Man, I just now understood Ai Weiwei's statement because of your comment. China, as a civilization, has had a diminishing influence on the world, culturally speaking, since the Tang or perhaps the Song dynasty. The strictness and centralized power of the last two dynasty and current government really shackled the creative output of its people. While we can argue that the Han and Tang dynasty has an influence on the world, it's hard to say the same of the dynasties that followed.