Ai Weiwei has launched his widely anticipated memoir, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, in November 2021. The memoir presents a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating Ai’s artistic process.
In the memoir, Ai recounts his childhood in exile with his father Ai Qing, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America. With candor and wit, he details his return to China and his rise from being artistic unknown to becoming an art world superstar and international human rights activist—and how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime.