Duan Jinggang’s life changed forever in 2011 after he held up a banner in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan that challenged “all corrupt dictatorial regimes” to step down.
Amid a wave of pro-democracy uprisings in China inspired by anti-government rebellions in the Arab world in 2011, Duan’s defiant sign landed him in a Chinese police station, where dozens of police officers beat and interrogated him during a grueling 24-hour session.
In his frantic journey for safety that followed, Duan scaled mountains on the China–Vietnam border, and was left homeless and destitute wandering around Southeast Asia, desperate to find a place for refuge. For weeks, he spent his nights on a straw mat in the hallways of a Buddhist temple in Cambodia, where the cold breezes frequently shook him awake….
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