Photo of the 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, from Wikipedia, used under CC BY 2.0 Licence In the spring of 2014, Taiwan experienced an unprecedented youth protest known as the Sunflower Movement that altered local politics and relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). But what is its legacy ten years later, as relations between the two countries remain a source of tension? To unpack the movement that occupied governmental institutions as a reaction to a proposed deeper economic integration with the PRC, Global Voices interviewed Taipei-based journalist and activist Brian Hioe, one of the founders of leftist and bilingual initiative New Bloom Magazine, an online publication that covers activism, politics, and youth culture in Taiwan. The publication was founded in 2014 after the Sunflower Movement. The activists maintaining the project also run DAYBREAK, a community space for talks, panels, and other gatherings in Taipei's Wanhua district. The interview was conducted over email and edited for style and brevity, after regular meetings at the New Bloom community café Daybreak in Taipei. Filip Noubel (FN): Can you describe your involvement in the Sunflower Movement and what motivated you to join in 2014? Brian Hioe (BH) I was a ground-level participant in the Sunflower Movement, as one of the many students who were part of the movement. I was part of the charge to the legislature on the first night, on March 18th, 2014, though I was not one of the first wave of students that initially kicked off the occupation, as well as later events such as the attempted occupation of Taiwan’s executive branch of government that took place on the night of March 23th, 2014. I was just someone who charged when told to, or who drifted in between the different groups that were all part of the occupation. It was only in the wake of the movement that New Bloom was founded and I became known as a journalist. In many ways, I became drawn into the movement because those around me were. Most of my participation was with a student activist group at National Yang Ming University, the Meaningful Society, a number of members of which became among the founders of New Bloom later on. Though I wasn’t actually a student at that university, this was my friend group, and so I became drawn into the movement with them. This reflects how the movement was a generational moment, in attracting young people who saw the movement as a moment in which Taiwan’s fate was on the line. This was probably true of myself, though as with many others, it was suddenly being thrust into an unexpected set of political circumstances. As I grew up in New York before returning to Taiwan, I had more experience of large-scale social movements than many others, however, having participated in Occupy Wall Street in 2011. FN: What would you describe as its main achievements back then? BH: The movement was successful in stopping the Cross-Strait Services in Trade Agreement (CSSTA) that the then ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party's Ma Ying-jeou administration intended to pass, even if it is true that the CSSTA has resurfaced as a political idea a decade later. To this extent, the political administration of Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is sometimes seen as riding into power on the basis of momentum after the movement in 2016. There were also a number of third parties that emerged in the wake of the movement, as part of attempts to develop political alternatives to both the DPP and KMT alike, including the New Power Party, Social Democratic Party, and others. Yet I think the most significant achievements of the movement are not narrowly electoral. In particular, the movement shifted the social verdict on young people. While young people were previously derided as a soft and weak “strawberry generation,” unlike their boomer parents, after the movement, views of young people shifted to see them as willing to take risks for what they believed in. This led to a wave of young people running for office or taking up roles in politics and social activism. As such, Taiwanese young people have increasingly been able to shape our political destiny since the movement. FN: What about its legacy a decade later? Are young Taiwanese politically mobilized? If so, what are the drivers of political interest or involvement in 2024? BH: While the movement had a powerful impact on Millenials, Gen Z may not be as politically engaged, as the success of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je and his Taiwan People’s Party attests to, they may perhaps vote for China-friendly political actors. In particular, the next generation has come of age with the DPP having held political power for all of their adult life.