I hate this photo too.  This is Ai Weiwei, a Beijing artist, the artist who contributed to the design of the Birds Nest built for the 2008 Olympics.  Go here to read about him:  Beijing artist blog .  He is not part of the comfy, happy China visited on the tours (no artist is).  He is one of the Chinese who is pushing the government to evolve and open up.  This is his photo, taken by himself (this is art, however some of his art is a good deal better) that I copied from www.Socialtext.net