Memes, Reels, Emojis: Nepal’s Gen Z Protests Unleashed A New Language Of Dissent

The recent uprising by Nepal’s youth echoes the spirit of the May 1968 student protests in Paris—only the medium and language have changed. Back then, Parisian streets rang with slogans like “Be realistic, demand the impossible”, “It is forbidden to forbid”, and “Live without dead time―enjoy without chains”. Today, the Nepali youth took their defiance online with hashtags such as #NepoBaby and #NepoKids, calling out corruption and nepotism in politics.

On the streets, their protests blended pop culture and irreverence: banners with the “Ok Boomer, Time’s Up!” slogan, and even a black pirate flag from the anime One Piece, which has become a symbol of youth resistance against injustice and authoritarianism. The cartoon flag has not been confined to just Nepal; it surfaced at protests in the Philippines, Indonesia, and even France.

What ties these movements together is the evolution of dissent itself. Just as 1968’s slogans captured a rebellious spirit, today’s Gen Z relies on emojis, memes, and reels. Their language of protest may look different, but the demand for change remains just as urgent.

In front of the burning Parliament building, a young man in a beret, the flag of Nepal wrapped around his shoulders, pulled out dance moves as his friend recorded him against the fiery background. In another video, while the police and the youth clashed, a Gen Z protester was seen doing pull-ups on a traffic light in the middle of the street, with Still D.R.E.’s instrumental version playing in the background. These are only some of the many videos doing the rounds on social media, with people decrying the ‘unseriousness’ of the Gen Z Nepal Protests that happened on 8-9 September.

Another young man pulled a rolling chair onto the streets and sat to take a break and enjoy the view of the clashes, while people around him encouragingly laughed. To those whose youth had passed, the sight may feel like a provocation—kids making funny videos, dancing, and clicking selfies in the midst of a revolution. But one in five ‘kids’ in Nepal is unemployed, and they have watched the old guard in their well-pressed and tucked-in shirts, make rounds of Parliament, meet foreign ministers, host other nationalities, while their future continued to remain uncertain.

The reels and memes are a declaration. For a generation that grew up with the revolution of the internet and social media apps, Nepali Gen Z is well aware that ‘virality’ is what will get noticed. So, they curated their dissent to match the language of the global youth. They knew they had to get more online reach and impressions, and the Nepali government was aware of that. Hence, when the demonstrations first broke out, they were framed as protests against a social media ban. But beneath the surface was the ecosystem Gen Z built online to call out the exuberant lifestyles of politicians’ children with #NepoKids and #NepoBaby.

German playwright Bertolt Brecht once asked, “In the dark times, will there also be singing?” His answer: “Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.” For Nepali youth, there will also be dancing to viral songs and laughing while making memes about the dark times. Since 2008, when Nepal formally abolished monarchy, the youth saw 13 different governments, but set by the same three political parties—the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the Nepali Congress. Beyond this political revolving door, the country was struck by a deadly earthquake in 2015, a disaster that the economy is still reeling from a decade later.

The frustrations of Nepal’s youth had been simmering for a while before bursting into the most colourful flames. When I visited Kathmandu in 2019, almost every corner had a photo and documentation shop helping young people prepare their visa applications, while billboards advertised dreams of studying or working abroad.

Nearby, lottery shops promised winners a direct path to a US or other Western visas. With the recent crackdowns on immigration in the US and now also in the UK and Australia, the dreams to live abroad were shattered for many young Nepalis, leaving them with two options: to sit and suffer or to act now. And act they did—pulling rolling chairs onto streets, dancing in front of burning parliament buildings, and curating viral reels to make their dissent impossible to ignore.

Gen Z often uses emojis standalone, without extra explanation, while memes and reels come loaded with context. So, for them to turn Discord—an app originally built for online gamers to communicate—into a digital parliament, matches their deconstructive vibe. They selected nominees for Prime Minister and coordinated with them in real time. While 100,000 Nepali youths joined the ‘Youth Against Corruption’ Discord server to vote, and hundreds more from abroad also participated, fitting into the ‘unserious’ (read radical) framing of the recent uprising.

They are a generation that doesn’t want to be boxed into labels, be it in terms of gender roles or relationship expectations—not because they are afraid of commitment, but because they are hyper-aware of the consequences and responsibilities, learning from the ‘seriousness’ of the generations that came before them, who often got stuck in marriages, personal or political. To put it simply, in Queen’s words, “I want to break free!”