1910
Ai Qing, Ai Weiwei’s father, is born in Zhejiang Province on March 27.
1911–1949
The Xinhai Revolution overthrows the Qing dynasty in 1911, ending two millennia of imperial rule. The Republic of China is founded; Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) is elected its first provisional president on December 29, 1911. A period of instability follows, including an attempt to revive the monarchy, the Warlord Era, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Chinese Communist Party.
1929–1932
Ai Qing studies painting in Paris and discovers a love for poetry.
Ai Qing returns to China and joins the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai. Imprisoned for three years by the Nationalists, he nonetheless writes and publishes poetry.
1941–1943
Ai Qing meets Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Mao organizes the Yan’an Forum on Art and Literature and delivers a seminal speech on the relationship between art and politics. Ai Qing joins the Chinese Communist Party in 1943.
1949
The Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao, takes control of mainland China and establishes the People’s Republic of China on October 1.
The Chinese Communist Party encourages citizens to express opinions and openly criticize national policies, a period of liberalization subsequently known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign.
1957
Ai Weiwei is born in Beijing on May 18, to Ai Qing and his wife, Gao Ying (1934–).
1957–1959
The Anti-Rightist Movement (1957–1959) immediately follows the Hundred Flowers Campaign. Hundreds of thousands of intellectuals are persecuted on allegations of “rightism” and face punishments ranging from public criticism to exile.
Ai Qing is denounced as a rightist and exiled to Beidahuang, Heilongjiang Province, in northeast China together with his family. They are transferred to Shihezi, Xinjiang Province, in northwest China in 1959.
Mao initiates the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in May 1966, aiming to enforce Communism by removing capitalist, traditional, and cultural elements from Chinese society. Millions are accused of participating in “bourgeois” activities, suffering public humiliation, imprisonment, torture, seizure of property, and various forms of harassment. Numerous historic sites and cultural artifacts are destroyed.
Ai Qing is sent away to a rural region of Xinjiang Province to undergo further thought-reform through hard labor. He and his family return to Beijing in 1975.
1976
Mao passes away at the age of eighty-two on September 9. Thereafter, the political faction known as the Gang of Four is arrested, marking the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Reinstated as leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) promotes economic reform and “opening up” to the outside world, driving China toward a market-oriented economy. Although China reopens its doors to the world, the political regime remains a dictatorship, maintaining strict social and media control.
Ai Weiwei enrolls at the Beijing Film Academy and studies animation as part of the first class of students admitted after the Cultural Revolution.
1979
Rehabilitated, Ai Qing becomes a vice-chairman of the China Writer’s Association.
Ai Weiwei is a founding member of the Stars, the first movement to break away from the official aesthetic policies of the Chinese Communist Party. The first Stars exhibition takes place outside the National Art Museum.
Ai Weiwei studies English in the United States, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then in Berkeley, California.
1983–1993
Ai Weiwei relocates to New York in 1983, studying briefly at the Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. Ai makes a living from odd jobs, such as carpentry, babysitting, freelance photography, and street portraiture. He frequently visits museums and galleries and becomes influenced by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987).
1988
Ai Weiwei holds his first solo exhibition at Ethan Cohen/Art Waves in New York.
1989
On April 15, the death of Hu Yaobang (1915–1989), the purged Chinese Communist Party general secretary, sparks public mourning that turns into a nationwide protest demanding freedom and democracy. Government troops with tanks enter Beijing and crush the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square on June 4. Many civilians are killed, the exact number unknown owing to the government’s refusal to release an official death toll.
1993–1996
Ai Weiwei returns to Beijing for the first time in twelve years to care for his ailing father. Ai begins collecting antique furniture and pottery, and edits and publishes underground publications promoting the Chinese avant-garde. Ai Qing passes away on May 5, 1996.
1997
Ai Weiwei, with Hans van Dijk (1946–2002) and Frank Uytterhaegen (1954–2011), establishes the China Art Archives and Warehouse in Beijing, the first independent contemporary art space in China.
Ai Weiwei designs and builds his studio house in Caochangdi, a village on the outskirts of northeast Beijing.
Ai Weiwei participates in the 48th Venice Biennale, curated by Harald Szeemann (1933–2005).
2001
Ai Weiwei establishes Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., his design and architectural practice.
2002–2008
Ai Weiwei collaborates with the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron on the design of Beijing’s National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The team’s submission wins the bid in April 2003; construction of the stadium is completed in June 2008.
2003
The Golden Shield Project, the “Great Firewall of China,” begins operations in China. This censorship and surveillance project blocks all websites and online information considered “sensitive.” Websites affected include Google, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
2005
Ai Weiwei begins an online blog at the invitation of Chinese web portal SINA. Ai’s wide-ranging writings include social commentary, political criticism, and his thoughts on art and architecture.
2007
Ai Weiwei presents Fairytale at documenta 12, bringing 1,001 Chinese citizens to Kassel, Germany.
2007–2008
Ai Weiwei criticizes the Beijing Olympic Games and refuses to participate in the government’s propaganda campaign. Despite his role in designing the Beijing National Stadium, he does not attend the Olympics’ opening ceremony.
The Jiading district local government in Shanghai invites Ai Weiwei to design and build a studio in Malu township.
An 8.0-magnitude earthquake strikes Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008, killing over eighty thousand people. Thousands of the victims are students, trapped in collapsing school buildings. The disaster leads many to question quality and safety standards.
In response to the Chinese government’s lack of transparency, Ai Weiwei recruits volunteers through his blog and launches a Citizens’ Investigation to compile a list of student victims. Through the Citizens’ Investigation, the first large-scale, social-media-enabled civil rights action in China, 5,196 student names and birthdates are confirmed.
2009
As Ai Weiwei continues to blog about the earthquake and release data from the Citizens’ Investigation—penning over twenty-seven hundred posts and attracting more than twelve million visitors—his blog is shut down permanently. He begins using Twitter and tweets at @aiww.
Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu on August 12 to testify on behalf of Tan Zuoren (1954–), a writer-activist investigating the shoddy construction of collapsed schools accused of “inciting subversion of state power.” During the night before the trial, the police raid Ai’s hotel room and detain him to prevent his testifying. An officer beats him on the head during the altercation.
In September, as Ai prepares his So Sorry exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, he is found to be suffering from a brain hemorrhage caused by the beating in Sichuan, and undergoes emergency surgery.
2010
The public art sculpture Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads debuts at the São Paulo Biennial in September.
Ai Weiwei also presents Sunflower Seeds, a large-scale installation in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London, on October 12. The work comprises over one hundred million hand-sculpted and painted porcelain sunflower seeds, crafted by sixteen hundred artisans from Jingdezhen, a city known for porcelain production since the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
2010–2011
The Shanghai government informs Ai Weiwei on November 3, 2010, that his newly built studio is an illegal construction and must be demolished. In response, Ai organizes a river crab feast at the site, inviting his supporters. The police place Ai Weiwei under house arrest to prevent his attendance. The feast takes place without him on November 7, 2010.
On January 11, 2011, Ai Weiwei’s Shanghai studio is demolished with less than twenty-four hours’ notice.
2011
As the Jasmine Revolution sweeps across North Africa and the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party launches a major crackdown on dissidents in China. By some estimates, over two hundred dissidents, lawyers, activists, and writers in China are arrested or forced to disappear.
Chinese secret police arrest Ai Weiwei on April 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport, and he is detained for eighty-one days. He is released “on bail, pending trial” without formal charges on June 22. His passport is confiscated. Tax authorities impose fines and back taxes totaling RMB 15 million on Fake Ltd. on November 1.
In May, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads goes on view in New York City at the Pulitzer Fountain near Central Park.
Supporters initiate a fund-raising campaign for Ai Weiwei’s challenge of the tax case against Fake Ltd. Within ten days, from November 3 to 13, RMB 9 million are raised from over thirty thousand individuals.
2013
Ai Weiwei presents S.A.C.R.E.D. at a collateral event of the 55th Venice Biennale in the Church of Sant’Antonin in Castello, on May 29. Six large dioramas reproduce scenes of his daily life during his 2011 detention. Ai is unable to attend numerous exhibitions during the five-year period of his travel ban.
On November 30, Ai Weiwei places a bouquet of fresh flowers in the basket of the bicycle outside his studio entrance, vowing to continue this practice until his passport and travel rights are restored.
2014
On April 26, the 15 Years Chinese Contemporary Art Award exhibition opens at the Shanghai Power Station of Art. Before the exhibition opens to the public, Shanghai authorities remove all mentions of Ai’s name and his works from the venue, despite his having served on the CCAA jury multiple times and having been the recipient of its 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.
On May 23, Ai Weiwei removes three of his works from the Hans van Dijk: 5000 Names exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, protesting the museum’s omission of his name from the press release and of all mention of his longtime collaboration with van Dijk.
@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz opens on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco on September 27. A centerpiece is Trace, consisting of 176 portraits of prisoners of conscience rendered in LEGO bricks.
2015
Amnesty International awards Ai Weiwei the Ambassador of Conscience Award for his work in defense of human rights.
Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei’s first solo exhibition in China, opens in Beijing, jointly presented by Galleria Continua and Tang Contemporary Art Centre.
On July 22, Ai Weiwei’s passport is returned. Relocating to Berlin to live and work, Ai begins his Einstein Visiting Professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts.
In December, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads goes on view at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, as part of Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei. Breaking attendance records, the exhibition draws nearly four hundred thousand visitors.
Ai Weiwei visits the Greek isle of Lesbos, witnessing firsthand the incoming boats and meeting the arriving refugees.
Ai Weiwei decides to produce a feature-length documentary on the global refugee condition. Filmed over the course of one year, Human Flow is a visual expression of the greatest human displacement since World War II. Ai and the film team visit over forty refugee camps across twenty-three countries and conduct over six hundred interviews.
2016–2017
Ai Weiwei creates several large-scale installations in reaction to the global refugee condition, including Safe Passage, Laundromat, and Law of the Journey.
On August 30, Human Flow makes its worldwide premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival in competition, and its American premiere at the 44th Telluride Film Festival on September 3.