Art as Cross-Border Resistance — Forbidden Art * Residential Surveillance * Operation 415

This experiential exhibition on China’s machinery of human rights abuse centred on “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), the Chinese Communist Party’s foremost instrument of one-party rule. Produced with Safeguard Defenders, founded by Peter Dahlin, it used a large tent and movable set pieces to stage an escape-room experience, presented the accounts of people who had been held under RSDL on posters, and invited former detainees to speak as “human library” storytellers, with video material introducing the current human rights situation in China and Hong Kong. The aim was to broaden and deepen public understanding in Taiwan of how China’s undemocratic system violates human rights, and to strengthen appreciation of Taiwan’s own democratic and constitutional order.

Speakers

• Wu Renhua: A survivor of the June 4th massacre and a scholar of historical documents, long engaged in collecting and researching June 4th source material.
• Kacey Wong: An exiled Hong Kong visual artist and educator, formerly Assistant Professor at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who moved from Hong Kong to Taiwan in 2021.
• Harry (Human Library): A Hong Konger whose liberty was restricted by China under residential surveillance at a designated location, sharing his own experience on site.