1000 Years Of Joys & Sorrows (Us)/T

Book Title: 1000 Years Of Joys & Sorrows (Us)/T
ISBN: 9780553419481
By Author(s):AI WEIWEI
By Publisher:RANDOM HOUSE US
Format:TPB

The intimate and expansive (Time) memoir ofone of the most important artists working in the world today (Financial Times),telling a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating his artistic process

Poignant . . . An illuminating through-line emerges in the many parallelsAitraces between his life and his fathers.The New York Times Book Review(Editors Choice)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:Time,BookPage, Booklist,Kirkus Reviews

Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nations most celebrated poet,AiWeiweis father,AiQing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as Little Siberia, whereAiQing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets.AiWeiweirecounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warholand the artworks of Marcel Duchamp. With candor and wit, he details his return to China and his rise from artistic unknown to art world superstar and international human rights activistand how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime.

AiWeiweis sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions around the globe, and his architectural achievements include helping to design the iconic Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing. 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,AiWeiweiexplores the origins of his exceptional creativity and passionate political beliefs through his life story and that of his father, whose creativity was stifled.

At once ambitious and intimate,AiWeiweis1000 Years of Joys and Sorrowsoffers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.