ABSTRACT
Taiwan is blessed with a long tradition of street protests, whose origins can perhaps be traced back to its inhabitants' resistance to the many external challenges it faced throughout its history. Throughout Taiwan's modern history, insurrection and protests have played an instrumental role in shaping the political scene. Aware of the existential threat facing the nation and disillusioned with the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's), ability to effectively counter the administration, civic movements with memberships in the hundreds or low thousands burst onto the scene and filled the oppositional vacuum. The Sunflower Movement, named after the delivery of a large quantity of sunflowers to the legislature, became an umbrella organization for many civic groups, whose aims and ideology did not always perfectly coincide. In some instances, officials in the Ma government broke earlier promises and proceeded with policies that sparked great anger among the public.
