We Are All Water is one of the nine works by Yoko Ono in the show Golden Ladders. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Xu says Ono's screaming at the academy was "a pretty feminist cry" and in comparison, "male voices don't sound strong enough".

During her onstage discussion with Xu, Ono seemed to talk more on feminism than her art. She said "I love you" to her audience of mostly students from time to time. They responded with cheers and whistles.

In a catalogue for the Beijing show, Ono wrote: "Please don't stop me being the way I am. I don't want to be old and sick like many others of my age.

"Let me be free! Let me be me! ... Love me plenty for what I am!"

The same auditorium had gone crazy during David Hockney's speech in April, when the English painter was in Beijing for an exhibition at Pace gallery.

Jens Faurschou, the Danish owner of the Faurschou Foundation, says Ono's ongoing exhibition in Beijing is a result of a breakfast meeting with Emma Zhang, the deputy director of Faurschou Foundation Beijing, in Berlin a few years ago.