This paper focuses on the suren (novice) protesters during and after the Sunflower Movement in 2014 to understand the way public order and civic rights are conceptualized in Taiwan and to explore how they envision and act to pursue the right to the city in Taipei.
Paper long abstract:
Since the mid-2010s, "citizen" (gong-min, literally "public person") has become a popular phrase to frame protest and social activism in Taiwan. The occupy movement known as Sunflower Movement in the spring of 2014, in particular, gained persistent visibility on national media and drew many first-time protesters to partake in acts of "civil disobedience." Throughout the process, participants continued to define what "public person" meant and what "public" entailed. Post Sunflower, some of them began to engage in small, dispersed, and sometimes personal acts to claim the right to the city. This paper focuses on the suren (novice) protesters during and after the Sunflower Movement to understand the way public order and civic rights are conceptualized in Taiwan in relation to the idea of public space and to explore how they envision and pursue city life in Taipei.