Summary

Chapter Twelve focuses on Ai Weiwei, one of China’s most popular artists and dissidents. Ai’s artwork, created in a studio in Beijing, was extremely unconventional, incorporating various media and creative approaches. Osnos notes that Ai’s father had been blacklisted by the CCP for writing a controversial short story, subjecting the family to squalid living conditions and regular humiliation by government supporters. Ai spent time in New York City as a young artist and enjoyed the financial backing of several Western artists. Unlike most Chinese artists, who relied on state patronage, this gave Ai the ability to criticize the government. He did so through a blog, on which he wrote thinly veiled criticisms of the country’s leadership, drawing the attention and surveillance of state authorities. He engaged in his most prominent dissident activity after a major earthquake struck Sichuan province...