If you follow international news (or the digest editions of this newsletter), you may have seen that youth-led protests are springing up across Asia in response to economic inequality, corruption, and police brutality. There have been demonstrations and riots in Indonesia and the Philippines, while in Nepal, Gen Z protestors toppled the national government in two days flat.

In addition to the national flags you would expect to see at protests like these, another flag has been cropping up: the straw-hat-wearing Jolly Roger from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.

Pop culture references are a staple of protest movements. At the U.S.’s No Kings protests on June 14, 2025, people showed up with signs featuring everything from cartoon characters and corporate mascots to song lyrics. Even One Piece references are not new: as a quick search of r/OnePiece shows, Turkish protestors used One Piece imagery during the March 2025 protests, and Bangladeshi protestors tagged Dhaka with One Piece graffiti the previous year. The flag itself has sporadically turned up at protests since at least 2023.

These references are typically used to bring a little levity to serious moments and, perhaps, to connect with or motivate fellow fans. While the current Asian protestors have certainly made use of humor and memes, as this Al Jazeera report covers at about the 14-minute mark, the widespread use of the Straw Hat Pirates’ flag is not just about being funny. It symbolizes something that the people wielding it take very seriously.

How the One Piece Flag Became a Symbol of Rebellion

One Piece is by far the most popular manga in the world today, with well over half a billion copies sold and multiple successful screen adaptations. This one-hundred-volume-and-counting series follows a boy who becomes a pirate king and leads his crew in a never-ending fight against authoritarianism and corruption.

It’s this last point that explains the flag’s newfound use as a protest symbol. According to Asia News Network, the flag first gained political meaning among Indonesian protestors in July, when people began flying it to express their dissatisfaction with government officials who wanted them to fly the Indonesian flag to demonstrate their patriotism. This was condemned by some officials as a possible act of “treason” — a wild overreaction that helped to spread the flag’s political use beyond the fandom.

The One Piece flag has since been seen at demonstrations outside of Asia, turning up at anti-government protests in France and Slovakia in September. Later the same month, it was used at protests in Madagascar, and in October, it turned up in Morocco.

Using Fantasy to Drive Real-World Change

The reason people write stories is to affect the audience, whether by making readers feel a certain way or by inspiring them to take certain actions.

Young protestors have clearly taken One Piece‘s underlying message to heart. Where officials see a dangerous act of rebellion, and where non-fans see an indecipherable or even silly cartoon image, fans see a role model. They notice parallels between the scrappy fighters in their stories and their own situation — and they realize that, unlike in One Piece, no ragtag bunch of pirates is going to show up to fix things, so it’s up to them to effect change.

When everything seems like it’s on fire and getting worse all the time, it’s tempting to dive into your favorite fictional story and just stay there. And there’s nothing wrong with taking a break sometimes. But as we have seen with the highly visible and historic protests in Indonesia, Nepal, and elsewhere, stories like One Piece have so much more to offer than escapism. It’s a good idea to listen to them.