1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir

Ai Weiwei is one of China’s most famous and infamous internationally known artists. On April 3, 2011, as he was about to fly out of Beijing's Capital Airport, he states, " ...a swarm of plainclothes police descended on me, and for the next eighty-one days I disappeared into a black hole." The title of the book is part of a poem written by his father, Ai Qing, who was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution in China. This book is a memoir about his father, himself, his country, and the necessity for freedom of expression everywhere in the world.