The Straw Hat flag has change into an emblem of revolt in Asia.
Photograph Credit score: @animespotlightt through X
AMID rising frustrations with corruption and censorship within the authorities, youths throughout Asia have adopted a brand new image of defiance: an anime pirate flag. The flag, popularised by the anime and manga collection One Piece, depicts a cranium with a straw hat and crossbones, and has change into a flag of protest for teenagers in Nepal, Indonesia, and the Philippines, together with different nations.
Belonging to the Straw Hat Pirates within the One Piece story, the flag has in latest months been popping up within the aforementioned nations – in doorways, on balconies, painted on the partitions, and on the backs of vehicles – as an emblem of protest and resistance amid simmering tensions.
Forward of Indonesia’s Independence Day, August 17, the president, Prabowo Subianto, referred to as for Indonesians to fly their red-and-white flag. As a substitute, many Indonesians raised the Straw Hat flag within the streets.
Now, the protests are in full power, spreading throughout Asia in opposition to the corruption, censorship, and authoritarian governments. The flag, showing in protests throughout the continent, is being wholeheartedly adopted as an emblem of Gen Z’s unrest.
The Japanese collection One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda and originating in 1997, is among the most profitable franchises of all time and is the best-selling manga collection of all time, with greater than 516.6 million copies offered. Over its greater than 1,100 episodes, the story follows a crew of pirates, together with their starry-eyed captain, Monkey D. Luffy, crusing around the globe in quest of a legendary treasure. The long-running collection, but unfinished, famously offers with themes of corruption, resisting oppressors, and standing up for what is correct. The Straw Hat flag has, lately, change into a worldwide image of defiance, not solely within the aforementioned nations, however on a worldwide scale.