"Through
the sweeping, extraordinary story of his own and his father's lives, Ai
Weiwei - one of the world's most famous artists and activists - tells
an epic tale of China over the last 100 years.
Ai
Weiwei's sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions
around the globe, and his architectural achievements include helping to
design Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium. But his political
activism has long made him a target of the Chinese authorities, which
culminated in months of secret detention without charge in 2011. Here,
for the first time, Ai Weiwei explores the origins of his exceptional
creativity and passionate political beliefs through his own life story
and that of his father, whose own creativity was stifled.
Once
an intimate of Mao Zedong, Ai Weiwei's father was branded a rightist
during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a
desolate place known as 'Little Siberia', where Ai Qing
was sentenced to hard labour cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts
his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family
to study art in America. With candour and wit, he details his return to
China and his rise from artistic unknown to art world superstar and
international human rights activist - and how his work has been shaped
by living under a totalitarian regime.
At once ambitious and intimate, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
offers a deep understanding of the forces that have shaped modern
China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect
freedom of expression." (penguin.co.uk)
"Ai Weiwei is one of the world's most important living artists. Born in 1957, he lives in Cambridge, UK. Allan H. Barr is the author of a study in Chinese of a literary inquisition in the early Qing dynasty, Jiangnan yijie: Qing ren bixia de Zhuangshi shi'an, and the translator of several books by contemporary Chinese authors, including Yu Hua's China in Ten Words and Han Han's This Generation. He teaches Chinese at Pomona College in California." (penguin.co.uk)