Badiucao and Melissa Chan in Conversation with Michael Berry
Monday, March 3, 2025
9:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Kaplan Hall A51
Emmy-nominated journalist Melissa Chan and global activist artist Badiucao will discuss their respective careers engaging with China and introduce their new book YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION, a near-future dystopian graphic novel about technology, authoritarian government, and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
2035. The US and China are at war. America is a proto-fascist state. Taiwan is divided into two. As conflict escalates between nuclear powers, three idealis9c youths who first met in Hong Kong develop diverging beliefs about how best to navigate this techno-authoritarian landscape. Andy, Maggie, and Olivia travel different paths toward transforma9ve change, each confron9ng to what extent they will fight for freedom, and who they will become in doing so.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Badiucao is a Chinese Australian artist, activist, and political provocateur. One of the most popular and prolific creatives from China, he confronts a variety of social and political issues in his work, often using satire to tackle censorship, authoritarianism, and capitalism. He has exhibited in the U.S., Australia, and throughout Europe. He has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Guardian, Time, CNN, NBC, and others, and was profiled by The New York Times and CBS News’s “60 Minutes.” In 2020, Badiucao won the Human Rights Foundation’s Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent. He currently lives in exile in Australia. This is his debut graphic novel.
Melissa Chan is an Emmy-nominated Hong Kong and Taiwanese American foreign correspondent based between Los Angeles and Berlin. She was previously posted in China until she became the first journalist in more than a decade to be expelled by Chinese authorities in 2012. Much of her reporting examines human rights, the rise of global authoritarianism, and the defense of democracies. Her work has taken her from Pyongyang to Moscow to Havana. She has written for The New York Times, where she was nominated for a Loeb Award—business journalism’s highest honor—and The Atlanic, The Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, and more. As a broadcast correspondent, she has reported for VICE News Tonight and Al Jazeera. This is her debut graphic novel.
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies