Love the Future

As news broke on April 3, 2011, that artist and activist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) had been detained in Beijing, Chinese web censors apparently moved to scrub references to Ai from popular microblog platforms such as Sina Weibo and QQ Weibo. An alternative phrase quickly emerged to substitute for Ai’s name. Literally meaning “love the future,” the phrase, ai weilai (爱未来), could be readily spotted on China’s web, as documented by China Digital Times.