Original subtitles

(shouting)

(siren wailing)

- [Reporter] Only one brave protester

there resists the tanks.

The tanks tried again to move,

and were halted by their lone tormentor.

- [Reporter] Chinese artist, Badiucao, who disguises himself

out of fear of reprisals from the Chinese government,

has called on people all over the world

to recreate the image.

- The single biggest, national security threat is China.

- [Badiucao] This will be a kind of test.

The first time that my work actually entering

a Chinese territory.

We shall see the reaction from the Chinese government.

- You've got to make a decision about the exhibition.

(phone ringing)

- Yeah, what's going on? - Badi is fucking terrified.

- [Man] I don't know his name or who he is, so--

- [Danny] No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And neither do we.

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)

- [Danny] Can I ask you this?

- [Badiucao] No.

- [Danny] So if I asked you if you were married,

could you answer that question?

- [Badiucao] No.

- [Danny] Where your parents live,

would you be able to tell me?

- [Badiucao] No.

- [Danny] Which university you studied in Australia?

Could you tell me? - No.

- [Danny] Why is your identity concealed?

- [Badiucao] It's not because I want to create

another Banksy.

It's more crucial for me that I have to protect myself

from the possible hunting by the Chinese government.

They will not just harm me,

but also the one that I loved, my family.

- [Danny] Are you confident that the Chinese

authorities don't know who you are?

- [Badiucao] Well, I wish I could say yes,

but the real answer is, I don't know.

(dramatic music)

- [Reporter] Let's go to China's decision to remove

Presidential term limits from the Constitution,

allowing Xi Jinping to remain in power indefinitely.

China correspondent, Bill Burtles.

- [Bill] This does put Xi Jinping on the same pedestal

as Mao, because it wasn't just the term limits

that were abolished yesterday.

Xi Jinping's ideology was written

into the National Constitution.

- [Badiucao] It's clear, let's go.

- [Danny] What is the picture you've done?

- [Badiucao] It's showing how Xi Jinping is going

to be a lifelong leader, even after he dies.

No free speech, no access to information.

He's cracking down on human rights lawyers, artists, medias.

With his policy, the whole of China's moving to this

digital dictatorship, is expanding overseas

around the world, being more and more aggressive.

It works pretty well.

Today I don't think anyone will touch this,

and tomorrow, we'll be ready for the Chinese students.

Just for the record, this is PVA glue, so it's non-toxic.

Very environmentally friendly stuff.

(gentle music)

It is the best time when I contributing myself,

using my art, for that's the moment that I can be completely

free and forgetting all the struggle in my daily life.

(bright music)

So normally people think art is about,

generally about cameras, but in the contemporary sense,

how you get a image to the outside world.

(bright music)

I was in a university in China,

and my friend downloaded a movie,

we just started watching it.

All of a sudden, the movie turned into a documentary

about Tiananmen massacre.

(shouting)

(siren wailing)

And when we finished it, we are all like frozen

in front of the screen.

And we're looking to each other, and to be honest,

we don't know what to say.

Our first thought is, "Is it even true?"

(shouting)

(tense music)

- [Reporter] Hospital wards are running out of space.

- These tanks have just provided an escort for about

30 troop trucks.

- [Badiucao] I was really shocked when I found out

the truth of Tiananmen movement.

Shocked that this has been entirely erased from history.

- [Reporter] And I think one brave protestor's there,

resist the tanks.

The tanks tried again to move,

and were halted by their lone tormentor.

(tense music)

- [Badiucao] If I imagine my future in China,

I feel like it's suffocating.

I can't really breathe.

with knowing that my rights, and my freedom will be eaten

away by society like that.

That was the moment I realized I had to leave China

if I wanted to live without all this fear.

So in 2009, I moved to Australia.

(bright music)

I became an Australian citizen.

It was the first time I started to feel I'm a free man,

and I am free to create artworks about China.

It all started as like a hobby.

(dramatic music)

I'm coming to do an interview, my name is Badiucao.

I did one piece of street art in Melbourne

that had really bring the world's attention

to my art career.

- [Woman] If you go just south of Chinatown,

in Central Melbourne, there is a little cobbled street,

more of a back alley really, covered in graffiti.

Nothing particularly unusual about that,

but this year, there was one drawing

that attracted a fair bit of attention.

It showed a man and a woman, embracing each other.

The man is the late Liu Xiaobo,

a Nobel Laureate and Chinese dissident.

This drawing appeared just two days before his death.

The woman is his widow, Liu Xia,

who hasn't been seen since his funeral.

The artists behind it is one of China's most

prolific and provocative cartoonists.

- [Badiucao] Liu Xiaobo is like Nelson Mandela in China.

He's the leader for the Tiananmen movement in 1989.

In 2010, he win the Nobel Peace Prize

for his continuing fight for Chinese democracy.

He couldn't go to the Nobel ceremony,

because he's in prison.

I made my Liu Xiaobo cartoon, and posted it online,

and make it free for anyone to download

and pasted it on the street.

And it went global after that.

(uplifting music)

And two days after, he passed away.

We just saw a life being turned off in this brutal way.

And people are not even allowed to memorize him.

- I now know a bit about you, and there's a lot I don't

know, I don't know your real name, I don't know your age,

I don't know where your family are et cetera.

But I know obviously, I know who you are.

- [Badiucao] Yeah.

- How many other people in Melbourne know who you are?

- [Badiucao] I'd say probably no-one.

(gentle piano music)

It's too hard to use Twitter now.

Hey. - How are you doing?

- I'm good, sorry, I can't really see well, but--

- Let me introduce you, Kal, this is Badiucao.

- Badiucao, Kal. - Very nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, how are you?

- [Badiucao] I'm good.

Wow. - It's a copy of my,

- That's fantastic. - My book, 35 years.

Did you ever meet any of the cartoonists on the strip?

- [Badiucao] Not really, I've been very cautious about

meeting people. - Yes, of course.

- [Badiucao] On the other hand, I do want you know,

to make friends, it's very important.

Even here, I can't show you my face.

That's really the difficulty that I'm facing.

- Of course, yeah, of course.

The changes that I would like to see both in our society,

and in other societies won't happen in my lifetime.

The best you can do is put the seeds in the ground,

for it to possibly to happen later.

And that's the best you can do.

- So welcome to my two guests today,

I'm Rosie Blau, I'm the editor of 1843.

So Badiucao is a political artist from China.

Badiucao now lives in exile, but as we'll talk about,

his subversive work still circulates in China.

Who do you really want to be seeing your cartoons?

- All my work is, basically it has no copyrights.

So everybody is welcome to download and share

in their individual level.

So a lot of people on Twitter actually download my work,

and repost it inside of China,

on social media like WeChat.

But obviously, it will be deleted very soon,

and sometimes they're facing a very hard consequence,

like their account can be suspended,

they can be invited to the police station to drink tea.

(audience laughs)

- You keep harking back, particularly to 1989

and Tiananmen Square.

Explain to us why you think it's so important

to keep putting those images in front of people.

- The image that I wanna use more is the tank man.

For me, it's really a symbol, a totem,

for the Chinese dissident.

That I think, is something that China needs.

It's something that I personally need.

- Have you drawn a cartoon that you regret,

or that you now consider a mistake?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, all the time.

(audience laughs)

(bright music)

I'm actually (mumbles). - Oh, you are?

(speaking foreign language)

- [Badiucao] It was a very fast talk, quick talk.

I feel like I could go for another hour in there.

- Single biggest national security threat is China.

- This is the reality of President Xi Jinping's China.

And they don't want the rest of the world to see.

- [Reporter] China is running a well-organized network

of internment camps.

- [Reporter] Some say gulags, and they're growing fast.

- [Reporter] Rewards for good behavior

and punishments for bad.

The world's first digital dictatorship.

(tense music)

- [Badiucao] Freshly delivered cartoon for the first time.

- I know! - Right.

- [Woman] Hand delivered for the first time.

- [Badiucao] The real sense of meeting my editor.

(laughing)

- [Xiao] But I want to show

you something now. - Sure, that'll be great.

- So we are monitoring the great firewall's technology

and the content they block.

We all know that Tiananmen massacre happened 29 years ago,

is the most taboo for the Chinese authority.

In this list, you will see that great firewall blocked

31 Tiananmen related keyword phrases.

So, it's not only just the Tiananmen June 4th 1989,

the words you cannot use.

In the past years, at the night of June 4th,

even the people say today, that very word today,

is being blocked.

Why?

Because if you search the word today,

the search results will show people

actually talking about the events.

Your work is a typical what we call,

the resistance discourse that hit very hard

on the Chinese regime.

On their legitimacy, on their hypocrisy,

belongs to the category that the Chinese sensor

wants to delete the most.

(tense music)

- We, as Australians living in a free society,

should not allow ourselves to be bullied into silence,

by an autocratic foreign power.

- [Badiucao] This particular news just popping out,

I think it's crucially important.

Again, reflecting the situation of free speech

in Australia, that they compromise about China.

So in this cartoon, I'm going to bring the koala

as the symbol for Australia, but also panda,

the symbol for China.

Just imagine there's a huge panda,

holding a branch and it is going to transform

a little koala into a panda like,

it will be good to print it out,

and actually put it on the street in Melbourne.

(dynamic music)

The reason why I'm trying to do the paste up,

instead of using the spray can to do it publicly,

it's because it will take longer,

and it means I'll have to take more risk.

(tense music)

(dramatic music)

Being an artist like this is also a journey

to discovering my courage.

The more you do, the more dangerous it could be.

But also the braver you become.

(dramatic music)

- [Danny] What you reading, buddy?

- [Badiucao] I'm reading President Xi Jinping's

Governance of China.

It's a book that probably most of the Chinese

have to have and read.

It's a new version of Mao's Little Red Book,

it's the big white book here.

- Are you afraid of him?

- [Badiucao] I don't think he's a man

with any moral compass, so that's why he's dangerous.

- It looks like on the picture, like a nice enough guy.

- [Badiucao] Yeah, over Photoshopped.

Nice skin.

I can't stop imagine his face being replaced

by Winnie The Pooh.

(playful music)

(tense music)

We just find that the mailbox is our art.

- [Danny] Just your mailbox?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, just my mailbox.

- [Danny] And did that have your real name on?

- [Badiucao] Yeah.

- So you're pretty worried by that?

- [Badiucao] Yeah.

- [Danny] Do you feel safe?

- [Badiucao] It's never, it's never how I feel.

I've received life threatening messages over the internet.

- [Danny] Do you think these are China

government employees? - Yep.

(tense music)

I'm worried that my art will put me and the people

I know into danger.

But I'm also worried that if I choose to be silent,

and live a comfortable life,

I will regret in the rest of my life.

- [Danny] How much of an issue then,

is this in your own family dynamic?

- I guess, I don't want to talk about my family.

I'm now working on my first solo exhibition in Hong Kong.

It is really exciting, because it's the first time

I can get my work back to China.

- [Danny] So how much of a risk are you prepared to take

for your art?

- I think for the Hong Kong show, there will be the biggest

risk I ever take.

(tense music)

Tiger Chair is a nickname for a torture chair

that has been widely used in the Chinese police force.

So this work is just simply,

me buying this chair from China, and moving to Hong Kong.

There are those who sell wooden ones.

If you wanted more fancy, you can buy a leather one.

It's like a Walmart in hell.

So that's the poster.

Jinping's face combined with the current

leader of Hong Kong. - Yes.

- She's a woman. - I mean no-one's

gonna be confused about what you're on about, are they?

- [Badiucao] I hope they don't.

- It's kind of asking for trouble.

(tense music)

Are you worried about reports about Chinese

spying in Australia?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, it means anyone in Australia

can be a target.

And I don't particularly feel safe as before.

I've also been offered a job for working

with Xiaowei Wei in his studio.

So, I've made a decision to leave Australia.

With everything going on,

I'm relieved I've been offered this job in Berlin.

(dramatic music)

- Safe, good luck.

(gentle music)

(gentle music)

- These are all materials that are starting to arrive

for the Hong Kong exhibition.

- [Badiucao] Yep.

This is like my treasure box.

Christmas time.

- [Danny] So this is your Liu Xiaobo/Lui Xia cartoon?

- [Badiucao] Yep.

- [Danny] He was the leader of Tiananmen Square,

right, Liu Xiaobo?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, he was one of the main leaders

of Tiananmen Square.

(tense music)

The light is also a metaphor, the very gesture of putting

a light on in the dark.

- So do you wanna continue doing art about them?

I mean, obviously he's dead, she's under house arrest.

- [Badiucao] Yeah, absolutely.

To me, an aspect of my artwork is a way to record

the history and that's important because

what Chinese government are doing is that

they rewrite the history for their benefit.

And that's a betrayal of its people.

(tense music)

- [Danny] This is your first exhibition as well, right?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, it's gonna be my first solo exhibition.

This will be a kind of test, a first time that my work

actually entering a Chinese territory.

We shall see the reaction from the Chinese government.

- [Danny] So these are also for the Hong Kong exhibition?

- [Badiucao] They are.

- [Danny] Here is the tank from Tiananmen Square.

- [Badiucao] Yeah, that's the tank man here.

Though there are also tank men there,

these are the young generation of the tank men,

that carry on the spirit.

- [Danny] What about you?

Are you in the spirit of tank man?

- [Badiucao] I think I'm definitely one of the young

people on the tank at the moment.

Actually have a tank man tattoo on my arm.

I put it on my right arm that I use to draw

as a reminder.

I hope I can have his courage.

- [Danny] If you could go tomorrow and tell your family,

I am the artist, Badiucao.

- [Badiucao] I hope they'll understand me.

Because, according to our family history,

this is not a new thing.

My grandparents, they are the first generation

of the shoemaker in China, back in 40's and 50's.

He get into trouble during the anti-intellectual movement.

He was sent to a rural concentration camp, and died there.

Oh, come on.

(tense music)

We learn how the AI is recognized the face,

the structure of the eyes, nose and mouth.

We're gonna cover my nose and mouth completely from my mask,

so I need to stitch them together.

- [Danny] There's a bit of a metaphor in what you're doing.

I mean, how far is this gonna go, right?

First you had a mask.

And now you've got rid of the mouth and nose,

now you got a mask with no mouth and nose.

- Yep. - Are you then gonna

have to have a mask without eyes?

- Yeah. - And then is there

gonna be a technology that can take the shape

of the head of the mask?

I mean-- - Yeah, possibly.

- [Danny] You should probably feel more secure,

but how are you gonna breathe in there?

- [Badiucao] I can still breathe, 'cause this is like

swimming suit material.

But, it's just gonna be warm.

Is it just very close shot?

- [Danny] Too close for you?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, I don't know, I feel like it's all

on my face.

The idea of delivering works in the real world

always interest me, so by just being in companies

and drawing behind square and posting things online,

is basically just not enough for me.

Tomorrow will be the anniversary for the Tiananmen massacre

and I am going to introduce the TankMen performance.

And not just me, but also there are a lot of volunteers,

activists, or normal people are doing a performance

all around the world.

Spray painting the plinth into white.

They tell me it's artwork.

So this is the website page for the TankMen performance.

It is clearly listing when you should do it,

where you should do it, what do you need to wear,

and successful performance is not just about the action

in the real world.

We're also the poster and sharing after the performance.

I designed the hashtag for it,

because hashtag is very important for people who want

to search the similar topic.

(gentle music)

The whole formula of the performance is really simple.

The people cosplay the tank man from 1989.

All they need to do is just dress up like him,

with a white shirt, black pants, and black shoes.

And they also need to holding two bags.

And that's it.

- [Danny] Have you not ironed before?

- [Badiucao] Nope.

In real life, I'm not really a shirt guy.

- [Danny] Do you wish Tank Man had worn a T-shirt?

- [Badiucao] Yeah.

(gentle music)

- [Reporter] It was an iconic symbol of resistance in China.

An unknown man with a shopping bag, standing in front

of several tanks in Tiananmen Square.

On the 29th anniversary of the massacre,

Chinese artist, Badiucao who disguises himself

out of fear of reprisals from the Chinese government,

has called on people all over the world

to recreate the image, using the hashtag, #tankman.

- [Badiucao] Come here, I'll tell you why I'm doing it.

Thank you so much.

- [Danny] They're standing on your plinth.

- [Badiucao] That's how absurd this is.

- [Danny] Yes, the 29th anniversary.

- Oh.

- [Danny] Of Tiananmen Square.

- Tiananmen Square? - Yeah.

- Tiananmen? - Yeah.

(speaking foreign language)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Why are you there?

- [Danny] It's a protest.

- I can't understand why you should do something

like that here.

And it is not allowed to take picture, okay?

I protest.

(dramatic music)

- [Badiucao] Oh, this is one of the former student leader

from 1989 doing the performance.

He was on the 5th of wanted list in 1989.

- So he was the 5th most wanted person in China in 1989?

- [Badiucao] They had a list.

- [Danny] So why is he standing there,

and his face is fully exposed?

You're sitting here, and you can't even breathe.

- [Badiucao] He is one of the most wanted men.

Really, for 29 years.

You tell me.

(gentle music)

I have kept so much within, that I can't share everything

with the one that I'm close to, because it's dangerous.

So in that sense, I'm really lonely.

I do feel quite depressed time to time.

But fortunately art is a method to rescue myself.

- So let's call Tom about Hong Kong,

'cause I've got a few concerns about Hong Kong.

- [Badiucao] Hey Tom, how are you?

- Hey, how are you? - I'm -

- [Tom] - hear your voice after all these years.

(laughing)

- [Danny] Have you guys ever spoken before?

- [Tom] No, I have no idea what he looks like even,

let alone name or anything.

So suitably mysterious to me and the team.

- How is this gonna work?

Are you announcing in advance,

that Badi's gonna be there or?

- [Tom] Well we certainly I think in the next fortnight

need to start getting out a poster, event stuff.

- [Badiucao] I think personally I would feel

more comfortable that there's no pre-announcement

that I will actually--

- [Tom] In Hong Kong?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, yeah.

- How risky is it for us to come to Hong Kong?

- [Tom] Had you been going to the mainland,

I would be like... but you know, you're coming to Hong Kong,

and I don't think there's anything to be concerned about.

- The Chinese authorities say Liu Xia

is a free woman.

This is what happens when you try to visit her.

There is no need for that!

We've been trying to get to Liu Xia's home,

which is where she has been held

under what amounts to house arrest for the last seven years,

despite never herself being convicted

or even accused of any crime.

(gentle music)

- [Badiucao] She has been through hell.

And at this moment, I think she needs more attention

from the world.

(gentle music)

I did a body of the post called "Who is Liu Xia"

which is modifying seven of the very famous painting

In the history, they're all featuring female.

And my plan is to hold it side by side against original.

(bright music)

- Hey welcome, Badiucao.

- Now I have my tank woman and tank man.

- Yes! (laughing)

What I really like in your campaigns is that you always

make it very like, DIY for anyone to use.

Like, the street art thing that you show with paste art,

it was just amazing, I had nothing to do,

I just need to print and cut and that's it,

like you even gave the recipe for the glue.

- You will be getting inside the museum

on another aisle, and so you will have to walk

a little bit more to get to Mona Lisa.

- We can see you getting changed?

Or can we not see?

- [Badiucao] No.

- 'Cause the identifying of your body, basically?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, I worry about Chinese

seeing parts of my body. - Okay, all right, fine.

So...

- [Badiucao] Well what we can do, is if we just focus

on leg, then you can see the dress dropping off.

- Yeah, or going over the head.

- [Badiucao] It won't go over the head,

because it will make my--

- Over the shoulders, coming over, okay?

(dynamic music)

- [Badiucao] Would it be too weird to wear a hat

in the museum?

(upbeat music)

- [Badiucao] Doing performance art is basically

A new experiment field for me.

It definitely brings more challenge for me,

because it force me to actually enter a public space

and show in front of people.

(crowd chattering)

- Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what's happened?

What's happened?

Hey, hey, hey!

Move!

Okay, move, move, move, move!

(speaking foreign language)

Don't picture of that, okay!

Move, move.

Move, move.

That's enough.

(tense music)

(gentle music)

- [Badiucao] Hi, are you Ursula?

- Yes. - Yes, nice to meet you.

- Hi.

- [Badiucao] I'm Badiucao.

- Hello.

- [Danny] Do you think the Chinese authorities

know who he his?

- They know everyone now.

This is the hugest height I think dictatorship

of the 21st century.

We were speaking about going to Hong Kong

to participate in some artistic things,

and I'm not sure that Hong Kong is safe anymore.

Because some people were abducted

from Hong Kong by the Chinese government.

(bell rings)

♪ Jump jive shooby-doo-wap ba-da-koo-ka ♪

♪ Jump jive scooby dooby ♪

♪ Jump jive shooby-doo-wap ba-da-koo-ka ♪

♪ Jump jive scooby dooby ♪

♪ Jump jive shooby dooby doo-wap ♪

♪ Jive shooby-doo-wap ♪

♪ Jive shooby-doo-wap ba-da-koo-ka ♪

♪ Jive scooby dooby ♪

♪ Jive shooby-doo-wap ♪

(shouting)

(speaking foreign language)

(gentle music)

(tense music)

(gentle music)

(dramatic music)

- Hong Kong free press, free expression week.

[Badiucao] Here so far we have BBC, Vice,

Time Magazine, AFP, South China Morning Post,

which is Hong Kong media as well.

- The response to it has been phenomenal.

And Gongle means, remind me?

Oh, song of the Communist Party.

So it's a play on words.

Why did they say he came up on some list?

And we couldn't insure him?

- You're on the naughty list. - Yeah, they did say that

you came up on the list. - What list?

- Your artist name came up on one of the insurance lists

as someone who shouldn't be insured.

- [Badiucao] So who are the other guys?

Superman or Batman?

(laughing)

What's the naughty list? - I don't know,

but you're on it.

- All right, I spoke this morning

to a lawyer consultant and he specializes

in high risk filming scenarios.

With the media released out there,

and the show known, it's a big sign,

"Come and get me."

- [Badiucao] Anything around the location,

or any time around the time, is high risk.

- Correct. - 'Cause that's the open

information, that's where the authority will be looking at.

- If they wanna come in, they can come in.

They do that, they go in, they just take people.

Two big questions, do you one,

personally have to set up the exhibition?

And two, do you have to be at the exhibition?

- [Badiucao] I wanna go, of course.

I mean, after all, I'm the artist,

and this is what my work is for.

- It's a matter of how much of a risk

you're prepared to take.

- [Badiucao] Can I share something private?

- Yep.

Kill the sound.

You turned off sound?

(tense music)

That's a game changer for you.

- Yeah. - Everything changes

for you then? - Yeah, yeah.

(phone ringing)

- Hello? - Hey Tom,

it's Danny and Badi.

Listen, there's something that we can't go into now

over the phone, but how do we put this Badi?

(tense music)

- [Badiucao] There is a possibility that my identity

has been compromised in a way.

- [Tom] Like, in recent weeks, or?

- Yeah. - Somehow.

- Yeah. - I see.

- [Badiucao] So I just have to reevaluate the whole risk

of being in Hong Kong.

- [Tom] Explicit threats or something?

This isn't China, first off.

At the very maximum, someone would be sent

to check it out, or to take photos, that's all.

- [Badiucao] The concern is that the possible

compromised information is not the entire one.

- [Tom] You mean your entire name?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, they have a piece of information

and it's not complete. - Yeah.

- [Badiucao] My entry might just complete

the puzzle for them.

- [Danny] So what, you made like one mistake, potentially?

- Yeah. - And that could

tell them everything. - Yeah.

- [Reporter] There's another worrisome development

in Hong Kong, critics of the Communist authorities

have been getting abducted, this in a city where people

are supposed to be able to freely speak their minds.

(tense music)

- [Badiucao] I don't have the desire to prove I'm a hero.

I'm probably the most coward people

you'll meet in your life.

That's why I'm doing all the precautions.

And I think being aware of encouraging more people

to act like me, it's okay to be a coward.

Of course, everybody likes people being brave,

but what is more realistic is people can be coward

if they still make a change.

- So what's the latest Badi?

- I've just decide that it will be too risky

to go Hong Kong for the show.

- [Danny] Are you really disappointed?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, it's like you have a new born baby

but you're not allowed to see him or her.

- [Danny] So just practically speaking,

you're going to be directing the setup virtually, right?

- Yeah. - I'll be filming

the setup in Hong Kong. - Yeah.

(gentle music)

(phone ringing)

- Hello? - Hi, it's Raph.

Badi is fucking terrified.

They've managed to find his number and call him.

- [Danny] Oh God.

- [Raphael] He's on his way here now.

- [Danny] Call me when he gets to you,

and we'll just, I've got, I've got, oh God.

(phone ringing)

Yeah, what's going on?

- [Badiucao] So okay, they know who I am,

they contact my family.

They want me to call out the show.

Otherwise they will do something to me

and to my family.

They find my fucking family,

to prove they know who I am.

- [Danny] Fuck.

Let me speak to Tom, and let me call you back.

- [Badiucao] Do safe way, be cautious, okay?

- [Danny] I will, I will, okay, okay, bye.

- [Badiucao] Yeah, bye.

(phone ringing)

- [Danny] Tom?

- Yes. - Okay, listen,

some bad stuff has happened.

Badi got a call, police went to family of his in China,

and to get the message to close the exhibition,

not to go ahead with the exhibition.

- [Tom] God.

I mean am I safe saying that like,

this has nothing to do with this event?

That his identity was blown?

- I've got no idea. - 'Cause I don't know his name

or who he is, I would never--

- [Danny] No, no, no, no, no, no, no and neither do we.

- [Tom] Fuck sake.

(tense music)

(phone ringing)

- [Danny] Badi?

- Yeah. - How are your family?

- [Badiucao] Not well.

Need get them out, but it's impossible.

- [Danny] Just call me when you're up in the morning.

- [Badiucao] I don't think I'm gonna sleep man.

- [Danny] I'm so sorry, Badi.

I'm so sorry.

(tense music)

- How you going? - How are you doing?

- Good, good to meet.

Tell you what, this whole experience is great for paranoia.

- Yeah, I feel a little bit naive now.

(sighs)

- [Badiucao] Yeah.

I don't even know if this is still necessary.

- [Raphael] Well maybe just stick with the beanie.

- [Badiucao] I mean, it's like, they know me now.

Yeah, so what's the purpose to hide?

So, obviously this is a really awful decision.

Yeah, I'm just thinking about living.

Now I just need to focus on how to get them out of there.

- It's dark, you know, in here,

so this is gonna be the stage with the projection.

- It's ideal, yeah. - That's the torture chair,

the tiger chair.

(sighs)

- [Badiucao] This is life changing situation.

- And how are you feeling about the fact that Badiucao

is an artist who's potentially going on hiatus?

Or is he dead?

- [Badiucao] To be honest, I can't think of that.

It will drag me to the abyss.

- This is them. - Okay.

Well, I mean, Ai Weiwei has told him he thinks

he should reveal himself.

- Does Ai Weiwei have family back home?

- I don't know, it's also easier once you've been

in the gulag in China, that they know who you are,

they know who everyone is. - Exactly yeah,

once it's blown, it's blown.

- Hey. - Hi.

- We should hear from you, 'cause I mean,

what's your inkling?

- [Badiucao] Yeah, I really don't know how

to make this decision.

If I just give up my family, do I still have a heart?

If I give up myself, do I still have a heart?

(phone dings)

I just have a new information,

another member of my family has been reached by police.

- It's really a no-win situation isn't it?

We could cancel the show, and all of this,

but that doesn't mean family are gonna be just allowed

to swan out and leave.

- It's not possible to get your family out of China,

between now and tomorrow night.

What are you doing about the exhibition?

(tense music)

You've got to make a decision about the exhibition.

- [Badiucao] You mean now, or?

- [Tom] You could maybe get back to us before 12.

- What's the time now?

- 20 past. - How far away is that?

- 40 minutes.

- [Badiucao] I gotta make a call first.

- A message from my production manager in Australia.

The second relative was told by the people

who visited that they would be at the exhibition.

- As in the Chinese authorities?

Right.

Fuck sake.

- Seriously? - Coming to the exhibition.

- [Badiucao] Now, the only thing I have or I can work

with is saving my family.

And that's not even in my hand.

I have the decision to call off the show or not.

That's the part in my hand.

- Okay, so what's our plan?

It's now 20 to 12, and we're speaking to Badi in 20 minutes.

- Maybe I start filling in the team a bit.

I wondered if I could have your advice actually

and speak to you in confidence.

(phone ringing)

We wanted some advice from Amnesty,

I don't know if you're the man to do that?

- If he calls it off, well then, are his family fine?

Or does it make no difference, basically?

- So I wondered how comfortable RSF is in what you wanna say.

Okay, we'll hear from you in five minutes ish.

Say that again.

Say that again?

The family visits.

You would cancel? (dramatic music)

- Are you there?

- Yeah. - Okay.

- Badi? - Yep.

- Is Badi there? - Yeah, I'm here.

- The decision's been taken out of your hands, Badi.

- With my staff, HKFP and The Hive involved as well,

and the fact that we've learnt that there were going

to be some characters showing up tomorrow,

I guess that's it, I'm sorry.

There doesn't seem to be any other solution,

but you're a very brave man,

and I'm very sorry that all this has happened.

(gentle music)

We know we're gonna get a lot of questions right,

and they're gonna be very persistent,

but we have to be very disciplined to not say anything more.

No staff in the video, sorry.

It's all off, we're about to have a media shit storm,

'cause the story's gonna be bigger

than if we had just done it.

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)

- [Badiucao] See that, ant.

Trying to carry that.

That's me.

All my family is the orange thing.

I'm trying to moving them out.

That's my epiphany moment.

- [Danny] It's a lot of load to carry, Badi.

So, I'm recording sound. - Yeah.

- [Danny] Did you say we could record picture too?

- [Badiucao] They know me now.

Yeah.

- [Danny] So this is you.

- That's me.

(birds singing)

(gentle music)