From Sunflowers to Bluebirds: Taiwan’s Social Movement Uprisings in the Past Decade

Social movement uprisings have played a critical role in Taiwan’s democratization. From the 1990 Wild Lily Movement to the 2014 Sunflower Movement, moments of protest have been linked to electoral shifts that have sometimes been understood as consolidating Taiwan’s democracy.

What does this say as to the nature of Taiwanese democracy as a whole, that social movements have come to intersect with electoral politics in this way? Likewise, in a moment in which Taiwan has been termed the “most dangerous place on Earth”, as the cover of an article by The Economist went in 2021, how can we understand the legacy of the 2014 Sunflower Movement and the more recent Bluebird Movement of this year? This talk with will seek to connect the dots between social movements in Taiwan, its contentious electoral politics, and contemporary geopolitical tensions in the region.

This project is supported by a David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Grant from the Humanities Council, as well as the Department of East Asian Studies and the Program in East Asian Studies.