LitTalks: Resisting Authoritarianism in Asia

Event organized by Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN)

LitTalks: Global Politics & Philanthropy: This six-part series delves into critical issues in global politics and human rights, and how philanthropy can support movements around the world. Learn more about the other sessions below.

Watch the video in English here:

Watch the video in Spanish here:

Massive mobilizations for human rights are standing strong across the Asia region: from the months-long farmers’ strike across India to the anti-government, anti-monarchy student movements flooding the streets in Thailand. The resistance movements defying the military coup in Myanmar are the most recent example of the pressing fight for human rights.

At the same time, new challenges are emerging. How are issues of the climate crisis, digital rights and online surveillance, authoritarian rules, economic growth and COVID-19 shaping the landscape for human rights organizing in the region? What role does China play as a growing regional and global power and what will the new United States administration’s agenda look like in this context?

Additional Resources:

• CREA
• Focus on the Global South
• Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China – Leta Hong Fincher, Rebecca Karl, and Lü Pin discuss contemporary feminist organizing in China against the authoritarian, patriarchal Xi Jinping administration.
• China: An Imperial Power in the Image of the West? – Walden Bello
  Leta Hong Fincher on the Feminist Movement in China and its Future
• Private Parts: Obscenity and Censorship in the Digital Age – Subha Wijesiriwardena
• How do you see the impacts of authoritarian regimes unfolding due to the measures implemented in front of Covid-19? – Shalmali Guttal
• India: Tech Firms Should Uphold Privacy, Free Speech Authorities. Targeting Critics, Supporters of Farmers Protests – Human Rights Watch
• Farm Protests in India Are Writing the Green Revolution’s Obituary – Scientific American
• Restrictions on online freedom of expression in China – Chatham House
• How resisting the security law clampdown brought out Hongkongers’ creativity – Hong Kong Free Press
• Internet access, censorship, and the Myanmar coup – Access Now
• ‘We Share the Ideals of Democracy.’ How the Milk Tea Alliance Is Brewing Solidarity Among Activists in Asia and Beyond – Time Magazine

Series Information

The outcome of the U.S. elections raises high expectations about the future of multilateralism, global democracy, environmental protection and human rights. The global problems and challenges are complex and will require political, economic, social and philanthropic commitment of all states and societies.

In this series, we’re bringing political thinkers from each region together to unpack American global agendas. We’re looking beyond borders and working to understand the distinct legacies and interconnections to answer one key question: what can we expect in the wake of the latest U.S. elections? These discussions will reveal the invisible impacts of our interconnected economies, lives, and realities. It’s time to debrief and focus on the lived experiences, understanding, resistance, and narrative of the global community.

Access other sessions below:

• Part 1 – Part 1 – Latin America and the Caribbean
• Part 2 – The United States: A New Relationship with the World?
• Part 3 – A New Middle East After Trump?
• Part 4 – Resisting Authoritarianism in Asia
• Part 5 – African Futures