Back in mid-Novemebr, when artist Ai Weiwei disappeared, supporters made online appeals for his return. When authorities handed him a £1.5m tax bill, they sent money to help pay it. And now that he faces an investigation for spreading pornography – his admirers have stripped off.
Internet users began tweeting their nude photographs after Ai announced that authorities had questioned his cameraman over pictures which showed the artist and four women naked.
Many Chinese contemporary artists have taken pictures of themselves without clothes, and the pictures of Ai that have emerged so far do not appear sexually charged. Some suspect that it may be an attempt by the authorities to smear the artist, whose 81-day detention this spring caused international outrage (read the full story here).
According to hyperallergic.com's An Xiao:
An Xiao states that well over a hundred pictures have been collected at awfannude.blogspot.com and on Wuala. Here’s the Chinese Internet showing the government that they and Ai won’t take these charges with their pants down!
You can see a few of these protest pictures here on iNAKED but rest @ awfannude.blogspot.com.
** Netizens - The term Netizen is a portmanteau of the English words internet and citizen. It is defined as an entity or person actively involved in online communities and a user of the internet, especially an avid one.The term can also imply an interest in improving the internet, especially in regard to open access and free speech. Netizens are also commonly referred to as cybercitizens, which has the same meaning. The term was coined by Michael Hauben and recently developed by a French entrepreneur (Wikipedia).
According to hyperallergic.com's An Xiao:
Netizens** wouldn’t stand for this. Quickly, a meme emerged: post pictures of yourself naked in support of Ai Weiwei and Zhao Zhao. A few months back, But this is online assembly. Unable to assemble in person, Chinese citizens in the mainland and abroad are using the power of the internet meme to assemble online.
On Sina Weibo and Twitter, they used the hashtags #艾裸裸 and #爱裸裸, both pronounced Ai Luo Luo. It’s a play on words with Ai Weiwei’s name and can mean something like “Love getting naked.” Predictably, the hashtag on Twitter was quickly flooded (or “polluted,” in Chinese parlance) by spam messages from the 50 Cent Party, a paid army of pro-Party internet commentators, to make it difficult to locate images.
An Xiao states that well over a hundred pictures have been collected at awfannude.blogspot.com and on Wuala. Here’s the Chinese Internet showing the government that they and Ai won’t take these charges with their pants down!
You can see a few of these protest pictures here on iNAKED but rest @ awfannude.blogspot.com.
** Netizens - The term Netizen is a portmanteau of the English words internet and citizen. It is defined as an entity or person actively involved in online communities and a user of the internet, especially an avid one.The term can also imply an interest in improving the internet, especially in regard to open access and free speech. Netizens are also commonly referred to as cybercitizens, which has the same meaning. The term was coined by Michael Hauben and recently developed by a French entrepreneur (Wikipedia).
