A CLOSE associate of the controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is being investigated for spreading pornography, in what is being read as the latest attempt to silence the staunch government critic.
Police have summoned cameraman and assistant Zhao Zhao for questioning, but the timing of the charges of spreading pornography online is significant, coming at the end of a week during which Ai Weiwei brought international attention to his €1.75 million tax bill.
The offending photograph is a picture taken by Ai Weiwei last year, which shows the artist sitting surrounded by four naked women, called One Tiger, Eight Breasts. The room is bare, the Chinese-style chairs are hard and the overall impression is sparse.
There is nothing lurid or especially revealing or cynical about the photograph and, according to online readings of the photograph, the symbolism is deep.
Each of the women in the photograph represents different roles in society – one woman wears spectacles, representing an intellectual; another wears a watch, which shows she is a member of the New Rich.
Another woman giggles and appears ready to share the chair with him, representing a broader society unaware of the situation the artist finds himself in.
“This is not pornography. If they see nudity as pornography, then China is still in the Qing dynasty,” Ai wrote on Twitter, referring to the final imperial household, which collapsed in 1911.
The timing of the investigation into Zhao is significant, coming days after Ai said he felt as if he had been forced to pay a “ransom” to the government over a tax bill.
He was made to pay more than €950,000 into a state bank account in order to settle the tax bill levied against his design company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development. The bill came after he spent 81 days in detention earlier this year as the government cracked down on dissent.
The money was largely raised from supporters across China, with some throwing cash into the courtyard of his Beijing home.
The show of support seems to have emboldened Ai, who was relatively quiet after his release from detention, because the terms of his release require that he be discreet in his dealings with foreigners, especially the foreign media, and in his use of social media such as Twitter. Since last week’s display of generosity, Ai has been fiercely tweeting and posting information.
At the time of Ai’s detention there were rumours that he would be charged with pornography offences.
Two of his most striking works involve nudity – one shows him jumping naked into the air; in the second, his wife, Lu Qing, lifts her skirt in front of a portrait of Chairman Mao.