Disturbing the Peace

In 2009, Tan Zuoren, an environmentalist conducting independent “citizen investigation” into the death tolls of the Sichuan Earthquake, was sentenced to five years in prison for inciting subversion of state power. Before the trial was opened in Chengdu, Ai Weiwei, a renowned artist who was leading a similar “citizen investigation” in Beijing, arrived in Chengdu to support the Tan Zuoren case as a witness. On the night before the trial, however, a group of people who claimed to be police broke into Ai’s hotel room and held Ai and his assistants captive for the next 11 hours, preventing them from appearing at court. Meanwhile, Liu Yanping, Ai’s assistant, was taken away to an unknown location. Disturbing the Peace documents Ai Weiwei and two human rights lawyers’ numerous rounds of confrontations and negotiations with the police. Through these intense, absurd, and humorous interactions, Ai probes into the logic, organization, and rhetoric of policing in today’s China and works out the possibilities of resistance and agitation. —Fairbanks Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University