Ai Weiwei's Brain
Here’s a quick visual update on Ai Weiwei’s medical case. For those who don’t know, Ai was beaten by police while attending the trial of Tan Zuoren, another very public crusader for justice for the children who died because of shoddy building in the 5/12 earthquake. Around a month later, in Germany, he developed a subdural hematoma, i.e., blood pooling in his brain. He had surgery, which was successful, and now he’s got a (somewhat) clean bill of health. He recently updated his blog with detailed documentation of his new drug regimen, some of the official documents from the hospital, and pictures of his brain!
You know you want to see the brain of the guy who came up with this.
Also, here’s a translation of a letter from his doctors there if you want more details:
Related posts:
[...] by what sounds a lot like a very solid punch. Ai said he was hit in the head, and eventually he needed surgery for the injury. He is only hit once, although in this case it seems as though once was [...]
[...] Ai Weiwei’s x-ray of his brain is in there — a piece we posted way back when it was medical documentation and not art — but better work comes from others. Yan Ming’s photo essay “My [...]
[...] excellent. Ai Weiwei’s x-ray of his brain is in there — a piece we posted way back when it was medical documentation and not art — but better work comes from others. Yan Ming’s photo essay “My Wharf” starts [...]
[...] said, his movement in the past few years has been relatively free, and, aside from that little knock on the head, authorities seemed content to harass the people around him, leaving him more or less alone. [...]
[...] 艾未未想举办一个大型的、具有讽刺意味的社交聚会，并邀请所有推特上持不同政见推友们的想法把官方吓了一跳，但这一点也不令人惊讶。我怀疑就连艾未未本人都没想过这个晚宴能够非常顺利地进行。 据说他过去几年里的活动相对来说还是很自由的，除了“被人敲了一下脑袋”以外，当权者似乎很喜欢把艾未未晾在一边，转而骚扰他身边的人。毋庸置疑，这和他在国际上的声望有一些关系。当局者在直接骚扰艾未未本人上犹豫不决，这点可以理解，因为他电话快速拨号里有大多数驻京外媒记者的号码。他是艾青的儿子这一事实一定也帮了他不少。他是少数已经足够强大，能够自由发表言论而不用惧怕后果的人之一（另一个是韩寒，他的期刊已经被河蟹了）。 考虑到以上原因，有一点很有趣的是，警察选择直接逮捕艾未未，而不是让他去上海主持那场社交会，再逮捕在社交会上现身的其他人。那对警察来说是一个很普遍的方法（最近10月8号为庆祝刘晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖而举行的庆祝会就是被这种方法破坏的），并且也是我看到艾未未计划举办一次宴会后设想到的（当局可能会有的反应）。 对当局来说，今年的秋天是一个繁忙的季节。例如刘晓波获得诺贝尔奖，前政府官员的联名信，以及温家宝总理接受CNN采访时谈到的政治改革，很显然有些人认为（温家宝的讲话）需要河蟹。基于以上几件事，急速的逮捕只是第一步，我想知道的是艾未未被软禁在家中是否是另一个向更直接的强制执行方法战略转移的信号？毫无疑问，逮捕艾未未要比让他举办活动并在暗中捣鬼要容易得多（然而，正如Evan Osnos 指出的，艾未未现在或许正让那些奉命软禁他的可怜干警生不如死）但他们（政府）的战略并未奏效，反而让整件事件演变为无休止的新闻报道。 因此现在的问题是，这个策略是否暗示当局再也不在乎制造这种新闻？或者说这是政府搬起石头砸自己脚的又一个例子。 作为一个旁观者，无论拘留艾未未的理由是什么，这似乎都不起作用，来自推特的报道显示已经有将近一千人去参加“河蟹宴会”了，感兴趣的人可以关注在推特上milpitas95035发布的定期更新。 [...]