By Star Chang, posted Oct 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM, 1,445 views,

Ai Weiwei’s ‘Gangnam Style’ Video is Banned in China

Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei is pushing Chinese authorities’ buttons again, this time with a “Gangnam style” video spoof that was quickly blocked from Chinese websites. In the video, Ai sports a neon-pink T-shirt, black jacket, dark sunglasses, wearing a handcuffs and energetically mimics rodeo-style dance moves made famous by South Korean rapper PSY, whose original video became an Internet sensation, especially in China. What is Ai’s message ? The artist calls his version ‘Grass-Mud Horse Style,’ a reference to a Chinese Internet meme that employs a pun on an obscene phrase to mock government censorship of the Web …

Mr. Ai made the video after hearing that the family home of his friend, who is a Chinese rock musician, was being demolished. The artist, with the help from his foreigner friends in Beijing, filmed for a bit over 10 minutes and used an entire day to edit. Then he uploaded his own cover version of the rap video to YouTube. Google’s YouTube is blocked in China, but the remix was also re-uploaded to Chinese video-sharing sites. A lot of people, tens of thousands, viewed it before it was removed by censors. Now the irony video has already been totally removed, deleted entirely, and Chinese web user can’t see it in China.

We are surprise that Ai Weiwei can successfully upload his home-made video to Youtube in Beijing, the authorities seem not applying too much restriction on his internet connection, or maybe he might be just using a powerful VPN service. By the way, we still prefer the iPad dance from Ai Weiwei, his new remix of ‘Grass-Mud Horse Style,’ looks really crappy with awful editing.

SOURCE: The Lede @NYT