Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei posted a photo of himself brandishing a Chinese passport on his Instagram account Wednesday with the caption, “Today I got my passport.” The image represents a significant step for Ai, who has been denied foreign travel since his 81-day detention in 2011.
Ai, who grew up in a family of dissidents who were exiled in far north and then far west China, has had a tumultuous relationship of his own with China’s communist government. Although he was publicly feted during his early years and later encouraged to maintain his popular social-media blog, the tide suddenly turned in 2010 and 2011, when he was briefly placed under house arrest and then detained for nearly three months.
Though authorities alleged economic crimes, many suspected the detention was connected instead to Ai’s outspoken criticism of Chinese politics. (One particularly provocative artwork featured Ai nude but for a stuffed alpaca, with a title that can be translated as Mud Horse Covers the Center, but whose meaning may also be interpreted as “F— your mother, the Party Central Committee,” the Sunday Timesnoted in 2011.)
Ai was released after 81 days of detention but told he could not travel as he was still suspected of crimes including bigamy, pornography and illicit exchange of foreign currency, Reuters reported in 2012. He has continued to work internationally despite his restricted movement, organizing shows from Berlin to Brooklyn from afar and most recently transforming the disused prison island of Alcatraz in San Francisco for an exhibition.
See the Dalai Lama's Life in Pictures
The 14th Dalai Lama at his enthronement in Lhasa, Tibet, Feb. 22, 1940.APThe Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, second in rank as spiritual leader, pictured in Tibet in 1954.Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama is seen with members of a Chinese government delegation on their official visit to Tibet in 1956.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty ImagesAveraging 12 miles a day through the Himalayas, the Dalai Lama is shown journeying through the Karpo Pass, one of the highest on the flight route of the 23-year-old ruler from Lhasa. His flight began on March 17, 1959. Here the escape party is seen on March 28, three days before reaching sanctuary in the free zone of India. APThe Dalai Lama pictured in India circa 1965.Michael Ochs Archives—Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama and his loyal follower, actor Richard Gere, in New York in September 1990.Richard Corkery—NY Daily News/Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama makes an appearance at the University of California, Los Angeles in May 2001.David McNew—Getty ImagesPresident George W. Bush winks while he sits with the Dalai Lama during a ceremony to present him with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, D.C., in October 2007.Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama speaks during a ceremony to present him with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington, D.C., in October 2007.Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty ImagesPrince Charles receives the Dalai Lama at Clarence House in London in June 2012.Gareth Cattermole—Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama speaks onstage at the One World Concert at Syracuse University in New York in October 2012.Neilson Barnard—Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama during a news conference at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester, United Kingdom, in June 2012.Christopher Furlong—Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama visits Madame Tussauds and poses with a wax figure of himself in Sydney in June 2013.Getty ImagesTibetan Buddhist monks holding ceremonial scarfs stand in a line to welcome the Dalai Lama as he arrives at the Jhonang Takten Phuntsok Choeling monastery in Shimla, India, in March 2014. Tenzin Choejor—APThe Dalai Lama stands at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., in February 2015. Stephen Crowley—The New York Times/Redux
