What could America — and the world — look like in 2035?
When journalist Melissa Chan and activist artist Badiucao began work on their new dystopian graphic novel, You Must Take Part in Revolution, it was 2020, and they were asking themselves just that. In the world they envisioned, a proto-fascist America is at war with techno-authoritarian China. Taiwan is divided into two, and the threat of nuclear escalation looms. Chan and Badiucao sit down with Ali Velshi in today’s special edition of the Banned Book Club to explain why and how their work of fiction and art epitomizes the unofficial motto of Velshi Banned Book Club: reading as resistance.
Chan and Badiucao have both experienced first-hand what an authoritarian government can do to threaten speech and stifle dissent. Chan was working as a correspondent in China for Al Jazeera English, covering land confiscation, so-called “black jails,” and corruption, when she was expelled in 2012. Prolific political cartoonist Badiucao remained anonymous to avoid persecution by the Chinese regime until he feared he had been exposed, and he unmasked himself to protect his family publicly.
You Must Take Part in Revolution reaches out directly to young people and others who are not versed in the threats to human rights, the complexities of current social issues, and the implications today’s authoritarian march has on our lives. Badiucao wants the book to “break the conventional audience circle. ”
Chan cites another vital theme in You Must Take Part in Revolution, which is essential for everyone who takes a stand against authoritarianism to understand.
“There’s a loneliness to being a dissident and an activist, there’s a toll, and the toll is very different depending on what you decide to do,” she explains. “Yes, you should stand up to authoritarianism, but each person decides how they will do so, and there is a concurrent cost to that.”
Listen to Velshi, Melissa Chan, and cartoonist Badiucao on You Must Take Part in Revolution
Watch Velshi, Chan, and Badiucao discuss a potential fascist future
Velshi on banned books on MSNBC:
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