Food Vendors And Booksellers
Booksellers and food vendors became a fixture at the Sunflower Movement occupation, a tradition dating back to the Taiwanese democracy movement
Taiwan has a rich protest culture dating back to the Taiwanese democracy movement. While Taiwanese youth activism in the sense of activist cafes and gathering spots may be a more recent development, seeing as the very act of being explicitly political was dangerous during the authoritarian period, certain booksellers and food vendors became fixtures at demonstrations.
Photo credit: hjw223/Flickr/CC
Booksellers would take to the streets to sell banned books which could not be openly sold in other locations and food vendors would sell or give away foods to hungry demonstrators such as “democracy sausages” (民主香腸) off of motorcycles or food carts. Although there is now freedom of press in Taiwan, booksellers who have been around the democracy movement still make appearances at demonstrations to sell political books, and food vendors still appear at demonstrations to sell “democracy sausages” and other foods. This was the case with the Sunflower Movement, in which food vendors and booksellers became a permanent fixture of the occupation.