mudphudkangaroo:

scrint:

mooncakebb:

TAYLOR SWIFT IS SELLING MERCH IN CHINA


SELLING TANK TOPS WITH “1989” EMBLAZONED ON THEM

IN

CHINA

OH MY GOD?!?!?!?!?!? I WANT TO SMACK HER IN THE FACE WITH MY SANDAL?!

if anyone isn’t aware, 1989 was the year of the Tiananmen Square Protests & Massacre.

Okokok Chinese-born person here. Growing up, 1989 was just *not* something you talked about in the country. It’s just not. (my parents were okay talking about it when we were no longer in China) I have a feeling that people who talked about it will get monitored as fuck and maybe disappear.

Now, imagine, decades later, and the same young people are evoking that sense of rebellion against a tyrannical and current government, the same spirit of their predecessors of the sit in. But they can’t talk about it or celebrate it. Then, all of a sudden, T-Swift comes with her “1989” emblazoned merch. People by the fuck out of it because she’s a pretty, successful, American, pop/country singer.

All of a sudden, 1989 can’t be solely associated woth rebellion anymore. And instead of going like “fuck I want to talk about 1989 but not get arrested”, youth get T-Swift merch (maybe even the knock-off) ones. And when people come asking, they go “what rebellion? we just really like T-Swift. don’t you?”

Let’s turn T-Swift into a secret symbol of subversion.

(via dubiousculturalartifact)