Ai Weiwei, BBC. "Ai Weiwei 'Does Not Feel Powerful'." at bbc.co.uk. October 13, 2011.
“

In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed. Just take the example from yesterday: I had given a telephone interview to CNN. Then, suddenly, CNN was shut down for a couple of minutes. It was the first time I experienced that my television went totally dead. I realized: Oh my God, it’s because of me. This is crazy! Which nation would do that? Maybe Cuba, North Korea, China. But what do they want, what are they so afraid of?

— Ai Weiwei on CNN

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed. Just take the example from yesterday: I had given a telephone interview to CNN. Then, suddenly, CNN was shut down for a couple of minutes. It was the first time I experienced that my television went totally dead. I realized: Oh my God, it’s because of me. This is crazy! Which nation would do that? Maybe Cuba, North Korea, China. But what do they want, what are they so afraid of?" in the context of "Ai Weiwei, BBC. "Ai Weiwei 'Does Not Feel Powerful'." at bbc.co.uk. October 13, 2011." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "CNN" (Quotes: In alphabetical order by author or source.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Ai Weiwei

About Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; born 1957 in Beijing) is a leading Chinese artist, curator, architectural designer, cultural and social commentator and activist.