Zodiac

Starred review from January 22, 2024
Chinese artist-activist Weiwei’s poignant, meditative graphic memoir debut opens as he speaks to his son about the past, and the “powerful men”—such as Mao Zedong—who “made decisions for everybody” during the cultural revolution, including what few books people were allowed to read. Weiwei interweaves his family’s story and that of his own development (and persecution) as an artist alongside Chinese fables and folktales as an act of resistance. Dividing the work into chapters named for the 12 signs of the Zodiac, Weiwei philosophizes through anecdotes (“You like speaking in metaphors,” says his partner and mother of his son) that unfold in understated yet intricately drawn black-and-white comics by Constantini. Among other memories, Weiwei recounts living in exile underground with his family as a child (“in a burrow dug in the desert”) and how his father, Ai Qing, an “enemy to the party,” first turned from painting to poetry while jailed. “An artist has to be the beginning of a story, not the end,” Weiwei opines, emphasizing the potential of art to connect people and ideas. “We must combat fear with the truth.” This is a sage and inventive embroidery of philosophy, family memoir, and cultural history. Agents: (for Weiwei) Peter and Amy Bernstein, Bernstein Literary.

February 1, 2024
Renowned artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei makes his graphic novel debut with a philosophical and profoundly sociopolitical collection of stories centered around the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac. Ai Weiwei frames the animals of the zodiac around Chinese folktales and autobiographical events that shift between narrative past and present in the form of conversations between himself and his young son, Ai Lao, and as rhetorical discussions on the nature of art as expressions of freedom with friends and acquaintances. "Art is like Wukong," Ai Weiwei writes. "Like the Monkey King, it has the power to transform itself. It can manipulate wind, water, and fire. And like Wukong, it can be impatient." The art by Constantini is exquisite; rough and almost unfinished sketches alternate with intricate, detailed line work, like a memory that fades with age but returns in sharp, photographic urgency when tied to a particular sentiment. The stories are intense, intimate, and transformative, and Ai Weiwei is keenly aware of his and his family's place in Chinese history. "There are never too many stories . . . especially when they explain who we are."

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