He might have become an Internet meme linked to the alt-right in the West, but Pepe the Frog’s image has been adopted in Hong Kong, where democracy protesters have embraced it as an irreverent symbol of their resistance.
Throughout the more than 100 days of protests in the international finance hub, banners featuring the cartoon frog and stuffed toys of the amphibian have become ubiquitous, providing moments of levity as the violence escalates.
Pepe fervor reached new heights on Monday, when hundreds of demonstrators — many festooned with stickers or holding cuddly toys — formed a human chain along the territory’s harborfront, chanting slogans and singing protest songs.
Photo: AFP
Some of the Pepe toys brought by the largely young participants were decked in the yellow hard hats and gas masks worn by protesters in their clashes with police.
“In the United States it’s a hate symbol, but now it is reborn in Hong Kong as a symbol of love and freedom,” a 21-year-old animation student, who gave her name as Phoenix, told reporters. “Even in a really tough situation, we still want to feel hope and be happy. If we can maintain our minds in a positive way, then maybe we can keep protesting and find a way to win.”
Pepe’s embrace by Hong Kongers is the latest bizarre twist in the fate of a cartoon character who went from relative Internet obscurity to international notoriety.
It also shows how digital trends can mean different things depending on where you live in the world.
Created in 2005 by US artist Matt Furie as a “chill frog-dude,” Pepe became an Internet meme within online forums.
He was embraced by alt-right and white nationalist corners of the Internet, leading Furie to pronounce his original creation dead in 2017.
However, in Hong Kong and China, Pepe never had those connotations and was instead known as the “sad frog.”
The character became especially popular earlier this year when he appeared within downloadable WhatsApp sticker packs that people add to messages.
When the pro-democracy rallies began in June, young Hong Kongers were already pinging Pepe stickers to each other.
However, new protest-themed variations of Pepe emerged, transforming him into a pro-democracy everyman.
Soon Pepe was being graffitied onto pavements, plastered across protest “Lennon Walls” and even painted on fingernails.
“The creator of Pepe said he was dead, but now he’s alive again here,” said a 26-year-old graphic designer surnamed Leung, who attended Monday’s protest with friends.
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