National Art Museum of China

This guide to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing opens on a September morning in 1979, when twenty-three self-taught artists, including a young Ai Weiwei, tied over a hundred paintings to the railings outside after the museum turned them away. Calling themselves the Stars, they broke from the approved style until police tore the display down two days later. Stand at those same railings along the outer wall as you listen.