he settled in the lower east side and befriended allen ginsberg and other influential artists. he briefly studied at parsons school of design, but dropped out after his professor told him his drawings had no heart. instead, he held a string of odd jobs, working in construction, cutting grass, cleaning houses, babysitting, even winning money in atlantic city as a blackjack guru. in 1993, ai weiwei returned to china because his father was ill. he founded a highly influential architecture firm, named fake design, and dedicated himself to art and writing. in 2008 after a massive earthquake in sichuan, china, ai weiwei launched a citizen investigation to collect the names of the more than 5000 schoolchildren who died, partially as a result of the highly shoddy government coconstruction of f the schools. ai weiwei was highly critical of the gogovernment's reresponse te earthquake, sasaying -- "they intimidate, they jail, they persecute parents who demand the truth, and they brazenly stomp on the constitution and the basic rights of man." while his citizen investigation catapulted him