「The Message」Remake Initiative：Please help us complete the production of this audiobook!
Tibetans are, for perhaps the first time, the central focus of a Chinese-language illustrated book. Their suffering and resilience are portrayed openly and without taboo.
Tashi Delek, I am Ginger Duan, the founder of the Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet.
Last year, I came across a graphic book titled “Voices of the Disappeared.” Through delicate storytelling, it follows a Tibetan woman named Karma, who, after losing her husband at the hands of the CCP police, transforms her personal grief into a pursuit of freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.
The work addresses real issues affecting Tibet and other regions in China, including forced assimilation, cultural erasure, and modern forms of forced labor. Presented in a simple yet powerful illustrated style, it transforms brutality and despair into a vision of a peaceful and free future.
It is, without a doubt, a work prohibited from circulation in China. Yet it is also a rare and gentle graphic narrative that calls attention to the lived realities of oppressed communities.
For perhaps the first time, Tibetans become the main figures in a Chinese-language illustrated work. Their suffering and resilience are portrayed openly and without taboo.
When I first read it, I was deeply moved. The book is not only about Tibetan suffering but also about the remarkable resilience of the Tibetan spirit — the ability to preserve conscience, hope, and imagination even in the most extreme conditions of despair.
Yet despite its power, I found that this work remains largely unknown in the Chinese-speaking world, and even within human rights communities.
That realization led me to start this project:
The「The Message」Remake Initiative.
🎬 I then began reaching out to the publisher of “Voices of the Disappeared” to inquire whether we could obtain permission to re-create and distribute the work under the Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet initiative.
Fortunately, we were eventually granted authorization.
From there, we began planning the core elements of the remake:
Re-translating the work into simplified Chinese, with careful adjustments to certain terms based on cultural context
Producing voice narration for Chinese-speaking audiences
Adapting the work into an audio-visual format, combining narration and animation
We hope to express the story in a form that better fits contemporary modes of communication, so that these stories can be more widely seen, heard, and understood.
Along the way, we faced a number of practical challenges — including finding suitable Chinese voice actors and navigating cultural and linguistic translation issues. As most of our team consists of young Chinese-speaking volunteers, this process required continuous learning and coordination.
Eventually, we were fortunate to find a middle-aged Tibetan male voice actor who agreed to participate and voice the role of the Dalai Lama. He comes, like the Dalai Lama, from Amdo in eastern Tibet, and speaks Mandarin with a strong Tibetan accent.
He told us that his Mandarin is “not standard.” I replied to him: “You speak very well — it is a perfectly authentic Amdo Tibetan Mandarin. Language does not have a single standard; it has only local voices.”
💡 Why We Are Fundraising
This project is now in the production stage, but we need additional support to complete it. The total production cost is $1,500, and we have raised $300 so far.
We have also received a matching donation pledge of up to $450 from a supporter.
This means that every $1 you donate will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling your impact until the match limit is reached. Your support will directly help us unlock the full matching fund and significantly amplify the project’s reach.
The Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet is part of Starshiner, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States (EIN: 41-2327813).
All donations are tax-deductible under U.S. federal law.
🎧 Where Your Support Goes
Funds raised will be used for:
Professional voice recording, so the story can truly be heard
Animation and visual production, to make the narrative more complete and engaging
Educational and public outreach, bringing these stories into wider discussion spaces
🌱 Our Vision
This is our first official fundraising campaign and an initial attempt to explore how storytelling can preserve memory and amplify silenced voices.
We hope that when people put on headphones or open a screen, they are not just “reading” these stories — but truly hearing them.
If you are able, please support us — and help share this campaign.
Every share may introduce these stories to someone for the first time, especially within Chinese-speaking communities.
Every contribution may help a forgotten voice be remembered by the world again.
Best,
Ginger Duan
The founder of the Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet
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