Milk Tea Alliance: How Asian Democracy Movements Help Each Other and Organize Against China Online

Pearls, Together, Strong!

Could an internet meme, seemingly a prank, hide the true voice of 21st-century resistance against tyranny?

To resist the "Little Pinks," the encroaching influence of Beijing, and the alliance of dictators,
we need a Milk Tea Alliance that transcends language, geography, and cultural differences!

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a China expert specializing in the history of modern student movements,
draws on transnational interviews and archives to depict the true face of East Asian democracy movements.

"It's like witnessing a relay race against authoritarian rule, with the baton passed from young people in Hong Kong to young people in Thailand, and then carried on by protesters in Myanmar. This book attempts to examine the connections between youth movements in East Asia and Southeast Asia from a historical perspective, tracing the trajectory of the baton as it is passed in different places."

The political situations across Asia are quite different. Myanmar remains in a state of civil war, Thailand is a monarchy with a lèse-majesté law, and Hong Kong, in just a few short years, has transformed from a place with no political prisoners to a city of incarceration holding many. Despite so many differences, political protesters, young student activists, and exiles in these places often feel that their protest activities are interconnected.

In this small book, historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom interviews several young political dissidents, including Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, known for protesting mandatory military service in Thailand, Agnes Chow, a co-founder of Demosistō in Hong Kong who is now in exile, and Ye Myint Win, who promotes human rights work in Myanmar. Many social activists, when protesting on the streets, support each other, whether online or at actual events, and often refer to themselves as belonging to the "Milk Tea Alliance" — a name that both echoes their stance of pursuing an alliance for freedom and democratic values, opposing the oppression of the Chinese authoritarian government, and also alludes to their representative cultural beverages all containing dairy products, distinguishing them from traditional Chinese tea.

What is it that allows these democratic protesters, in such different circumstances, to remain united and support each other? Professor Wasserstrom traveled globally, collecting archival materials and interviewing members of this loose alliance, with many interviews conducted in Taiwan, the birthplace of bubble tea. Through this book, readers will gain a deeper understanding of these young democratic activists' reflections on democratic values, their growing concerns about the authoritarian dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, and the transnational support networks they have developed to unite.

2025-12-31

衛城出版

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