An Xiao Mina - Memes to movements : how the worlds most viral media is changing social protest and power

Bridging scholarly research and street activism, this analysis shows how memes are so much more than an internet phenomenon.... In this incisive and illuminating study, the author shows how she appreciates the power of art, the power of the internet, and the intersection of the two.

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Memes to Movements is essential reading. An Xiao Mina is one of the best people writing about memes today and unpacks with great urgency, understanding, empathy, and wisdom all the reasons why memes matter, how integral they are to the ways we communicate, and how they shape and change society. Memes are the essential unit of cultural exchange, and Ans work demonstrates why we should be taking them seriously.

JONNY SUN , author and illustrator of everyones a aliebn when ur a aliebn too

Weaving together global cases of meme culture, activism, and misinformation, An Xiao Mina brilliantly reveals how internet culture, social movements, and political agendas are intimately entwined. Memes to Movements is essential for anyone invested in activism or geopolitics. By analyzing the evolution of digital social and political activity, this book offers a critical intervention at a moment when the public is anxious about technology and political life.

DANAH BOYD , author of Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

The dumbest idea anybody ever had about the internet was that the serious stuff and the silly stuff are disconnected, that the frothy world of cat pictures can have nothing to do with the somber conduct of political dissent. No one does a better job than An Xiao Mina of tracing the deep connections between the inventive and playful culture of memesthose endlessly repeated and mostly humorous bits of ephemeraand political conversations among people who often lack other outlets for public speech. Mina is a unique voice, an indigenous member of multiple cultures, an artist and a scholar, and an observer and participant in networked politics. In Memes to Movements, she explains how the culture that leads to Grumpy Cat also allows people to express resistance to politics as usual. Wearing a hoodie is transformed into a political statement, mispronounced Chinese words become tools for evading censorship, and social networks become symbolic battlegrounds for supporting marriage equality. Mina shows, in terrifically engaging detail, that memes can be serious and silly at the same time. Memes to Movements is a fascinating and important look at the way that people are adapting internet culture to vital ends.

CLAY SHIRKY , author of Cognitive Surplus and Here Comes Everybody

Internet sleuth An Xiao Mina takes readers on a journey around the social media globe. Memes to Movements is the quintessential guide for understanding the how and why of this social media phenomenon. Mina is a voice for social changeand a voice of reasonin this visually overwhelming world.

ALICIA ELER , visual art critic/reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and author of The Selfie Generation

A visionary and sweeping history of the internet phenomenon, Memes to Movements is a must-read for anyone concerned about how our wildly complex society can evolve with the tools technology has given usfor better or for worse. It is an all-too-timely book that shows how urgently we need to understand the impact of the algorithms, codes, and hidden structures that have become tools of both liberation and oppression. Whatever your thoughts about our digitized world, this brilliant and original book will challenge them to evolve.

PAUL D . MILLER AKA DJ SPOOKY , author of Rhythm Science

An Xiao Mina is a wide-ranging explorer of the frontier where technology meets social change. Her keen understanding of the contrasting ways that social media operate in different countries means she is ideally placed to offer a global perspective on their growing social and political impact.

TOM STANDAGE , deputy editor of The Economist and author of Writing on the Wall: Social MediaThe First 2,000 Years and The Victorian Internet

As internet culture has moved from niche to mainstream, and as it has developed into an unprecedented global force, were evermore in need of incisive, clarifying work about what exactly we mean when we say internet culture. Its a rare thinker who can look at the internet as it actually isa spectrum that runs from memes and image macros to social movements and sophisticated forms of political speechand draw conclusions that include the richness of that spectrum without shying away from the humor and playfulness of the web. But An Xiao Mina is just such a thinker. To truly attempt to understand internet culture, one must occupy many places at once. Mina lives across digital spaces and cultures, and she brings that perspective and authenticity to all her work and now, finally, in book form with Memes to Movements.

SCOTT LAMB , VP of International, BuzzFeed

To my grandma, who taught me how to garden, and to my grandfather and uncle SJ, who taught me how to see

INTRODUCTION

IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 2014 , and I saw two social media streams unfold on two different continents in two different languages. One stream emanated from events in a small, mixed-race city in the US heartland. Eight thousand miles away, another stream arose from events in a teeming, millions-strong metropolis along the South China Sea.

In the United States, Michael Brown, eighteen, had been shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb twelve miles southeast of St. Louis. Early reports suggested that he died with his hands raised in surrender. What the public knew for sure was that Brown was shot by a police officer and that his dead body lay in the street for four hours. Demonstrators came out in drovesfirst in St. Louis and then suddenly in major cities around the country. They were angry and eager to voice their concerns about racial profiling and historic violence by the state and state actors.

As they raised their hands and fists, they also raised their phonesto document, share, and network with protests across the country. I watched my social media feeds flood with images of people with their hands showing, palms facing the camera. The photos reenacted, as a performative gesture, the chant that was quickly becoming synonymous with the Ferguson protests:

Hands up! the chant leader would call out.

Dont shoot! the crowd would respond.

Hands up!

Dont shoot!

Hands-up-dont-shoot photos of solidarity showed people in their homes, cars, places of employment, dorm rooms, cafes. Dozens of students at Howard University, the most prestigious historically black college in the country, came together to take a large group photo of their hands raised. It went viral. A broad national dialogue on race, policing, and systemic injustices against African Americans would soon take hold, often under the mantle of #BlackLivesMatter.