You Must Take Part in Revolution — journalist Melissa Chan and artist-in-exile Badiucao

If authoritarianism was pressing in, what personal choices would you make to resist? Foreign correspondent Melissa Chan and artist-in-exile Badiucao have collaborated on the gobsmacking new graphic novel You Must Take Part in Revolution. It's set in a dystopian near future. A proto-fascist USA is at war with the full-throttled techno-surveillance state of China, with Taiwan wedged in the middle. Three young characters confront questions of loyalty, legacy, and courage. But for Melissa and Badiucao, their fictional scenario started to feel all to real. They know. They've lived it. They join Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell at their Australian launch event in Naarm/Melbourne.

Speakers

Melissa Chan

Emmy nominated Hong Kong-Taiwanese-American foreign correspondent

Co-author, You Must Take Part in Revolution (Simon and Schuster Australia, 2026)

Former Beijing correspondent with Al Jazeera

Badiucao

Chinese-Australian artist-in-exile and activist

Walkley-Award-winning cartoonist, The Age

Co-author, You Must Take Part in Revolution (Simon and Schuster Australia, 2026)

Winner, Human Rights Foundation's Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.

Thank to Readings Bookshop events manager Christine Gordon.