by Brian Hioe

語言:
English
Photo Credit: Brian Hioe

THE “BLUEBIRD MOVEMENT” evidenced many characteristics of an occupation-style movement, even if it was not truly one. After all, though the name “Bluebird” took its name from how the main street on which the protests took place, “Qingdao East Road” (青島東路), is visually similar to “bluebird” (青鳥) in Chinese, the protest took the form of day-long demonstrations starting when the contested legislative powers were discussed in the legislature.

In this sense, multiple stations for childcare, medical aid, flyers and stickers, media, and childcare were set up for demonstrations. Likewise, walls for artwork were set up. On May 24th, the peak of the demonstrations at 100,000, massage stations were set up and later continued to be a hallmark of the demonstrations afterward.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Control of crowded areas was maintained throughout the movement, starting from the demonstration of 30,000 on May 21st. In particular, traffic control was set up for Qingdao East Road when it became crowded, with people called on to wait until people left before more crowds were let into the area by what was usually the main stage. Traffic control also took place around the Che-Lam Presbyterian Church, which served as a major hub for the movement. Apart from that the church donated a large number of food, water, plastic raincoats, and other supplies used for the protest to carry on, the church also served as a rest area, a place for protest participants to pick up such supplies, and use the restroom.

Massage stations set up by the protest. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Given that the protests took place on a daily basis, rather than across a continuous series of days and weeks with demonstrators staying overnight, there were relatively few installations that developed in the course of the movement. The most commonly seen installation, however, was Buddhist memorials making fun of TPP legislator Huang Kuo-chang, seen as a political turncoat for his shift to the pan-Blue camp despite being a leader of the Sunflower Movement. oems for Fu Kun-chi and Hsu Chiao-hsin were later made, too, and Huang’s former colleague in the NPP, Freddy Lim, sang the Master Onion Memorial in a livestream. Likewise, a VJ projection onto the side of the Legislative Yuan took place on May 28th.

The Master Onion Memorial. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

The memorials treated Huang as though he were dead. The Buddhist theme more broadly was applied to depictions of Huang, with a sutra-like poem the Master Onion Memorial, appearing in the encampment in the form of a long scroll on May 24th. This subsequently became adapted to song in over forty different versions, including a heavy metal version, a K-pop version, and in Taiwanese Hokkien. The Buddhist theme echoes the Buddhist undertones of protest artwork in demonstrations against the Tsai administration’s changes to the Labor Standards Act in 2017 and 2018.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Indeed, many of the protest signs criticized the “villains” of the movement. These included Huang, but also KMT Legislative Yuan president Han Kuo-yu, and KMT caucus convener Fu Kun-chi. This included a large number of caricatures, some of which depicted them as various inhuman animals, such as dogs, or Pokemon. This continues the transformations that otherwise respected political figures see in protest artwork. Otherwise, protest signs referenced pop culture, such as Japanese anime or cat memes, along the lines of online “Kuso” humor.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Many of the signs that appeared in the protest were iterable. That is, they were printed out by individuals from online templates. The Economic Democracy Union, the main organizer of the demonstrations, also distributed QR codes so that protest banners could be printed out from 7/11s, a very Taiwan-specific means of distributing protest signs that take advantage of 7/11’s iBon system. Some protest signs iterated from information organized by DPP legislator Puma Shen. After DPP legislators began to hold up bubble tea props in the legislature, bubble tea-themed artwork or signs also began to appear among protesters.

An undercurrent of the movement was the potential impact on members of the LGBTQ community from Chinese influence, or as a result of the KMT coming back to power. For example, many talks brought up claims by the KMT that it would seek to repeal the legalization of gay marriage. Several signs in demonstrations referenced the genres of BL (Boy’s Love) or GL (Girl’s Love), pointing to how without democracy, such forms of expression would likely be targeted at a time in which China has sought to crack down on representations of “feminine men.”

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Several calligraphy stalls were set up in the occupation encampment, along with printmaking and similar activities. Likewise, “villain hitting” of hated figures also took place, and ribbons were tied to the side of the legislature on May 28th.

Unsurprisingly, when the movement acquired the name “Bluebird Movement,” this led to a flood of bluebird artworks in the protest. At the same time, representations of the bluebird were not stable, in that what kind of bird this was sometimes varied. Besides bluebirds of the North American variety, a common depiction was the Taiwan Blue Magpie, a national symbol.

Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Many performances took place around the occupation. Underground party collective Rave Fun Taiwan made an appearance on May 24th to support the movement. Likewise, with the recent victory of Nymphia Wind on RuPaul’s Drag Race, apart from appearances by Nymphia herself at the protest, pop-up drag shows took place.

High school protesters. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

The balloon balls representing protest demands that were lobbed at the legislature on May 28th have been increasingly common in Taiwanese demonstrations as of late, in that this is increasingly part of the protest repertoire in Taiwan. This would be a way of conveying one’s demands and, in some sense, staging an occupation of the legislature that does not amount to actually needing to carry out direct action. Balloon balls were also lobbed at the legislature during International Workers’ Day this year and when the tenth anniversary of the Sunflower Movement was commemorated in March, as also organized by the Economic Democracy Union.

Balloon ball thrown into the legislature. Photo credit: Brian Hioe

Protest culture continues to be alive and well in Taiwan, then, even if the activist subculture that existed around the time of the Sunflower Movement has long since receded. In particular, the demonstrations often sought to highlight the pluralistic nature of contemporary Taiwanese identity in its manifold representations. This was visible in many of the artworks seen in the course of the occupation, too, perhaps highlighting the political tendencies of the young people who participated in the movement.

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