{"id":1414286,"date":"2022-04-01T07:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1414286"},"modified":"2022-04-01T07:31:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T11:31:06","slug":"ai-weiweis-memoir-tries-to-tell-chinese-history-honestly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ai-weiweis-memoir-tries-to-tell-chinese-history-honestly\/","title":{"rendered":"Ai Weiwei\u2019s Memoir Tries To Tell Chinese History Honestly"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fai-weiweis-memoir-tries-to-tell-chinese-history-honestly%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1414286&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/AiWeiWei.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Chinese Community Party (CCP) never likes an honest account of history. It has spent tremendous amounts of time and resources revising Chinese history, hiding the atrocities the party committed while casting the party in the most favorable light. <\/p>\n<p>For some Chinese, preserving their memories has become one of the most potent ways to hold the CCP accountable. Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei adds his voice in such an effort by publishing a new memoir,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/duckduckgo.com\/y.js?ad_provider=bing&#038;eddgt=7aH1_PczTTPJkyA3dRcuLA%3D%3D&#038;rut=9593b16e964ff0e46cfbe886729712a2e0a77ac45d0a854a0638e4618234f2d8&#038;u3=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Faclick%3Fld%3De8L7PIcv0RhLgW9drKVnlZ9zVUCUxSowOa8K%2DR0kPOw7vPlg62QHwQsT_95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the book\u2019s foreword, Ai Weiwei wrote, \u201cIdeological indoctrination exposed us to an intense, invasive light that made our memories vanish like shows.\u201d Ai felt a sense of urgency to provide his teenage son Ai Lao with a written record of the lives of himself and his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ai Weiwei grew up in China and is the son of a famous Chinese poet, Ai Qing. The book\u2019s first half is about Ai Qing\u2019s life, especially his sufferings between 1957 to 1976. <\/p>\n<p>Mao Zedong launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957 to purge intellectuals who criticized the CCP\u2019s policies. As a well-known cultural figure in China, Ai Qing was forced to undergo a spiritual and ideological \u201creform through labor.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Chinese authorities first expelled Ai Qing and his family to the cold wilderness of China\u2019s northeast region. Then they relocated the Ai family to Xinjiang, a far western region where the CCP is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims and minorities today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Ai family suffered the most during the cultural revolution, and they were sent to the Gurbantunggut Desert, known as \u201cLittle Siberia.\u201d Some of the best writing of this book occurs when Ai Weiwei uses almost poetic language to describe the humiliating and inhuman punishment his father had to endure.<\/p>\n<p>Sixty-year-old Ai Qing was ordered to clean 13 communal toilets, \u201cwhose facilities consisted mainly of a row of squatting stations above a cesspit.\u201d The work was labor-intensive, especially during the winter months \u201cwhen the feces would freeze into icy pillars.\u201d But here\u2019s how Ai Qing took it, \u201cBefore he began to apply himself to each latrine, Father would always light a cigarette and size up the work, as though admiring a Rodin sculpture.\u201d Yet Ai Qing\u2019s health, including his eyesight, quickly deteriorated due to overwork and poor nutrition.<\/p>\n<p>As difficult as Ai Qing\u2019s sufferings were, many of his contemporaries endured far worse and some never made it out alive. Ai Qing survived the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family returned to Beijing. Later the government restored his pay and status. Many people in Ai Qing\u2019s generation, including Ai Qing himself, chose not to talk about their experiences because they didn\u2019t want to risk provoking the Chinese authorities and bringing more harm to their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Disgust as Inspiration<\/h2>\n<p>The CCP has also worked overtime to revise its country\u2019s history between 1949 to 1979. The result is that generations of Chinese born after the 1980s have no knowledge of the real history from that period. Ai Weiwei wrote that even if today\u2019s younger generation of Chinese knew the actual history, \u201cThey might not even care, for they learn submission before they have developed an ability to raise doubts and challenge assumptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Weiwei cares because he not only bore witness to his father\u2019s suffering but also had the front-row seat of experiencing how an authoritarian regime worked. His early life experience planted the seed of a rebellious attitude toward authorities, especially the CCP. In the second half of the book, Ai Weiwei gives a detailed account of his journey to become an artist and political activist and how the state punished him, just like his father endured decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>Ai Weiwei\u2019s artistic output spans many genres, from photos to documentary films to large installments. Ai is known for being a provocateur, and Ai\u2019s art and his political activism often go hand-in-hand. <\/p>\n<p>One of his most famous photos was is of him giving a middle finger in front of the Heavenly Peace Gate in Tiananmen Square, a place that often serves as a symbol of Communist China. Another piece of Ai\u2019s public art was the display of 9,000 backpacks, which he used to memorialize school children who were killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, as a result of the CCP failing to enforce adequate building codes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of his art and activism, Ai Weiwei wrote, \u201cMy inspiration and boldness came from disgust and exasperation. My impatience with the timidity of my father\u2019s generation\u2026 I openly declared my opposition to the status quo, reaffirming, through the act of non-cooperation, my responsibility to take a critical stance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Ai earned international fame, his art and political activism eventually got him arrested. The Chinese authorities detained him for 81 days in 2011. After releasing him, the Chinese authorities accused him of tax invasion \u2013 Ai said it was a trumped-up charge \u2013 and demanded Ai to pay more than $2 million as a fine. His passport was confiscated, and he wasn\u2019t allowed to travel abroad for several years. Today, Ai Weiwei lives in the United Kingdom as an exile. He has said many times that if he returns to China now, he would be arrested for sure.<\/p>\n<p>The best quote in the book is when Ai Weiwei explains why he would remain outspoken despite the danger. He wrote, \u201cPeople asked me, <em>How do you dare say those things on your blog? <\/em>If I don\u2019t say them, it will put me in an even more dangerous situation. But if I say them, change might occur. To speak is better than not to speak; if everyone spoke, this society would have transformed itself long ago. Change happens when every citizen says what he or she wants to say; one person\u2019s silence exposes another to danger.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Preserving Memories<\/h2>\n<p>This book is well-written but not without shortcomings. Ai is not a Trump supporter and has issued many public\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/art-world\/ai-weiwei-criticizes-donald-trumps-732392\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticisms<\/a>\u00a0of Trump, especially on Trump\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/style\/article\/ai-wei-wei-trump-border-wall\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">border wall<\/a>. In this book, Ai compared Trump\u2019s \u201clate-night tweets\u201d during his presidency with Chairman Mao Zedong\u2019s daily directives during the early days of the Cultural Revolution. Many people who dislike Trump point to this comparison as evidence that Trump is a dictator, just like Mao.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Ai\u2019s comparison of Trump and Mao was wildly misplaced because there is little resemblance between Mao and Trump. During his presidency, the corporate media united with big tech and other institutions to collectively reject Trump and undermine his policies. Trump had no other outlets to get his messages out accurately than through social media. Also, there are always many competing voices on social media, and Trump never had the power to compel any American to listen to him and social media platforms eventually banned him.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, Mao wielded absolute power. He controlled all the media in China, and his messages were the only ones that appeared in Chinese media. His voice was the lone voice Chinese people were allowed and required to listen to daily during Mao\u2019s rule, and no alternative voices or messages were allowed. The differences between Trump and Mao are so vast that insisting these two were similar undermines Ai Weiwei\u2019s stated goal of recording history truthfully.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another shortcoming of the book is that Ai Weiwei avoids discussing fair criticism of his work. Some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ocula.com\/magazine\/insights\/ai-weiweis-self-centred-activism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accuse<\/a>\u00a0him of \u201cusing contemporary political issues\u201d only to make a name for himself, regardless of others\u2019 feelings. <\/p>\n<p>For example, in the afterword of the book, Ai mentioned several art pieces he had done to highlight the plight of the Mediterranean refugee crisis. Yet Ai omitted to mention one particular piece, in which he posed as the drowned three-year-old Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi in a photo for an Indian magazine. The image was widely\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/archive\/ai-weiwei-alan-kurdi-photograph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticized<\/a>\u00a0because many consider it \u201d Lazy, cheap, [and] crass.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Ai Weiwei said he wrote the book to tell his son who he truly is. However, by omitting fair criticism and without self-reflection, it seems his son and readers don\u2019t get a complete picture of Ai.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The title of the book came from one of Ai Qing\u2019s poem written after he visited the ruins of the ancient Silk Road. Ai Qing wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>Of a thousand years of joys and sorrows<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Not a trace can be found<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>You who are living, living the best life you can<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Don\u2019t count on the earth to preserve memory<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Books such as Ai Weiwei\u2019s certainly help preserve memories for someone who may care to know the truth in the future, including his own son.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Helen Raleigh, CFA, is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. She&#8217;s a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.  Helen is the author of several books, including &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Confucius-Never-Said-Helen-Raleigh\/dp\/1499185278\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&#038;keywords=Helen+Raleigh+Confucius+Never+Said&#038;qid=1606079469&#038;sr=8-1\">Confucius Never Said<\/a>&#8221; and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Backlash-How-Chinas-Aggression-Backfired\/dp\/1736008501\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&#038;qid=1606006113&#038;sr=8-1\">Backlash: How Communist China&#8217;s Aggression Has Backfired<\/a>.&#8221; Follow her on Parler and Twitter: @HRaleighspeaks.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chinese Community Party (CCP) never likes an honest account of history. It has spent tremendous amounts of time and resources revising Chinese history, hiding the atrocities the party committed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1414286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1414286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1414286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1414286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1414286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}