It might be part of his family’s tradition, in that his father Ai Qing, once a celebrated poet and friend to Mao, was sent to a horrific labor camp, where Ai Weiwei grew up--in exile in his own country. Top notes are osmanthus, violet and apricot; middle notes are jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, rose and geranium; base notes are sandalwood, patchouli and oak. This memoir recounts much from the life of the author's father (the '30's through the '60's) through about 6 years ago, when the author emigrated. Many of Ai Weiwei's international political positions are controversial, but living in the West has made it possible for him to express those ideas. Das Buch wartet zudem mit vielen kleinen Skizzen, Bildern und einer teilweise lyrischen Sprache auf.

With 2 vials of Joy, revel in the sheer delight and exuberance of this classic scent that's been adored for generations. This Collector's Edition Mini Gift Set is a true testament to Jean Patou's legacy of creating fragrances that stand the test of time.It took more than 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen (the town that once made the imperial porcelain for over a thousand years), two and a half years to manufacture this huge pile of ceramic husks out of the kaolin from local mountains.

Joy is inspired by that warm, glowing feeling of a beautiful summer’s evening surrounded by orchards, meadows and herb gardens. But all the art interspersed within the text is fascinating and I can’t wait to read up more about his installations as well as about his father’s poetry. To be fair, Al Weiwei was constructing his artistic identity in communist China, not the Ivy Towers of the American education system, but his writing contains the same thinly-veiled elitism. At once ambitious and intimate, Ai Weiwei's 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows offers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.

Ai Weiwei - one of the world's most famous artists and activists - weaves a century-long epic tale of China through the story of his own life and that of his father, Ai Qing, the nation's most celebrated poet. As for me, I've learnt a lot about contemporary China, about the impact of a totalitarian state on people's life. If there is any group of people who seek freedom of expression, it is artists, and as one of those artists this man does not veer off course. This could be a cool book if it were trimmed down and focused in more on the history of China’s oppression of the arts – if that sounds interesting to you, then you can just read the first half of the book which focuses on his father, and skip the rest. The day that he's released after the Chinese government detained him for 81 days, the most emotion we get from him is: “I was looking forward to seeing Lu Qing and Ai Lao,” his wife and son.

Years of Joys and Sorrows is a memoir by Ai Weiwei of the sociopolitical changes in the 20th century in China and of his own place in the larger picture as an artist, philosopher, and activist. Although it offers a certain perspective (both author and his father were dissenters who spent much time being repressed/persecuted), I felt like I learned a lot. The book is powerful because it offers a wide-ranging glance over China's recent past, just so we can glimmer its painful horrific violent cauldron; empires fell, people fought, killed and were killed in great numbers, Japan invaded, the Western powers were neglectful or worst yet, conceited, and through it all artists forged on. I've reached the close of my review, and I haven't decided to tip my rating over to the four star side of things.

Outspoken artist and international human-rights icon Ai Weiwei here chillingly documents--originally as a record for his young son, and subsequently for all the rest of us--the brutal life of privation and repression he experienced growing into manhood in remote China before, during, and after the Cultural Revolution as the son of a prominent poet, one of many thousands of wrongfully imprisoned political prisoners. No matter how the Chinese government tries to suppress him, Ai Weiwei never fails to speak up and to use his work to speak for those who are unable to speak for themselves.