In today's episode, Ai Weiwei speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about some of those memories, including the 81 days he spent detained by the Chinese government. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor ...

Ai Weiwei, thank you so much for being here. Your latest book, “Zodiac,” is a graphic memoir. And I’m wondering, it’s not just a comic book. We’re talking about part art history ...

SIMON: The artist and outspoken activist for ... and left China for Europe a few years later. The book ends with a picture of Ai Weiwei flashing his middle finger. It's a gesture he's become ...

Where do you think Ai Weiwei the artist would be without the Chinese ... CHANG: Well, as we mentioned this book, it is in large part, a written record for your son, Ai Lao, so that Ai Lao can ...

CLINTON: The prominent artist Ai Weiwei was taken into custody just this ... And you both suffered in exile, in imprisonment. You write in the book, quote, “The individual’s yearning for ...

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident who believes it his ... Ai was in New York to discuss his new book, the graphic memoir “Zodiac,” structured around the animals of the Chinese ...

“The more fucked-up a childhood you have, the better artist you become because you ... told here for the first time—so surprising. Ai Weiwei details growing up in exile on the edge of the ...

Ai Weiwei himself touches upon this in one of his quotations in his book Weiwei-isms (2012), when he says that art is: “About freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about ...