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Thai Protestors Have Appropriated the 'Hunger Games' Three-Finger Salute
In an odd bit of life imitating art, a group of protestors angered over the recent military coup in Thailand have been using the three-fingered salute from "The Hunger Games" as a sign of solidarity against the new government.
Like Katniss Everdeen and co., who use the salute in the Suzanne Collins novels and films -- most recently in last year's "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" -- as a silent show of defiance against the tyrannical government of Panem, Thai protestors have appropriated the signal at recent demonstrations, which came to a head this past weekend. Hundreds gathered at protests organized through social media, and were met by hundreds of police officers; the events culminated in several arrests, including that of one woman who was dragged into a taxi by police after giving authorities the salute.
Though it seems like an odd choice for a real-life demonstration, Quartz explains that the gesture has already adopted a specific significance for its users.
"Thais are avid consumers of pop culture, including the 'Hunger Games' movies, so it's not surprising that they have chosen to use the salute favored by cinematic heroine Katniss Everdeen," Quartz writes. "Adding to the cultural mash-up, protesters on Sunday said the three fingers stand for liberty, brotherhood, and equality-a slogan associated with the French Revolution that is now the official motto of France."
The Thai military seized control of the country late last month, and shut down its television broadcasts. The military had also threatened to cut off access to the internet, though protestors' continued use of social media indicates that those were perhaps empty threats. Either way, it seems that demonstrators' comparisons of Thailand's military to the fictional government in Panem may not be that far off.
In an odd bit of life imitating art, a group of protestors angered over the recent military coup in Thailand have been using the three-fingered salute from "The Hunger Games" as a sign of solidarity against the new government.
Like Katniss Everdeen and co., who use the salute in the Suzanne Collins novels and films -- most recently in last year's "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" -- as a silent show of defiance against the tyrannical government of Panem, Thai protestors have appropriated the signal at recent demonstrations, which came to a head this past weekend. Hundreds gathered at protests organized through social media, and were met by hundreds of police officers; the events culminated in several arrests, including that of one woman who was dragged into a taxi by police after giving authorities the salute.
Though it seems like an odd choice for a real-life demonstration, Quartz explains that the gesture has already adopted a specific significance for its users.
"Thais are avid consumers of pop culture, including the 'Hunger Games' movies, so it's not surprising that they have chosen to use the salute favored by cinematic heroine Katniss Everdeen," Quartz writes. "Adding to the cultural mash-up, protesters on Sunday said the three fingers stand for liberty, brotherhood, and equality-a slogan associated with the French Revolution that is now the official motto of France."
The Thai military seized control of the country late last month, and shut down its television broadcasts. The military had also threatened to cut off access to the internet, though protestors' continued use of social media indicates that those were perhaps empty threats. Either way, it seems that demonstrators' comparisons of Thailand's military to the fictional government in Panem may not be that far off.
Related news:
How the Hunger Games salute is fighting oppression in Thailand
The three-fingered salute has become a gesture of solidarity and defiance for the protesters in Bangkok, just as it is in Panem
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Anti-coup protesters in Bangkok, Thailand. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters
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Whenever films are accused of inspiring copycat behaviour, it is invariably bad news: Death Wish, Child's Play and Natural Born Killers are among those that have taken their turn as Exhibit A in the media when the time has come to apportion blame for some tragedy or atrocity. (Even a film as apparently innocuous as Bad Neighbours was cited by a US critic last week as a possible catalyst for the murders carried out by Elliot Rodger.) So it is something of an anomaly and a relief to find that reports of Hunger Games-inspired activity in Thailanddo not refer to that country's adolescents being forced to participate in televised fights to the death.
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Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Photograph: Murray Close/AP
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Protesters demonstrating against the military, which seized power in last month's coup d'état, have been spotted invoking the three-fingered salute used by the oppressed population in the films of Suzanne Collins's young adult science-fiction series. Civilians were initially urged to go about their business as usual, but this became increasingly hard with military barricades springing up around Bangkok and attempted demonstrations being thwarted aggressively. In the wake of international news channels such as CNN and the BBC being taken off air, as well as HBO and the Disney Channel, it is especially significant that this small but pointed gesture of protest should have sprung from popular culture.
The salute in The Hunger Games represents a way for the downtrodden people of Panem to mutely register their defiance of the government. Not that those using it in the film escape censure (or worse). And sure enough, the latest reports from Bangkok speak of a woman who was bundled away by undercover police after giving the salute.
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Protesters give the salute in Bangkok, Thailand. Photograph: Sakchai Lalit/AP
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You'd have to go back to the film adaptation of the graphic novel V For Vendetta, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, to find a comparable crossover between on-screen behaviour and widespread political iconography. That the movie was generally unloved (not least by Moore himself) did nothing to stem the popularity of its central image: a dandy Guy Fawkes mask that has become the all-purpose symbol for the international protester-about-town. Members of the activist-hackers group Anonymous were early adopters; Occupy Wall Street also took up the mask in the fight against corporate greed. Stories abounded about US police searching the homes of suspected hackers for the masks. At least that's one advantage of the Hunger Games salute: it's unlikely that anyone can be stitched up for possessing fingers.
