Photos from the Sunflower Movement in Taipei, which has seen the Legislative Yuan occupied since March 18 and has seen street protests in and around the main protest site. Here are some of the more colorful satirical posters and artwork featured at the protest. Photos by Gaelle Dieudonne.
The sign to the left says "Go Maca'rong, I choose you!'" surrounded by pokeballs with Ash from the Pokemon series in the top right corner. Along with a picture on the right that portrays Ma as half deer/half dog. The deer references comes from what the highly educated elite that are internet users see as an unforgivable lack of common sense from President Ma Ying-jeou: he thought that the term "lurong", which are young deer antlers used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, referred to the fine hairs inside a deer's ear... (心虛). The second character "rong" is then combined with Ma (the president's name) into a word that sounds like Macaroon (which are for some reason ridiculously popular in Taiwan) - and which evidently sounds like a pokemon name to Chinese ears. Go figure... Ma Ying-jeou is portrayed as a dog, because they think he's being led by Xi Jinping like a dog led by his owner.
The sign at the bottom center says "Being polite to a dictator, is being cruel to yourself".
After seemingly being mistaken for a protest registration counter (perhaps an indicator of the almost anal precision with which protesters have organized themselves - complete with recycling bins) the media tent was forced to post this notice: "Media area, not protest organizers".
Some posters featuring common slogans from the protest, among which are: "non-violence!", "Don't cry, Taiwan!" "Go Peace and Love!", "Reject the opaqueness of the trade-in-services pact!" (the last one is catchier in Chinese).
The poster to the left appears to be a mock up of a fake magazine cover entitled "New News", the headline runs: "oppressive crackdown to protect trade-in-services pact " along with a photo of a bleeding protester. This I assume is an attack on the way some media outlets have covered the protests - accused by protesters of being "fake news" if they disagree with anything the media outlets print. The newspaper article in the centre is real, with an sign on the side of it which declares "People and the Gods should both be angry" To the right above a sign which says "Brutal police are killers" (though no deaths have actually been reported), is a caricature of pro-pact leaders including Ma Ying-jeou (left), Hsiao Chia-chi (second left I think) along with Jiang Yi-huah (I assume). Cant' read the sign on the far right because the writing is too small - but one can assume its something appropriately bombastic.
What looks like a wanted poster featuring the country's beloved president taped to a punching bag, ironically enough with a poster decrying police violence below it: Police brutality; Dictatorial governance; Democracy stained with blood" with a woman boxing Ma's face with a boxing glove. Voodoo counts as violence!
An eager student draws a sunflower on a sign which says 「太陽花理法院」in what I assume is an intentional misspelling of 立法院 (Legislative Yuan), although the significance escapes me.
A banner screams "Protect Democracy", with the famous mask from V for Vendetta and a dove, alongside the English Peace Forever.
Ma Ying-jeou holding a club - meant to represent the party whip - bullying KMT members into voting for the pact - ie jumping into a mass grave. And who said the students were being over dramatic about the pact? Beside the cartoon there is a sign which questions, why the panda pictured is also opposed to the pact? One can only assume that Taiwanese are willing to overlook its Chinese heritage. The comic is by Hunter (lieren).
To the left we can see immortalized the moment when Chow Mei-ching (Ma's wife) let her guard slip and shouted at her husband while press were watching, saying "你很奇怪耶你!" or "You're so weird!". In the centre is a picture of Ma Ying-jeou with the word "mummy's boy" beside it (Mabao) and a picture of King Pu-tsung, former ROC representative to the US, now Secretary-General of National Security Council of the Republic of China, with a homonym for "mummy's boy" which means "President Ma's darling", a reference to tabloid speculation that the two are lovers.
These photos of the clearing of the Executive Yuan with water hoses in the Apple Daily (which incidentally is the only paper which has been consistently selling out in 7-11s over the protest period) has the headline, "Police steal back the Executive Yuan" - below the newspaper page is a sign which says "Police brutality: dictatorial governance!".
Another mock-up magazine cover to the left, called Tragic Record, announces that "As soon as the trade in services pact passes, we can say goodbye to the Taiwanese people", under the poster of the sunflower is President Ma with deer horns (The deer references come from what the highly educated elite that are internet users see as an unforgivable lack of common sense from President Ma Ying-jeou: he thought that the term "lurong", which are young deer antlers used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, referred to the fine hairs inside a deer's ear) inside a black box (standing for the opaqueness with which the students feel the pact was passed) with the words "Take back the trade in services pact, oppose the black box."
This was one of the more interesting posters from the movement. The depiction of Christ on the cross is accompanied by a flippant "Do you believe in God!? Why not just come to the student movements instead!". The bottom poster is a flattering portrait of Ma Ying-jeou himself, with "Let the people come to the student protests!!! I'll pretend to be blind and deaf and betray the public!!"
Ma Ying-jeou is pictured here with the term for the leader of the Hong Kong SAR zone (teshou), a reference to the fact that many of the student protesters fear that Taiwan will "become the next Hong Kong".
Another flattering antler sporting portrait of Ma with Makarong written on the top, (The deer references comes from what the highly educated elite that are internet users see as an unforgivable lack of common sense from President Ma Ying-jeou: he thought that the term "lurong", which are young deer antlers used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, referred to the fine hairs inside a deer's ear. The second character "rong" is then combined with Ma (the president's name) into a word that sounds like Macaroon (which are for some reason ridiculously popular in Taiwan). The bananas in the bottom right corner, refer to a mistake by commentator Chiu Yi, who mistook the sunflowers students were holding in the legislative yuan for bananas supplied by the DPP as part of their secret conspiracy to... supply the students with bananas.
The largest sign says "The country belongs to the people, the people shouldn't fear the government, the government should fear the people." Along with a cheeky "Oppose black box" (a reference to the opaqueness with which students believe the trade in services pact was passed through the legislature), and a "protect democracy".
The top sign says "goods" and below it says "save your own country".
"Are you still human?" asks this poster of President Ma, bedazzled as he is by a Chinese flag which has infected him and turned him red, with a starry crown.
