The groundbreaking, exiled Chinese artist builds a hopeful new life—and a new studio, in the Portuguese countryside By Jay Cheshes Photographs by Jo Metson Scott Ai Weiwei’s relocation to ...

“Weiwei’s ideas are so strong and clear.” He has a “real clarity of purpose.” Ai spent much of his own childhood in exile. His father, Ai Qing, a notable poet who once joined Mao Zedong ...

During Ai Weiwei’s childhood, sunflower seeds were often the only things saving families from starvation during famines. At the same time, in Maoist propaganda, Mao Zedong was often identified ...

For internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei, art is inherently political. An outspoken critic of China’s government, the artist creates artworks that express his dissident voice ...

A lead Chinese diplomat invoked Mao Zedong to show Chinese resilience in the face of a trade war with the United States. In response to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China ...

The post also included archival footage of Mao Zedong, who founded the People’s Republic of China, speaking in 1953 when the U.S. and China were on opposite sides of the Korean War.

A portrait of China’s former leader, Mao Zedong, in Beijing. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters) China turned to stern rhetoric from a historic conflict with the U.S.—the Korean War—as it steeled itself ...