Memes in Myanmar reach the world
We continue to get positive feedback on the episode exploring the deeper meaning behind Burmese memes, both in their online form as well as the manifestation on physical signs, back when street protests were still prevalent. Following is one excerpt from this interview that stands out, in which May describes why many of these signs have appeared in English, as well as how Generation Z has been carrying forward with their protest message differently than was seen in past uprisings.
“I believe the question is, why we're using English signs as well as Burmese, right? Well, this is to highlight to the world what is happening and what we're going through. I also have noticed a lot of memes and protest signs that have been widely used as well. And I think this is due to the fact that a lot of the younger generations have grown up with internet. They've had access to the world, they've had access to memes in English, they've been exchanging these English memes and they've been making them for quite a while. When the coup happened and they came out to protest, I think this is something that they wanted to share with their foreign counterparts, about what they're going through, through memes and through the signs.
Especially those memes that indicate ‘we are the Generation Z,’ that we are this younger generation. I mean, we've grown up with memes. A lot of our social life is just sharing memes and making memes! I think for us, it's a way of trying to portray our fight and our feelings and struggles, and what we went through. Those are just means to highlight it to the international community. We live in a decade where anything could be uploaded in seconds, anything could be shared worldwide within seconds! You can see especially that these English signs are very bright as well, so that it can catch the eye more easily. And you can see that these memes are especially used to protest outside embassies as well. So these are basically to signal what's going on in Myanmar, and what our message is. And to also criticize countries that have been saying that this is an 'internal problem'.”