A student protester charged on Wednesday in Letpadan uses a version of the Hunger Games salute while being taken into court. AFP PHOTO/SOE THAN WIN
After vexing authorities in Thailand, the three-fingered Hunger Games salute appears to have been picked up by student dissidents in Myanmar.
Photos taken just before a court hearing in Letpadan (which sounds like it could be the name of a city in the dystopian Hollywood franchise, but is actually a real place about 90 miles north of Yangon), show several detainees throwing up a version of the three-fingered salute used by Jennifer Lawrence’s character, rebel hero Katniss Everdeen.
Coconuts Yangon could not independently verify whether the gestures were directly inspired by the Hunger Games films.
At the hearing on Wednesday, the Letpadan Township Court subsequently charged nearly 70 protesters with rioting, one among five counts relating to a confrontation with authorities in Letpadan on March 10. The students and their supporters were headed for Yangon as part of an ongoing movement against a controversial education bill, but were stopped and arrested en masse in Letpadan. The majority were held for two weeks before being charged on Wednesday.
Others were released on bail, while the court declared four student leaders “fugitives.”
The Hunger Games salute would have stayed comfortably in the realm of movie history had Thais not used it late last year to express opposition to the military takeover. Several were detained, briefly, for using the salute, movie theatres nixed screenings of the movies, and even Thai Prime Minister and coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha expressed dissatisfaction with its use.
