From the Arab Spring, to Ukraine, to Syria, to Taiwan, the world seems to be once again engaged in mass social movements seeking to change the world. These protesters, most of them young students, have teamed up with another force that has changed the world—the internet, especially social media.

How did the Sunflower Movement gather almost 500,000 people to take to the streets, organize a month-long sit-in at the parliament, and capture the attention of an entire generation of young Taiwanese people? Technology, especially social media, played a crucial role. We talk to Sean Su, a Taiwanese American activist and part of the media and tech team for the Sunflower Movement, about all the technology that helped shape the movement’s messages and image. And drones.

(Feature photo by Essam Sharaf on Wikipedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

 

History and culture are the frames that prescribe how we understand the world around us. Our co-hosts present in-depth interviews on how art, culture, history and politics intertwine throughout time and space to connect us. Find out about the cosmopolitan modern Taipei downtown in the 1920s, regional trade, the future of aboriginal culture and more.
The Ketagalan Project