1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows

Last updated

1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir is a 2021 memoir by Ai Weiwei. Allan H. Barr is the translator of the English version. Crown published the book in the United States, and Bodley Head published the book in the United Kingdom. [1]

Contents

The title refers to poetry done by Ai's father, Ai Qing. The book also chronicles similarities between the lives of Ai Qing and Ai Weiwei. [2]

Background

While he had been incarcerated, Ai decided to chronicle his own biography because he wanted to leave a record of his life for his child, [2] especially as Ai Weiwei feared the Chinese government could try to remove other records related to his own life. [3]

Ai Weiwei also wrote the book as a way of resolving how he felt he had, in the words of Jiayang Fan of The New York Times , an "unbridgeable gap" with Ai Qing. [2]

Contents

The memoir chronicles periods when Ai came into disputes with the Government of the People's Republic of China. [2]

Release

The BBC hosted an audio reading done by Benedict Wong. [4]

Reception

Joan Gaylord of the Christian Science Monitor described the book as "A fascinating biography" and "a testament to that creative spirit." [3]

Sean O'Hagan of The Guardian wrote that the book "is above all a story of inherited resilience, strength of character and self-determination." [5]

Publishers Weekly gave a starred review, and argued that the book "easily sits in the top tier of dissident writing." [6] Kirkus Reviews described it as "beautiful and poignant". [7]

Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail described the portions about Ai Qing as being "Perhaps the most gripping". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Tan</span> American novelist (born 1952)

Amy Ruth Tan is an American author best known for her novel The Joy Luck Club (1989), which was adapted into a 1993 film. She is also known for other novels, short story collections, children's books, and a memoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ai Qing</span> Chinese poet (1910-1996)

Ai Qing, born Jiang Zhenghan and styled Jiang Haicheng, was a 20th century Chinese poet. He was known under his pen names Linbi, Ke'a and Ejia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew O'Hagan</span> Scottish author (born 1968)

Andrew O'Hagan is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. Three of his novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize and he has won several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benedict Wong</span> English actor (born 1971)

Benedict Wong is an English actor. He began his career on stage before starring in the film Dirty Pretty Things (2003), which earned him a British Independent Film Award nomination, and the BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High (2002–2004). This was followed by roles in the films On a Clear Day (2005), Sunshine, Grow Your Own, and Moon (2009), and the CBBC series Spirit Warriors (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ai Weiwei</span> Chinese conceptual artist and dissident

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport for "economic crimes," and detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.

David Sheff is an American author of the books Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy, Game Over, The Buddhist on Death Row and All We Are Saying: The Last Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

The 2011 crackdown on dissidents in China refers to the arrest of dozens of mainland Chinese rights lawyers, activists and grassroots agitators in a response to the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests. Since the protests, at least 54 Chinese activists have been arrested or detained by authorities in the biggest crackdown on dissent since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Since the start of the protests in mid-February 2011, human rights groups have claimed that more than 54 people have been arrested by authorities, some of whom have been charged with crimes. Among those arrested are bloggers who criticise the government such as Ai Weiwei, lawyers who pursue cases against the government, and human rights activists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Ai Weiwei street art campaign</span>

The Free Ai Weiwei street art campaign was a series of protests during the PRC government's secret detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei for 81 days in 2011, organised by Hong Kong artists and art supporters. Various slogans calling for the immediate release of the artist such as "Free Ai Weiwei", and "Who's afraid of Ai Weiwei" accompany stencilled images of Ai were applied onto pavements, pedestrian overpass, and building walls all over Hong Kong, and similar posters and signs were displayed worldwide.

<i>Age of Ambition</i> 2014 nonfiction book by Evan Osnos

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China is a non-fiction book by Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Age of Ambition chronicles the lives of people that Osnos came to know while he was in China from 2005 to 2013.

<i>Do Not Say We Have Nothing</i> 2016 novel by Madeleine Thien

Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a novel by Madeleine Thien published in 2016 in Canada. It follows a 10-year-old girl and her mother who invite a Chinese refugee into their home. Critically acclaimed, in 2016 the author was awarded both the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for this novel. It was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize as well as the Women's Prize for Fiction.

<i>Sunflower Seeds</i> (artwork) Art installation by Ai Weiwei

Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) is an art installation created by contemporary artist and political activist Ai Weiwei. It was first exhibited at the Tate Modern art gallery in London from 12 October 2010 to 2 May 2011. The work consisted of one hundred million individually hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds which filled the gallery's 1,000 square metre Turbine Hall to depth of ten centimetres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Cohen (filmmaker)</span> American film producer

Andrew "Andy" Cohen is a three-time Emmy nominated independent filmmaker and journalist whose recent film,To Kill a Tiger, is nominated for a 2024 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

<i>Forget Sorrow</i>

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale is a 2010 biographical comic book by Belle Yang. It is a memoir about her relatives' experiences in China in the mid-20th century.

Lu Qing is a Chinese modern and contemporary artist.

<i>Vivos</i> (film) 2020 film

Vivos is a German-Mexican documentary film that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020. It was directed by Ai Weiwei. It is about the mass-kidnapping of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College in 2014. Using meditative photography and intimate interviews, artist and filmmaker Ai Wei Wei tells the stories of the Ayotzinapa victims. Focusing on the families directly affected by the deaths and disappearances, Ai Weiwei gives expression to an unsolved humanitarian crisis. The film is in English and Spanish with English subtitles and runs for 112 minutes. It is produced by AWW Germany GmbH and Cinephil is handling worldwide sales.

Ximei is a 2019 American documentary directed by Andy Cohen, co-directed by Gaylen Ross and produced by Ai Weiwei. In a gritty, vérité style, the film follows the harrowing crusades of a peasant woman named Liu Ximei. She fights for the survival of fellow AIDS victims who contracted AIDS in the 1990s when Chinese health officials encouraged millions of poor farmers to sell their blood for a pittance under catastrophic health conditions.

<i>Punch Me Up to the Gods</i> 2021 memoir by Brian Broome

Punch Me Up to the Gods is a memoir, written by Brian Broome and published May 18, 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The book won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction (2021), as well as the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir or Biography (2022).

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 2022.

<i>Messy Roots</i> 2022 graphic memoir by Laura Gao

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American is a graphic novel and memoir written and illustrated by Laura Gao, with coloring by Weiwei Xu. It was published on March 8, 2022, by HarperCollins. It originates from the comic "The Wuhan I Know," which describes the author's relationship to the city of Wuhan.

References

  1. Russeth, Andrew (2021-11-02). "Fathers and Sons: Ai Weiwei's "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows"". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Fan, Jiayang (2021-10-30). "For His Father and His Son, Ai Weiwei Is Determined to Leave a Trace". The New York Times . Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  3. 1 2 Gaylord, Joan (2021-12-20). "For Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, memoir as resistance". Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  4. "BBC Radio 4 - 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei". BBC. Archived from the original on 2021-10-31. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
  5. O'Hagan, Sean (2021-10-24). "1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei review – a life of dissent". The Guardian . Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  6. "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir". Publishers Weekly . 2021-11-11. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  7. "1000 YEARS OF JOYS AND SORROWS". Kirkus Reviews. 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  8. Taylor, Kate (12 November 2021). "Ai Weiwei's new memoir, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, examines the roots of the artist's lifelong rebellion". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 6 September 2022.