AN The three-finger salute that originated in the Hunger Games film series was adopted by activists from Thailand to Myanmar, becoming a symbol of resistance and solidarity for democratic movements across Southeast Asia.
The gesture, along with popular online memes reused as signs of protest, are part of a set of symbols adopted from global popular culture by a new generation of young activists created on the Internet and experienced in making their struggles resonate with audiences abroad.
The three-finger gesture was first used in Myanmar last week by medical professionals, then young protesters began to raise it in opposition to the military coup. On Monday, a week after the acquisition, the greeting could be seen during major protests on the streets of Yangon.
On February 1, Myanmar’s army took power in a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. She and other leading figures in the party were arrested in a morning operation. In response, tens of thousands protested on the streets of Yangon and other cities as part of a growing campaign of civil disobedience. The military blocked social media platforms in an attempt to crack down on dissent. The United Nations Security Council called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained ministers.
At the Hunger Games, the three fingers represented solidarity in a dystopian world where rebels fought for freedom against an all-powerful tyrant.
The gesture first appeared in Thailand a few days after a military coup in May 2014, which caused outrage among voters across the kingdom. He was later banned.
After the military takeover, a small group of young protesters gathered in front of a busy shopping center to show their dissatisfaction. One of the protesters suddenly raised his salute.
“When that person started, others followed. So it automatically became an anti-coup symbol, ”says Sirawith Seritiwat, 28, a prominent Thai pro-democracy activist who was present at the time.
Since 2014, the hand gesture has been widely used in Thailand at protest sites.
“We knew it would be easily understood to represent concepts of freedom, equality, solidarity,” said Seritiwat. He added that the anti-authoritarian message conveyed in the Hunger Games films resonated with young protesters at the time.
“In part, it was because the anti-coup situation at that time seemed similar to the scenes in the Hunger Games film, where people were pointing with three fingers at President Snow,” he said.
Posters carried by young protesters against Myanmar’s military coup displayed characters known as Pepe the Frog – adopted in 2016 as a symbol of the far right of the US and most recently used by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong – and Doge and Cheems, two dogs often imagine themselves hitting each other loudly with a bat.
Thu thu no
(@nikitakaulitz)Civil Disobedience Movement in Myanmar. Meme of the day “Don’t be Naughty” #CivilDesobedienceMovement #pepe #memesdaily #WhatIsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/Fs3IFostks
Memes, often accompanied by a message in English and adjusted to include the faces of prominent Myanmar junta leaders, reflect the openness to the world of a new generation of young Burmese activists in a country that was very isolated during the decades in which was ruled by the army alone until 2010.
Aung Moe Win
(@AungMoeWin)Some of the hilarious memes from the anti-coup rallies. #WhatIsHappeningInMyanmar #HearTheVoiceOfMyanmar #Myanmar pic.twitter.com/8EH2YtzrJu
Since then, Internet usage rates have increased from practically nothing to more than a third of the country, with an estimated penetration of 80% of smartphones.
The popularity of social media platforms like Facebook – and insufficient moderation on the part of the technology company – was cited as a factor in the increase in hatred and xenophobia that accompanied the resurgence of extreme violence against the country’s Rohingya people in 2016-7 .
Fearing that it could also be used against them, the army dramatically restricted access to the Internet last week, but gave in after about a day, with service restored across most of the country.