Five Star Nation
Season 1
Five Star Nation invites people who were born in China or have lived in China to "speak out" about their experiences in China: how China has shaped their lives, their thoughts, and even their way of life so that we can hear what it means to be Chinese. Inspired by the five-star flag of China, Five Star Nation features 12 interviewees divided into six categories: students, businessmen, Hong Kong people, exiles, social activists, and academics. Their attitudes vary from defiant to submissive, neutral to extreme.
Episode 1: Brother Knife
(A Chinese Student in Taiwan)
In this episode, the first Chinese student to come to Taiwan, “Brother Knife,” shares his experience and views on living in Taiwan for almost a decade. How many of these students will return to China with the seeds of free thinking or decide to take root in other countries?
In 1978, China began implementing a series of economic-oriented reforms, including the opening of private enterprises and foreign investment. Forty years later, China's domestic economy and construction have risen dramatically, and many parents have decided to send their children overseas to study. Cross-strait exchanges, which have been limited due to sensitive political relations between Taiwan and China, finally welcomed the first group of Chinese students to Taiwan in 2011.
Episode 2: Hilary
(A Taiwanese who grew up in China, Anonymous)
In this episode, Hilary, whose parents are from China and Taiwan, talks about her childhood education in China and her dream to become a journalist who exposes the dark side of society. After studying and working abroad, she discovered the massive gap between reality and what she had learned and saw the invisible but omnipresent red line of the Chinese media industry. She was faced with suppression on multiple international occasions because of her ‘half’ Taiwanese identity, which changed her life path from then on.
Since Xi Jinping took over the presidency of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, freedom of speech in China has been tightened, with people reporting on one another, self-censorship, and accounts deleted on Weibo occurring all the time. When the sharp claws of thought control have penetrated school education, social media, and news outlets, and when personal identity and social opinion are manipulated, who defines ‘the correct memory’? Or, is there such a thing as ‘the correct memory’?
Episode 3: Peter
(A Taiwanese working in China)
How does the world ‘inside the wall’ work? How do Chinese Internet companies adhere to domestic government censorship while trying to market their products overseas? In this episode, Peter, who works for Tencent in Shanghai and has been involved in expanding the TikTok market overseas, talks about his work in China and his views on online censorship and personal data privacy.
The Internet in China has developed rapidly since 1994, from personal communication software and payment tools to corporate streaming entertainment services and retail e-commerce. This fully integrated network raises security concerns and privacy risks. Under the government's strict control and censorship, an invisible wall has been built to isolate China from the outside world.
Episode 4: Ada
(A Feminist Activist in China, Anonymous)
What are the difficulties of engaging in social movements in China? How do social activists fight for their ideas in a repressive environment? In this episode, Ada, who specializes in gender studies and has worked for seven years in the Chinese social movement organization “Voice of Women's Rights,” shares her experience and journey from joining the movement at its inception and gaining attention through online communities and offline activities, to having her account on Weibo permanently deleted without warning and being personally warned by the police.
From 2012 to 2013, the space for civic activism in China began to shrank. From human rights, democracy, and labor rights to women's rights, different civic organizations fell like dominoes. On the eve of Women's Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested the “Five Sisters of Activists” for advocating for women's rights. In July 2015, the “709 crackdown” took place, in which hundreds of human rights activists and lawyers were arrested and detained, some of whom have been missing ever since.
Episode 5: Badiucao
(A Self-Exiled Chinese Artist) (Part 1)
How much room is there for artistic expression in China? How much does an artist have to pay for their creative vision? This episode features Badiucao, a Shanghai-born and self-exiled Chinese artist, who discusses why he gave up his promising law degree in China and moved to Australia to launch his career as a human rights artist.
In 1957, an “anti-rightist campaign” was launched and led by Mao Zedong. Many democrats, intellectuals, and artists were denounced and persecuted, most of whom were sentenced to jail and labor camps or even executed. About 3.17 million people were labeled as “rightists” in China, and the actual number of deaths is hard to estimate; Badiucao's grandparents were among them.
Episode 6: Badiucao
(A Self-Exiled Chinese Artist) (Part 2)
Due to his family's experience of political persecution, Badiucao decided to develop his artistic career in Australia. In this episode, he shares why he initially decided to create “woodcut prints” that satirize the Chinese government and show support for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet. But in the end, not only was his safety in Australia threatened, but his friends and family in China were interrogated by the police.
At the end of 2018, Badiucao was about to hold his first solo exhibition, Gongle, in Hong Kong. However, due to repeated warnings and threats from the Chinese government, Badiucao and the organizers finally decided to cancel the exhibition just one day before the opening. In November 2021, the successful opening of Badiucao's solo exhibition, China is (not)near, in Brescia, Italy, prompted a letter of protest from the Chinese embassy in Rome, demanding the cancellation of the exhibition. Still, Brescia mayor Emilio Del Bono responded, “Art should never be censured. In democracies, it often denounces and even mocks those who are in power. It's part of the rules of democracy.”
Episode 7: Yu Chih-Pin
(A Taiwanese Businessman in China)
Is investing in China a good business? Is doing business with China, the world's second-largest economy, really a way to achieve “common prosperity”? This episode features Yu Chih-Pin, the Vice Chairman of the Chinese Youth Development Union, who runs a Taiwanese consulting firm in China. He discusses why he chose to develop his career in China, how Taiwanese business people face the economic transformation of the Chinese market, and his views on the current economic and political situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In 1990, the Taiwanese government opened the door for private enterprises to invest in China. China's cheap and intensive labor force successfully attracted many manufacturing-oriented Taiwanese companies to set up factories there, which became the first year of the “westward expansion” of Taiwanese companies.
In 2010, the proportion of Taiwanese business people investing in China reached its peak. However, with China's economic restructuring and localization of industries, the advantages of tax breaks and cheap labor are no longer available. The political situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait is becoming increasingly tense, which results in many Taiwanese companies choosing to go to Southeast Asia to find an alternative route.
Episode 8: Seng Keat
(A Malaysian Opinion Researcher)
How do the Chinese in Malaysia view China? In this episode, we turn our attention to Southeast Asia and invite Seng Keat, research manager of the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research in Malaysia, to discuss his long-standing observations on Malaysian politics and the attitudes of the Malaysian Chinese community towards China from various perspectives, including different political, economic, and age groups.
Ethnic Chinese citizens are Malaysia's second largest ethnic group, accounting for 23% of the population, after the Malays. However, the Malaysian government's long-standing policy of giving preferential treatment to the Malays has resulted in the ethnic Chinese being at a disadvantage in political and economic decision-making. As a result, many ethnic Chinese citizens hold a ‘Chinese nationality’ identity and sentiment toward China, many of whom grew up in the 1970s, were educated in pure Chinese, and were influenced by the leftist social movements of the time.
Episode 9: Lam Wing-Kee
(Owner of Causeway Bay Books)
In October 2015, multiple shareholders and employees of Causeway Bay bookstore in Hong Kong, famous for publishing banned books on Chinese politics, were taken away, including Gui Minhai, Lui Bo, Cheung Chi-ping, Lee Bo, and Lam Wing-Kee. They were arrested, imprisoned, and even forced to confess their crimes publicly. The unexplained disappearances triggered thousands of Hong Kong people to take to the streets in protest and sparked concerns worldwide.
In this episode, Lam Wing-Kee, the owner of Causeway Bay Bookstore whom the Chinese government detained for nearly eight months during the Causeway Bay Books disappearances, recalls why he decided to hold a press conference to reveal his house arrest experience when he went back to Hong Kong under conditional discharge.
Episode 10: A-Mao
(A Journalist from Hong Kong, Anonymous)
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Hong Kong ranked 34th out of 180 countries and regions in press freedom in 2010, higher than Taiwan's 48th place. However, Hong Kong's freedom of the press has fallen to 80th place after just a decade. What kind of change has this brought to the frontline journalists? In this episode, we invite a journalist from Hong Kong, anonymously named “A-Mao,” to talk about his observations on the operation of the journalism industry in Hong Kong in the past few years, as well as the anxiety and helplessness of Hong Kong people towards the current society after the anti-extradition movement.
At the end of June 2020, Hong Kong's National Security Law was formally introduced, dealing a severe blow to the local democratic political parties and legislators. The police also searched and arrested the management and journalists of liberal media, such as Apple Daily and Stand News, and eventually forced them to close down. Initium Media, an online news outlet founded in Hong Kong, announced in August 2021 that it would move its headquarters to Singapore.
Episode 11: Wu'er Kaixi
(Leading Role in the Tiananmen Square Protests)
In mid-April 1989, nearly a decade after China's economic policy was reformed and liberalized, many students gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to protest and demand that the Chinese government reform its political system. The protests spread throughout the country. In the early morning of June 4th of the same year, the Chinese government sent the People's Liberation Army and armed police to Tiananmen Square to forcefully “clear the scene,” which became the now well-known “June Fourth Incident,” “Tiananmen Square Massacre,” or “1989 Student Movement”.
In this episode, we invite one of the student leaders of the movement at that time, a Uyghur from Xinjiang, Wu'er Kaixi, to talk about the social atmosphere at that time, the scene of the incident, and what he thinks about the current issues in Xinjiang and Hong Kong when he looks back on the experience of struggle and exile years later.
Episode 12: Wu Jieh-Min
(A Taiwanese Political Scientist)
When you think of China, do you think of a “threatening totalitarian state” or a “resourceful economic power”? In this episode, Professor Wu Jieh-Min from the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, who has been studying China's political, economic, and social changes for nearly 30 years, discusses the evolution of modern China from a historical perspective and shares his views on current China's issues and the international situation.
Since Xi Jinping became the leader, China's political, civil, and social environment has tightened. In recent years, despite the pressure of international criticism and sanctions, Hong Kong, which was relatively free, has been “cleaned up” in a big way. From the anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao Zedong, the reform and opening up led by Deng Xiaoping, to Xi Jinping's attempt to take over the re-election of the General Secretary, how has China come to be where it is today? And can Taiwan escape the tug-of-war between China and the United States, two major powers in the world?
Episode 13: Tashi Tsering
(President of Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan)
The final episode of this season features Tashi Tsering, a second-generation Tibetan exile and current president of the Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan. He looks back at Tibet and his family's history and shares his experiences promoting Tibetan independence, democracy and freedom, and human rights movements.
In October 1950, the Chinese Communist Party sent its Liberation Army to invade Tibet and signed the Seventeen Point Agreement with the Tibetan government the following year. Initially, the Chinese Communist Party established the People's Liberation Committee in the Tibetan areas, which was included in the agreement to coexist peacefully with the Tibetan government.
After 1955, however, the Chinese Communist Party began to impose controls in areas outside the agreement, leading to a series of massive rebellions and violent battles. In March 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans went into exile in India, after which Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai announced the “dissolution of the Tibetan government” and the administration of the Preparatory Committee for Tibet Autonomous Region, beginning the destiny of generations of Tibetans in exile.