२ मार्च, २०२२

"What makes this memoir so absorbing is that it traces China’s tumultuous recent history through the eyes of its most renowned twentieth-century poet, Ai Qing, and his son, Ai Weiwei, now equally renowned in the global art world."

"It guides us from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist era in the 1930s, through Mao Zedong’s revolution in the 1950s and 1960s, and on to the 'reform era' of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s and Xi Jinping’s current Leninist restoration, explaining how, as Ai Weiwei writes, 'the whirlpool that swallowed up my father upended my life too, leaving a mark on me that I carry to this day.'... It does not take many pages of this memoir to leave one feeling drowned in toxic revolutionary brine. But even as readers will be repelled by the relentless savagery of China’s capricious revolution, they will be uplifted by this father-and-son story of humanism stubbornly asserted against it. Ai Weiwei reminds us that freedom is part of being human in the modern world: 'Although China grows more powerful, its moral decay simply spreads anxiety and uncertainty in the world.'" 

Writes Orville Schell, "The Uncompromising Ai Weiwei/Ai Weiwei’s memoir is a father-and-son story of devotion to free expression and resistance to state pressure" (NYRB). 

The book — which I finished reading yesterday — is "1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows." 

I should add — on the subject of fathers — that Ai Weiwei has his own son, and, in the text, that little boy flows from his grandfather and father. I highlighted this:

One day in my studio, Ai Lao turned to me and said, very seriously, “I don’t just do whatever I feel like doing—first I do something, and then I look at what it is.” 

He had developed a special interest in words, a flair for language. On August 13, he wrote a poem to his grandma. “Fire, why do you burn so fiercely? Mars does not answer, and just keeps burning. Mercury and Mars are so far away they never need to bump into each other, and a desert lies between them, a desert with a pagoda.” 

Once, in the car, I was telling him stories and asked, “What should we write on a hero’s tombstone?” 

“Dad, write this,” he said. “ ‘I hope a breeze that likes him blows over his tombstone.’ ” I loved that line. Keep it for me, I thought.

११ टिप्पण्या:

Howard म्हणाले...

Kids say the darndest things

Temujin म्हणाले...

Ms. Althouse- did you like the book? Would you recommend the book?

David Begley म्हणाले...

China is run by a large criminal gang. They have the guns and the jails. Nothing will change.

Critter म्हणाले...

China’s revolution was “capricious”? Odd word for it. I’d use evil. There was clear intent in it and it was carried out ruthlessly. Hardly capricious.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"Ms. Althouse- did you like the book?"

Yes. Especially the first half, about Ai Qing. The second half has a lot about Ai Weiwei's art and political activism, with a bit too much self-promotion.

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"relentless savagery of China’s capricious revolution"

Already noted upthread, but was it "capricious"? Or was the relentless savagery a completely predictable, inherent, logical feature of that revolution, and any revolution?

Caprice is a copout: progressive revolution requires savagery. Been that way since 1789.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

Temujin said...Ms. Althouse- did you like the book? Would you recommend the book?

It would be ironic if she didn't like it. Her reviews and excerpts here caused me to put it on my reading list.

Anthony म्हणाले...

"The Uncompromising Ai Weiwei/Ai Weiwei’s memoir is a father-and-son story of devotion to free expression and resistance to state pressure"

Insurrection!!!!!

Howard म्हणाले...

David: love your hopelessly defeatist attitude. How refreshingly Un-American. Trump's done a great job manufacturing cucks in the heartland.

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

"China is run by a large criminal gang. They have the guns and the jails. Nothing will change."

We have more guns and more jails and we use our guns and jails more than the Chinese. No surprise, as our representatives (sic) in Congress amount to nothing more than servants of a complex of criminal gangs, (the giant banks and corporate special interests who essentially control Congress, and by extension, the USA).

Michelle Dulak Thomson म्हणाले...

Robert Cook,

(1) Our guns are mostly in private hands. The Chinese would not and do not allow that. Apart from some few hunters and a couple of other tiny exceptions, gun ownership is restricted to the military, the police, and private security firms.

(2) The death penalty is rather common in China -- as in "a majority of executions worldwide take place in China." Not that they bandy such figures about; getting hold of data is very difficult. You don't need jail space if you're just going to take the prisoner out and shoot him. Though they seem to be switching over to lethal injection. Time was that relatives of the executed were billed for the bullets, and organs were harvested for transplant the night before the execution.