Chen Danqing

From 2008 to 2010, Beijing-based journalist and filmmaker Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to internationally renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Klayman documented Ai's artistic process in preparation for major museum exhibitions and his increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government.

Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come and go. Eighteen locals, including film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, ex-soldiers and criminals, recall their lives. Their personal experiences, like eighteen chapters of a novel, tell stories of Shanghai from the 1930s to 2010.