Youth Activism in Asia: From the Milk Tea Alliance of 2020-2021 to the Gen Z Protests of This Year
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About the talk:
Throughout this decade, young activists across Asia have taken a series of dramatic
steps to confront authoritarianism and oppression. Early in the decade, building on
the dramatic mass actions in Hong Kong in 2019, some activists in that city as well
as like-minded youths in Taiwan, Thailand, and later Burma joined together in what
they referred to as "The Milk Tea Alliance," a loosely defined and largely online
constellation named for the iconic drinks of their respective cultures, use to symbolize
transnational solidarity. Many of the people involved made use of symbols from the
Hunger Games novels and films and other elements of globally circulating popular entertainments.
This year, there has been another wave of activism in different parts of Asia, as
well as other parts of the world. These are being known collectively as Gen Z struggles.
This time, though there is no talk of an alliance, but again there are links formed
by shared grievances and common symbols, with the pirate flag from the One Piece manga
and televisions series seeming to show up everywhere. In this talk, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
will introduce the ideas and profiles of East and Southeast Asian activists that feature
in his most recent book, The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia's Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing, and go on to reflect on the relevance it has for helping to place protests in Asia
that have happened since he finished writing that slim volume a year ago.
About the speaker:
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Distinguished Professor of History at UC Irvine. He has written,
co-written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books and written for venues such as the
New York Times and the Atlantic. His most recent books are two short volumes published by Columbia Global Reports
(and also available as audiobooks): Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (2020) and The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing (2025).
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