By Javier Castro Bugarín
Taipei, June 27 (EFE).— Surveillance states, nuclear standoffs, and shrinking freedoms…what was meant as fiction in “You Must Take Part in Revolution” now reads like a chilling reflection of today’s world.
The graphic novel, created by exiled Chinese artist Badiucao and American journalist Melissa Chan, explores a future where China and the US are at war, Taiwan is divided, and repression reigns in Hong Kong—a vision disturbingly close to the headlines of our time.
Badiucao, who lives in exile in Australia, and Chan, an American journalist of Hong Kong and Taiwanese descent, tell the story of three activists who hold different visions of how to defend their rights in an increasingly oppressive and unsettling world.
“Our comic is timely in a way I didn’t expect it to be. We have nuclear threats, American authoritarianism, Chinese authoritarianism, and global conflicts. And we also have many people around the world questioning how they can matter,” the co-author told EFE.
The comic opens with the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and projects a grim future in 2035: China and the United States are at war, Taiwan is divided, and the former British colony has become an extremely repressive place.
Both authors acknowledge having poured part of their personal stories into the protagonists. Melissa Chan was expelled from China in 2012 for practicing journalism critical of the authorities, while Badiucao fled to Melbourne in 2009 to create art free from Beijing’s censorship.
“I grew up in China and know how deeply that propaganda can shape how people see the world, manipulating them and forcing them to be loyal to a regime that is the greatest destroyer of their own rights,” Badiucao told EFE. For this work, he drew inspiration from traditional Chinese painting.
“For me, it’s very important to reclaim those symbols of Chinese culture and rescue them from the propaganda of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), because they boast of being the sole representatives of Chinese culture,” the artist asserts.
Appeal to younger generations Published in March, “You Must Take Part in Revolution” is a work of fiction that aims to entertain, especially younger generations who, according to Chan, feel increasingly disconnected from democracy.
“Young people have become very cynical, partly because they are online all the time, and the digital scene is a very cynical place,” said the journalist, who hopes the comic will reach an audience “almost alien to the ideas of human rights,” particularly in the American context.
“Because of our history, many people associate resistance with the civil rights movement or the anti-war protests of the ’60s. I think this book is an interesting way to bring people closer to what is happening in other parts of the world,” said the author of a comic she hopes “will make readers think.” EFE
jacb-sk