The Sun Flower Movement was a protest by a coalition of Taiwanese students and civil society organizations. It lasted for 24 days having been held between March 18, 2014 and April 10, 2014. The protest was inspired by unilateral adoption of the Cross-Straight Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) by the ruling party Kuomintang (KMT) in the absence of a clause-by-clause review. It was christened “sunflower” by the protestors to symbolize hope. Besides, it amounted to an allusion to the Wild Lily Movement of 1990 which marked a milestone in the democratization of Taiwan. During the protest, the protestors occupied the legislature, Yuan parliament, for the whole period. Besides, they stormed the government head quarters. Moreover, they held grass roots citizens forums.
This paper addresses itself to the historical background of the protest. More so, it seeks to critically analyze the available literature on the topic. To this end, it will explore the reasons behind the escalation of the protest as proffered by various scholars. Moreover, it examines the literature on the implications of the movement on both Taiwan and its foreign policy. Moreover, it assesses the role of social media in the said escalation.
The Sunflower Movement was a manifestation of the revolutionary role played by internet and social media in organization of protests. Social media was instrumental in facilitating the protest in two aspects. It aided mobilization of protestors on one hand and helped in mobilization of resources on the other hand. With regard to finances, it is reported that the users of PTT, a common Bulletin Board Systems, generally used by Taiwanese undergraduate students called for donations from supporters of the movement to purchase a full page advertisement on the New York Times. Shockingly, they successfully raised approximately 6.33 million TWD from Taiwanese citizens within only three hours. As a result, they were able to place the said advert on March 28, 2014. The drive helped raise money for popularization of the movement across the globe and within Taiwan.
The achievement discussed above confirms the hypothesis that was proffered by Kann, Berry, Grant and Zagar. They argued to the effect that social media “economizes the temporal and monetary capital” necessary for collecting information. As a result, it establishes a situation in which the protestors are not limited by their own economic or social status. Instead, the internet accords them enough resources for participation.
Scholars have argued that one of the attribute of social media that makes it more effective in escalating social movements is the ease at which appealing information can be communicated. The Sunflower Movement was able to launch a website dubbed “4am.com” upon which persuasive appeals could be made with a view of winning other people’s sympathy. This provided an avenue through which they could record the truth from their eyes and post them for the world to see. It is reported that the website was done within a day in honor of 3 621 citizens who sponsored the purchase of the New York Times full page-advertisement. They invited fellow citizens to post pictures of teary eyes from the night the police tear gassed them when violently evicting the protestors from the Executive Yuan.
Additionally, YouTube channels were created through which communications could be streamed life. As a result, Taiwanese citizens were able to access first hand information on what was going on. The said information was unadulterated compared to the information that they are used to receiving from the mainstream media which is reputed for stringent editing in favor of government’s views.
It is noteworthy that there was a split in media regarding the protests. The government owned media and those that supported the government attempted to paint the protests in bad light so as to inspire societal indignation against the Sunflower Movement. As a result, the movement resorted to the use of social media in order to propagate the ideals of the protests and to counter the government’s propaganda. The social media was instrumental in mobilizing the leaderless movement and directly responsible for its achievements.
Research has pointed out to the fact that when communication channels between the government and the public are restrained and there is no free flow of information, the internet and its social media platforms can be useful alternatives. Technological advances associated with the Information Age have enabled people to adopt social media platforms in voicing their grievances and dissatisfactions . When the Taiwanese government for instance chose to keep the country on the dark concerning the details of the CSSTA, the youth created YouTube channels through which those who were knowledgeable on the details and its implications could explain to the rest of the members of the society.
Additionally, the Sunflower Movement evidenced the emergence of a new crop of protest leadership in the digital age. According to Castells, the Sunflower Movement manifested a shift in the traditional leadership framework from politicians and social activists to techno-savvy youth. With their technological skills, they were able to achieve what conventional leaders of protests would not achieve under ordinary circumstances.
Moreover, the Sunflower Movement has been held by most researchers to be manifestation of communicative action and the role thereof in bringing about social change. The speed and scope at which the protest was mobilized was unprecedented. This is not withstanding the fact that the government had its own media that were responsible for spinning all sorts of negative propaganda against the protest in question. Armed with the emerging powerful tool of communicative action, the social media, the organizers of the protest were able to rally hundreds of thousands netizens behind the ideals of the Sunflower Movement.
According to David Curtis Wright on the other hand, the Sunflower movement was a manifestation of a maturing, if not immature democracy. He argues for a maturing democracy on the basis that throughout the entire massive protest, allegedly no shots were fired. Besides, no fatalities were reported. The protestors were just angry as opposed to being violent. Although cases of police brutality were reported, the students that participated in the demonstrations did so willingly, and that they were unharmed. More so, they were not arrested nor were they prosecuted. The civility at which all the concerned parties conducted themselves is synonymous with a developed democracy.
In conclusion, the paper takes the view that social media is instrumental in inspiring social change in our contemporary society. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter. YouTube, blogs have indeed transformed the conventional ways of organizing social movements by providing sources of information at significantly low costs and free of media bias. Besides, it increases the speed of communication exchange and coordination. Alongside other economic and political factors upon which the escalation of sunflower movement was premised, social media takes credence. The movement was indeed a manifestation of emerging communicative action.
Reference
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Chai, S.-K. (2015). Social Media And Anti-government Social Movements in East and Southeast Asia 2013-2015: Application of Four Innovations in Social Media Analysis and Behavioral Prediction. Retrieved March 18, 2016, from University of Hawai'i: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/talk/cidse_asu.pdf
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