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Pepe the Frog, an alt-right symbol in the US, has emerged as the face of the Hong Kong protests
So it seems that the Chinese in Hong Kong have taken up with the alt-right's Anti-Com, at least with the cartoon characters that do not acutally belong to the alt-right.
Reportage from Business Insider [businessinsider.com]
Pepe the Frog is getting an image makeover this summer.
The cartoon frog with the bulging eyes and wide smile has, for years, been associated with America's alt-right — a symbol of racism and hate as the country continues to grow more divided. In 2016, Pepe the Frog was officially listed as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, as the character gained prominence on sites like 4chan and became increasingly associated with anti-Semitism and bigotry.
"Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature, Dude!" But the Picture [businessinsider.com] is worth a thousand and fifty hundred words.
In Hong Kong, however, protesters have another idea of what Pepe the Frog represents: for them, he is a pro-democracy freedom fighter siding with the masses as they take on mainland China — a vastly different identity compared to what the character is viewed as by many across the Pacific.
Is this the redemption of Pepe? Could it be? Maybe.
"Different countries have very different cultures," suggested 20-year-old Hong Konger Emily Yeung, in an interview with Victor. "Symbols and colors that mean something in one culture can mean something completely different in another culture, so I think if Americans are really offended by this, we should explain to them what it means to us."
As the Hong Kong protests picked up this summer, Pepe the Frog became a common symbol across the city — his face emblazoned on stickers, walls, backpacks, and within the abyss of social media. He was directly on the front line with protesters, sympathetic to their struggles and devoted to their cause. In a Reddit thread titled "Take Pepe back!" a user wrote "In Hong Kong Pepe is not at all associated with Trump... the original artist didn't want Pepe to be used like that. So let's try to make baby steps."
Not like a giant Rubber Ducky in Hong Kong Harbour, or oblique references to a Bear with very little brain, or the demonstrations in Pakistan, very many years ago, that had posters of the very famous "Bert and Osama bin Laden". [soylentnews.org] Ah, good times! Madonna is sixty, people! Michael Jackson is dead. Elvis has left the building. And Pepe is pro-democracy and anti-fascist.
