"Before boarding a flight with his son, who had never met the artist's elderly mother, Ai thought back to his time in detention when his captors told him he would spend the next 13 years in custody on bogus charges: They said, When you come out, your son won't recognise you.' That was very heavy and really the only moment that touched me. I still have a Chinese passport. My mum is still Chinese. That's my only relationship to China."
"Welcome to the life of Ai Weiwei. For most people, returning home doesn't involve weighing up the risk of whether you'll see close family ever again, but that's the reality for a 68-year-old whose whole existence has been shaped by authoritarianism and the struggle against it. His trip to China went well. He ended up being interviewed at the airport and released after a couple of hours into a country whose smells, sights and sounds were soothing to him."
Ai Weiwei weighed the risks before his first visit to China in over a decade, considering past detention and the impact on his son. Captors once told him he would spend 13 years in custody and that his son would not recognize him. Ai retained a Chinese passport and cited his mother's nationality as his only tie to China, prompting the decision to travel with his son. He previously spent several months in custody. His son Lao, now 17, no longer needs guidance, contributing to the decision to return. The trip went smoothly; Ai was briefly interviewed at the airport, released, and found China's senses familiar and soothing.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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