Punk Activism and Its Repression in China and Indonesia: Decolonizing "Global Punk"

Punk's global spread has been a defining aspect of its forty-plus year history; contemporary punk can only be understood in relation to this network. transmission from place is shaped by neocolonial cultural flows, but scenes also respond their particular contexts, and analysis local must consider contextuality carefully alongside "global punk" framing. "Other" places cannot simply judged via reductive imposition Anglo-American norms—an "inter Asia" comparison the China Indonesia an example critical decentering acts as decolonizing intervention into punk." Punks embrace network are acutely conscious contours—it repression these communities (or some academic circles) that "cultural imperialist" framing maintained, with dismissed authorities scholars) Western imports. This article briefly traces histories punk's emergence Indonesia, years leading up to, following, transitional periods authoritarian regimes through very late 1980s 1990s, discusses compares forms resistance activism each place, including DIY production manifestations "punk space" China, before highlighting state para-state institutions now "post-authoritarian" "softened authoritarian" contexts.