article is from may, but this topic seems to be gaining steam fast in SEA
Milk is thicker than blood: An unlikely digital alliance between Thailand, Hong Kong & Taiwan
When the Japanese Government announced a historic package of 220 billion yen (HK$17 billion) as an incentive for firms to shift production back to Japan in early April, the US followed by promising similar help to American companies who wanted to move out of China and back home.
Shortly after, a most unlikely coalition called the “Milk Tea Alliance” was formed. It was also an attempt to combat China’s immense influence, but rather than being a macro-politics decision made at the top, it was a self-initiated and spontaneous bottom-up effort.
For the first time, netizens from Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other Asian countries, joined forces to hit back at China’s huge online army in an internet war.
It all started with a retweet, as all good drama does these days. A Thai TV series called “2gether” had been gaining an enormous number of fans internationally, especially in China. In March, the CCP mouthpiece Global Times even welcomed the popularity of the show in China as a sign of improved “cultural communication between China and Thailand.”
But an online storm began when the 2gether star, Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree, reposted a Twitter picture listing Hong Kong as a “country”. Predictably, he was bombarded by Chinese netizens with attacks, threats, and vows to boycott his show, just as happened to many other celebrities who offended Chinese fans by implying that Hong Kong or Taiwan were not part of China.
Just like the others, Bright quickly apologised, claiming that he retweeted the photo without having read the caption properly. But this was not enough to appease Chinese netizens, who dug up a social media post by his girlfriend Weeraya “Nnevvy” Sukaram from as far back as 2017, revealing she might have once insinuated that Taiwan was its own nation.
Thus an internet war was launched with the hashtag #nnevvy. But the outcome was a surprising landslide victory by the humorous Thai netizens, who wowed the whole world with their hilarious comebacks.
When Chinese netizens attacked Thailand for being “backwards” and “poor”, Thai netizens replied: “Our country is poor, but your country is pooh!” This referred to Winnie the Pooh, who is banned in China because of memes comparing the cartoon character to Xi Jinping.
While the Chinese tried to cause offence by criticising the Thai government for corruption, gleeful Thai netizens only responded with agreement: “Say it louder!”
To the now-classic Chinese insult “NMSL” (Your Mum is Dead), Thai youngsters laughed that they had at least 20 mothers, taking the opportunity to poke fun at their own king’s rumoured collection of mistresses.
https://twitter.com/jasonyng/status/1249704100821757952
And when told their view on Taiwan and Hong Kong stemmed from their lack of knowledge of Chinese history, Thai netizens simply retorted: “You mean Tiananmen Square?” in reference to censorship of the 1989 massacre.
Soon, netizens from Hong Kong and Taiwan started using the hashtag #nnevvy to aid their Thai supporters. The #MilkTeaAlliance was proclaimed, earning its name from the three nation’s famous iced milk teas, a beverage which is not a tradition in China.
This quickly led to another online movement #StopMekongDam – Thais took the opportunity to solicit help from their new allies to raise awareness about of the destruction done to the Mekong River by 11 enormous dams in China.
…
https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/02/milk-is-thicker-than-blood-an-unlikely-digital-alliance-between-thailand-hong-kong-taiwan/