Join the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a film screening of "Broken Harmony: China's Dissidents" followed by a panel discussion with:
Teng Biao, human rights lawyer; President, China Against the Death Penalty
Hua Ze, human rights activist; Executive Director of a human rights organization (confidential for safety reasons)
He Yang, documentary filmmaker; former human rights activist
Risa Morimoto, Director
Diana Chiawen Lee, Producer
Moderated by: Andrew Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
Description: Broken Harmony: China's Dissidents tells the story of Hua Ze, an ordinary Chinese citizen for whom a discovery of corruption led her into a hidden world of dissidents, citizen journalism, police harassment and kidnappings.
Once a mild mannered TV director, Hua Ze discovered that an old friend reporting on alleged corruption after the Sichuan earthquake had disappeared, along with any mention of him online. Following a trail of leads over the great internet fire wall of China, she discovers not just the fate of her friend, but the truth behind Sichuan’s fatal building code violations, a jaw-dropping array of human rights abuses across China and comes to the realization that the entire internet in China is a state controlled fiction.
Hua's awakening takes her into a new world of dissidents, journalists and human rights lawyers. As she begins her own reporting, pressure from the government is swift, and her world is turned upside down. She is forced out of her job and placed under surveillance. One by one, her new friends are arrested or detained. Phones are tapped and secretive threats and warnings are made. But Hua cannot turn a blind eye to the corruption and she pays the price.
When ordinary Chinese citizens go to extraordinary lengths to fight human rights abuses, the risks are enormous, even life-threatening. Broken Harmony reveals Hua’s courageous acts and willingness to lose everything to fight for justice and the rule of law.
