Chinese dissident artist Badiucao sits down with Georgina Godwin to discuss his life in self-imposed exile and how he uses his art to challenge censorship and human-rights abuses in China. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I think to be an artist, the very fundamental thing is to be truthful to yourself.
I believe art is formal language for expressing ourselves as an artist or as a member of human being and our experience.
Understanding of this world, of the past, of the place that you're born, of the country that you live in, constantly become the ultimate source for inspiration.
From drawings of Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam with a pistol to her head, to Chinese President Xi Jinping portrayed as Winnie the Pooh, the controversial cartoonist, artist and rights activist Bao De Chao criticizes Beijing through his work.
Born in Shanghai in 1986, he now lives in self imposed exile in Melbourne and continues to use his art to explore censorship and human rights abuses, including the manipulation of historical memory about the Tiananmen massacre, the forced cultural assimilation of Uyghurs, pro democracy protests in Hong Kong and China's position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
His name is a pseudonym originally used to protect his identity, which is also why until 2018, when the Chinese authorities discovered his real name, he wore a mask.
Since then he's been the victim of stalking, cyberattacks and a possible home invasion.
He fears he could disappear at any moment.
I'm Georgina Godwin and I spoke to Bao De Chao on the big Interview.
Bao De Chao, welcome to the big interview.
Art is very clearly in your DNA.
Tell us about your grandparents.
I am born in an artistic family back in China.
My grandpa and his brother were actually quite famous filmmakers.
Probably the first generation of filmmakers in China in the history.
And they were very much celebrated as director and actors from 1930 until 1950 when Chinese Communist Party is in power.
Initially they think they are achievements in the film industry will somehow create protection for them.
However, they were being very naive by the time.
So during 1957 when Mao Zedong, the first China's communist dictator, launched this campaign called 100 Blossom which is actually a purge design to basically eliminate anyone with free thinking as artist and intellectual.
So in this bloody campaign, my grandpa was sentenced to a forced labor camp because of the film that he make.