It’s not just Hong Kong, Asia has a rich history of protests: here are 5
- South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia have all witnessed their fair share of upheaval in recent decades
- Some have been driven by demands for reform or a change of leadership, while others have opposed specific government actions or proposals
Some have been driven by demands for political reform or a change of leadership, while others have been motivated by opposition to specific government actions or proposals. These movements have been both peaceful and violent on occasion, but in all cases, they have made their demand to be heard loud and clear.
“Most of these movements have been motivated to some degree by a threat of loss,” said Jonathan Pinckney, a researcher of non-violent resistance and protest at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who cited the ideologies championed by the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi. “Movements often start this way, with a defensive demand against a perceived negative change, and then escalate to demanding more substantive change.”
Typically, eruptions of public discontent in the region have featured well-organised, student-led movements that have occupied city streets, said Benjamin Reilly, an expert on democratisation in Asia at the University of Western Australia. “[These protests] utilised the latest in available technology – formerly, mobile phones; today, social networking – and kept going until they had achieved their objective or were repressed, only to achieve their objective a decade later.”
Protest movements in Asia, while not directly connected, have often learned and taken inspiration from each other.