Jade Handcuffs exemplifies Ai Weiwei’s pointed engagement with the legacy of Chinese craftwork. This work was created by master carvers using green jade, a precious stone closely linked to China’s imperial past. The entire piece, including the links of the chain, were cut out of the same, single block of jade—an intricate traditional technique. Ai has often employed traditional Chinese handicraft techniques—from woodworking to pottery and metallurgy—as a way of evoking their looming disappearance amid the increasing industrialization of the Chinese labor force. For Ai, this disappearance is indicative of how China’s emergence as a global economic superpower has destabilized its social foundations while altering its own sense of national identity. This sculpture is also indicative of Ai’s condemnations of the Chinese political establishment, which has been critiqued for human rights violations, suppression of democratic reform, and a harsh, opaque disciplinary system. As a result of his political efforts, in 2011 Ai was jailed for 81 days, during which time he was handcuffed to a chair each day and interrogated.