The Pepe the Frog Image-Meme in Hong Kong: Visual Recurrences and Gender Fluidity on the LIHKG Forum
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v4i4.131Keywords:
Hong Kong Anti-ELAB Movement, LIHKG Forum, Pepe the Frog, Image-meme, Gender, DemocracyAbstract
This paper examines how Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character originally created by
American cartoonist Matt Furie, and currently a global digital image-meme of
online activism, was adopted and adapted in Hong Kong during the 2019 Anti-
Extradition Bill and Law Movement (反對逃犯條例修訂運動; faan deoi tou faan tiu
lai sau ding wan dung) (hereafter: anti-ELAB Movement) on one of the most
prevalent protest platforms, the LIHKG forum (LIHKG 論壇). We combined a
computational big data analysis of the posts’ metadata and a qualitative analysis
of the Hong Kong Pepe image-meme to examine how it contributed to highly
emotive and contentious discussions about the future of Hong Kong. The aim is
to reveal how activists on this platform framed this imported image-meme to
make statements about Hong Kong politics, as well as gender and democracy.
The scope of visual content on social media today creates an opportunity for
cross-disciplinary collaboration and new methodological approaches that
combine a scaling of large quantities of images with representative sampling and
theories of online activism. Our theoretical interest aims at documenting how
activists reveled in various visual cultures and adopted the image-meme within
social media discourse. We are equally interested in identifying the gender
representations of these figures and how they drove emotional responses and
discussions during the movement’s high points. The Anti-ELAB protests and the
LIHKG forum were specifically characterized by a large participation of younger
women. Alongside the proposition for Hong Kong self-determination, the forum
hosted discussions about the role of female activists within the struggle. Since
Pepe had previously been adopted by xenophobic alt-right groups and the
misogynist “manosphere,” we monitored and interpreted recurring Pepeimagery
to find out how normative-conservative, or gender-fluid and
emancipatory tropes were used on the LIHKG forum.
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