From my research on Ai Weiwei's life, we can conclude that Ai Weiwei draws inspiration from his childhood and his experiences from living during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ai Weiwei chose to use sunflower seeds in his artwork "Sunflower Seeds" to represent a Chinese Communist Propaganda Photo in which Chairman Mao was depicted as the sun, with sunflowers turning towards him, representing the people of China, and also to represent the way in which people showed friendship and compassion in a time of such uncertainty and grief during the Chinese Cultural Revolution when Ai Weiwei was a child.