A Thousand Names For Joy: How To Live In Harmony With The Way Things Are

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Ai Weiwei grew up with his father as they were moved from desolate post to post during the 40s and 50s, and it isn't until the end of his autobiography and father's biography, that we find the reason for the writing of this volume: "That night, as the hours stretched out ahead of me, I thought of my father, and I realized just how incomplete my understanding of him was. It scans very well and doesn't read in the English edition as though it were translated, which is obviously the ideal. I learned a lot about China, plus Ai Weiwei’s art, and found some of the sentiments very pertinent to a number of culture today. If you started reading this book with your focus firmly set on Ai Weiwei, you would be forgiven for wondering whether you were reading the right book, considering how much time the first section spends drawing up a portrait of Ai Weiwei's father, Ai Qing: Chinese poet, Parisian student, anti-nationalist, sometimes social philanderer and target under the Anti-Rightest Movement and Cultural Revolution.

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. However, after the first one hundred pages or so, this all changed and I could feel the person writing, could feel that he felt what he was writing. He endured many hardships and in spite of, or because of, that Ai Weiwei became an activist, using his art to speak for the rights of people. It is powerful and interesting, a unique blend of historical fact, memoir, and philosophical thoughts.It was an impressive journey to Ai Weiwei's family history that is tightly connected to the history of China. Ai Weiwei was definitely a fighter, a famous Protest Artist, and had a very high opinion of himself. It gave him time to reflect about his father, and part of his country's history that was blocked out of existence, and fear silenced many of its citizens, who were unable to talk about what had taken place and how they had been treated.

His father was among those who dared not speak about what had taken place, for fear of further punishment and mistreatment. Life has taught many before me the woes of holding up someone as idol and will teach many more long after my bones have been ground to dust, but it has also given me the ability to hold many true realities in the palm of my hand and not throw out the baby with the bathwater on any of them. In addition, this wall-mounted Rak Joy Mirror features a generous height of 682mm, a width of 1000mm and a slimline depth of 22mm. For someone who has been a witness to his family being tormented, punished and exiled, and having survived similar treatment, Ai Weiwei takes the long view and has a spiritual patience about repression and about his art. Ai's writing style definitely takes some time to adjust to - he is blunt and concise no matter what he is discussing, and he often blurs the boundaries between memoir, biography, and catalog raisonnee.At Parfums De France, we offer a diverse range of designer niche perfumes and colognes with unique scent blends.