How did the Cultural Revolution affect Ai Weiwei’s early life?

The Cultural Revolution profoundly shaped Ai Weiwei’s early life through the political persecution of his family. Shortly after his birth in 1957, his father, the renowned poet Ai Qing, was labeled a "rightist" by communist officials.12

As a result, the family was forced into exile, enduring years of internal displacement in remote regions of China. They were first sent to the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and subsequently to the northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang. Ai Weiwei spent much of his youth in these isolated locales, and the family was not permitted to return to Beijing until 1976, marking the end of the Cultural Revolution. This period of state-imposed hardship and exile was a formative experience that preceded his later emergence as an artist and activist.12