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Internationally-renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been missing since his April 3 detention by Chinese authorities at Beijing Airport. Officials say that he has been arrested for economic crimes and for visiting Taiwan without the necessary special permit Chinese citizens need before visiting the island. Mr. Weiwei’s arrest is the latest in a series of arrests, harassment and forced disappearances of Chinese lawyers, writers, activists and other political dissenters. While the Chinese state is extremely powerful in controlling the lives of its citizens, it is a country in great flux. In her newest work, Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China, author and media critic Jianying Zha profiles entrepreneurs, intellectuals and artists at the forefront of an ever-expanding Chinese economy. Her six subjects belong to a growing elite responsible for shaping Chinese society as the country continues to toe the line between absolute government control and deregulation.

GUEST: Jianying Zha’s earlier books include China Pop (in English), and the award-winning book The Eighties (in Chinese) a cultural retrospective of the 1980s in China. She has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and various Chinese publications, and spends her time between New York and Beijing.

Listen to Part 1 of the interview with Jianying Zha here: http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=20557