Global human rights campaigner and Chinese political activist Ai Wei Wei

Ai Wei Wei has been described as the most important artist working today, and an `unsilenceable voice of freedom'. His sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions around the world. His architectural achievements include helping design the iconic Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing , although he later disowned the Games as state propaganda. His political activism has made him a target of Chinese authorities, and in 2011, around the time of the Arab Spring uprising in the Middle East, Ai Wei Wei `disappeared' in China - held in secret detention, without charge, for months. His new memoir, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, reveals more about his own family's connections to the sweep of 20th century Chinese history. Ai Wei Wei tells Kathryn how his father Ai Qing, an intellectual and poet, knew Mao Zedong , the founding father of the People's Republic of China.