, but it is part of a series, titled "Study of perspective" that Weiwei has been adding to since 1995. He has been giving the finger to many symbols of imperialism and authoritarianism around the world for 30 years. https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-study-of-perspective/ https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-study-of-perspective/
- prewett 1y agoIf one picture is unimaginative and vulgar, I don't see why doing it 30 years somehow makes it "art". It makes me think he's just angry and rude, just like I'd think about someone who goes around flicking people off for 30 years. In a post-modern perspective that's "telling truth to power" or something, but that's just sophistry.
- bryanrasmussen 1y agoprobably 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.
- Propelloni 1y agoYeah, I liked it. Pretty aphorims in Goethe's style with wide applicability. If the article had another title and no "Additional" I would not have guessed he was talking about Germany specifically. Fun fact: I used to work with lots of Chinese people, two decades ago and mostly in France, and they loved the Chinese restaurants there. If we went out, we always went to one of the many Chinese outlets. Supposedly they were so deliciously different from food at home ;)
- cluckindan 1y ago”AI” Weiwei…?
- taneq 1y agoIt’s the name of the author.
- vessenes 1y agoI think it's a subtle request to spell it properly capitalized (at least in English): Ai Weiwei
- taneq 1y agoAaah right gotchya.
- cluckindan 1y agoNo, the author’s name is Ai, not AI like in the title. HN auto-editorializing the capitalization?
- demetrius 1y agoBut the capitalisation is unexpected. While sometimes people use all-caps for family names (I think it’s French tradition?), I think it looks quite out-of-place and confusing in this case.
- rkomorn 1y agoWe usually only do that in stuff like records, on envelopes, on forms, etc. Pretty rare to do it in media.
- kome 1y agothat's HN's automatic editing for you.
- lmf4lol 1y agoWhat 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...
- vessenes 1y agoIf the picture offends you, just wait until you read the essay.
- lmf4lol 1y agoThe essay is fine and has some truth in it. I don't fully agree with it though.
- DemocracyFTW2 1y agoIf the essay offends you wait until you see the picture.
- nosianu 1y agoAs a German, I could not care less about such things, and I would claim that in that respect I'm rather typical. Such a non-issue.
- carlmr 1y agoAlso German here, if you've worked through our robotic bureaucracy you know that there is some valid criticism here. Germany is criticized all the time. You can read it, you can ignore it, you can disagree with parts of it, but I don't think anybody should be above criticism. Lest they think they might be #1 in everything.
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- hmmmcurious1 1y agoSounds 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
- pols45 1y agoGermany/Japan/Taiwan/South Korea are all easy targets cause they are all examples of compressed modernity post WW2 (their rebuild and trajectory was decided not by locals but by the hegemon). Rate of economic change happened faster than the natural rate of change society, politics, culture could handle.
- redprince 1y agoJust out of curiosity: How exactly do you imagine Germany looked like pre-WW2?
- MikeDods 1y agoAI 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
- oytis 1y agoFound a German.
- MikeDods 1y agoEverybody! Look! There's a genius over here! A new Sherlock!
- IAmBroom 1y agoCalling someone brave enough to stand up to the Chinese government, and going to prison for it, a 'crybaby' is, well, internet-tough-guy syndrome.
- MikeDods 1y agoStanding up by refusing to pay taxes, leaving and then getting paid to do whatever I want. Tough life, where can i sign up?
- MarcusE1W 1y agoWhat 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.
- MrBuddyCasino 1y agoOne thing is for sure, he is not a gifted writer.
- Etheryte 1y agoMaybe 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.
- vermilingua 1y agoFrom the first paragraph of the article: “editor Elisa Pfleger, through our gallery, invited me to contribute 15–20 short reflections on the prompt “What I would have liked to know about Germany earlier””
- wave84 1y agoAs 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.
- thenaturalist 1y agoWhy is this flagged? :D Like literally, let contrasting dissenting opinions be said and exist. Especially on HN of all places.
- oytis 1y agoAs I understand the mechanics, it's because some people flagged it, and moderators didn't find it important/relevant enough to unflag. Happens a lot with non-technical posts, especially political rants.
- IAmBroom 1y agoPolitical may be the key point, but this isn't a political news piece. It's a didactic.
- mrtksn 1y agoSounds 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).
- jzellis 1y agoIn America the poor do straight up die when they get sick. I'm an American who wrote a book about medical tourism who now lives in the UK partially because healthcare is affordable and available here. And I like Berlin personally, but I'd probably like it better if it actually was like the Sultanahmet district in Istanbul. Then I wouldn't have to go to the Turkish neighborhoods to find the best food when I visited there (sausages and pastries, as Weiwei says, being the exception). :-D
- mcwhy 1y agowesterners 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.
- Mordisquitos 1y agoI 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?
- redprince 1y agoThe text he wrote makes a lot of sense under that prompt because that prompt provides the frame under which to read it. Knowing the prompt makes it obvious that his general observations happen to apply to Germany and he wasn't aware of that before moving there. He's just polite by not spelling it out. The real issue for non-publication is the one he cites: "additional reflections in a more personal and light-hearted tone". This matches the general type of content in Zeit Magazin. They weren't looking for a scathing criticism of societal ills but some entertaining piece that goes well with the other easily digestible articles. And as a German I have to say: He's bang on.
- sillyfluke 1y ago>And as a German I have to say: He's bang on. >Here, at a deserted street, people stop dutifully at a red light. Not a car in sight. This made me chuckle as I remembered a German friend who passed a red light on a bike at 3am at a deserted street in a German college town and got fined 150 euros by an out-of-nowhere cop car.
- nosianu 1y agoHappened to me in Death Valley, in the very hot middle of nowhere. I came from a dust road and did not fully stop on the stop sign for the main road through the valley, I had only slowed down and then made the turn. Out of nowhere there were park ranger lights behind me. I still don't know if they were cloaked or if they teleported behind me, I don't know how I could possibly have overlooked them. Everything flat and nothing anywhere, suddenly they are there. I don't remember if I had to pay or if it was just a warning.
- carlosjobim 1y agoGermany 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?
- FinnLobsien 1y agoMy take having grown up in Germany: Germany has risen to one of the world's top economies with products known for precision manufacturing, exacting standards and a general assumption that "We do things the right way". So Germans became convinced they know the exactly correct way to do things because that's how they became the top of the world. So now that things are getting worse (economy, housing etc.), many Germans are convinced they just need a bit more of the exactly correct way to do things. The same perfectionist mindset that lets you manufacture some of the world's best physical products is the mindset that makes it impossible for the government to use the internet.
- carlosjobim 1y agoI really have great admirations for the German(ic?) people. They have much the same mindset as neighbours such as the Nordics. Perfectionists, quality standards in all they do, doing things "the right way" as you mentioned. Maybe an "autistic" mindset when it comes to work. The difference from the Nordics is that Germans have had the determination to go all the way with things, which means that for almost any great invention in the world there's always a German behind it. But when it comes to the social cohesion, I always thought that the Germans had to fake it like the Nordics do, or like people in the Soviet Union did. But more and more I start to realize it's not the case. Germans actually support their government and support the European Union (in Nordic countries you can't find 1 in 1000 people who supports the EU), and support the official ideologies in their country. Is this the case, or am I encountering Germans online in isolated spaces?
- steanne 1y agothe picture is a play on/update of https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117098 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117098
- dudefeliciano 1y agoHe has done a whole series with the same theme and buildings/locations from around the world. He even made a website where people can make their own version https://middlefinger.avantarte.com https://middlefinger.avantarte.com
- comrade1234 1y agoI 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...
- nosianu 1y agoWhat makes you think this would have taken hours in Germany? Those things are highly locality dependent, since it's the "Ordnungsamt" of the local municipality that does this. In my big Bavarian city I would expect it to be very fast, from past experiences. They definitely streamlined their processes over the last two decades. For the "Einwohnermeldeamt" 2015 and then COVID forced them to, before that waiting times there were much longer, but now it's fine.
- rsynnott 1y ago> 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.
- DemocracyFTW2 1y agoOh wait a minute... I thought the piece was written by Ai Weiwei but it's really by an AI... well, that'll explain some things, I guess...
- IAmBroom 1y agoAlso true of the US, where people will complain about immigrants not fitting in... while eating at Chinese, Japanese, Italian restaurants.
- oytis 1y agoIt'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.
- librasteve 1y agowell 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
- cadamsdotcom 1y ago“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.
- amai 1y agoGermans are used to and give much harsher criticism. He is still too friendly. Much to learn he has.
- amai 1y agoExample (in german): https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article131725640/Warum-Bayreuth-die-urdeutsche-Hoelle-auf-Erden-ist.html https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article131725640/Warum-Bayre...