{"product_id":"ai-weiwei-s-blog-writings-interviews-and-digital-rants-2006-2009-isbn-9780262015219","title":"Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009","description":"\u003cb\u003eManifestos and immodest proposals from China's most famous artist and activist, culled from his popular blog, shut down by Chinese authorities in 2009.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2006, even though he could barely type, China's most famous artist started blogging. For more than three years, Ai Weiwei turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings. He wrote about the Sichuan earthquake (and posted a list of the schoolchildren who died because of the government's “tofu-dregs engineering”), reminisced about Andy Warhol and the East Village art scene, described the irony of being investigated for “fraud” by the Ministry of Public Security, made a modest proposal for tax collection. Then, on June 1, 2009, Chinese authorities shut down the blog. This book offers a collection of Ai's notorious online writings translated into English—the most complete, public documentation of the original Chinese blog available in any language.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe New York Times called Ai “a figure of Warholian celebrity.” He is a leading figure on the international art scene, a regular in museums and biennials, but in China he is a manifold and controversial presence: artist, architect, curator, social critic, justice-seeker. He was a consultant on the design of the famous “Bird's Nest” stadium but called for an Olympic boycott; he received a Chinese Contemporary Art “lifetime achievement award” in 2008 but was beaten by the police in connection with his “citizen investigation” of earthquake casualties in 2009. \u003ci\u003eAi Weiwei's Blog \u003c\/i\u003edocuments Ai's passion, his genius, his hubris, his righteous anger, and his vision for China. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304109560037,"sku":"NP9780262015219","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262015219.jpg?v=1767721157","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/ai-weiwei-s-blog-writings-interviews-and-digital-rants-2006-2009-isbn-9780262015219","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}