Ai Weiwei and the lost backpack: A Chinese exile’s brush with bureaucracy

A backpack is forgotten on the train. It seems a simple enough problem to resolve, especially in Germany, oft famed for its orderliness and efficiency. But when you’re living as a refugee or in exile, the documents the bag contained are not mere pieces of paper to be reissued. They very well may be irreplaceable – a displaced person’s only means of existing within a coldly bureaucratic society. To lose them can be devastating, turning borders into walls.

In this comic, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei relates such an experience. Exiled from China since 2015, he is all too aware of the vital importance of documents like passports and visas for those forced from their native lands. According to Ai, “Wait is the most frequent word heard by those seeking an exit, and often the last.” One’s freedom of movement across borders is almost always determined by documentation, and the wait for the proper papers can feel endless. Sometimes it never ends, and for some it is a matter of life or death.

Referring to this bureaucracy, Ai wonders, “Why does bureaucracy exist?” Why should displaced people live and die by its whims and limitations?

For a time, Germany was known as a haven for such refugees, but that is changing. As the country grapples with internal problems, swinging toward the political right to the tune of anti-immigrant rhetoric, its attitude towards refugees and migrants has soured. And, while Ai Weiwei’s story of losing a backpack on one of the country’s trains may seem anecdotal at first glance, it shines a light on something more sinister about how our bureaucratic world treats those whose existence is threatened by the precariousness of whether or not they have the right paperwork.