iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

This week we grappled with the controversy of 紅姐 and the debate on same-sex marriage in Hong Kong to think through gender, sex, and desire in a repressive regime. @samuelchan.bsky.social youtu.be/3crPGuPtpcg?...

youtu.be

EP9 「來都來了」談情說性講紅姐 [2025.08.04]

YouTube video by 新手上路 On the Road

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Congratulations @radicalcatalyst.bsky.social for publishing their first issue! Immensely grateful that the editor includes my poem "So You Want to be a Colonizer" as the very first piece. Read it here: radicalcatalystjournal.org/issue1_1.html

So You Want to Be a Colonizer
Shui-yin Sharon Yam

Take something precious from them
like tongue, land, body, children, histories, selves
Claim that it is yours to own, keep, shape, and/or destroy

Plant & supplant stories
methodically craft & invent tales so that
those you take from will forever think
they are indebted to you
Repeat until all their tales are your tales &
all their songs your hymns

Use force when necessary, esp. at the beginning
but not too much
A people with a defiant spirit &
crushed bodies will not do you much good

Create precarity, but not too much
A hungry dog is a trainable one but
a starving beast is dangerous

Make your dispossession irresistible
Soon enough they will be begging
for you to stay

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

I joined @kennedywong.bsky.social and @samuelchan.bsky.social on a podcast by and for HKers. In this episode, we talked about the unique loneliness of diasporic/displaced people in feeling like "affect aliens." open.spotify.com/episode/6IPt...

open.spotify.com

EP8 情感異鄉人 [2025.07.28]

For Example 一個政治不正確的香港DEI Podcast · Episode

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Xun-ling Au 歐迅灵 🏴 @xunlingau.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Looks like China Labour Bulletin data has a full backup! Amazing work of preservation.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

6 years later, Hong Kong protests and repression are back on the radar. Authoritarians across the world think and act alike. open.spotify.com/episode/0KaV...

open.spotify.com

When the government wants your socials

Endless Thread · Episode

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

I try to live by a few straightforward principles in times of upheaval, when those in power try to confuse and daze us with endless cruelty. One of which is 擇善固執: choose what's good, and be stubborn about it.

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Xun-ling Au 歐迅灵 🏴 @xunlingau.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

While not from the 12th June... this graffiti from two weeks later speaks to the awakening & realisation HKers had. "It was you who taught me peaceful marches are useless.”

Picture from 1st July 2019 "Storming of the Legislative Council Complex" in Hong Kong.

In the foreground a pillar with the graffiti in Cantonese “It was you who taught me peaceful marches are useless.”

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Michael Lechuga: “The Mexican flag at this week’s protests is a symbol of resistance,” he said. “When ‘Mexicanness’ is the target of this administration, holding the object that’s seen as the quickest reference to it is rebellious.” #teamrhetoric www.huffpost.com/entry/mexica...

huffpost.com

There’s Growing Anger Over Flags Flown At LA Protests. Here’s What Everyone Is Getting Wrong.

Who gets to tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression?

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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Avoid the violence/nonviolence debate. It’s a trap. The only thing that matters is what actions lead to more justice and less harm. Inaction and complicity in the face of brutal oppression is the worst form of violence. Never forget it.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Debates on whether anti-ICE protesters should be waving the American flag center so much optics. But what we really need to ask is: who gets to write the dominant narrative about the uprising? Whose and what narratives get traction, and why?

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Being an immigrant in the US, especially those of us who fled state violence back home, is like being a fresh kind of hell right now. To lose your home, safety, and potentially life over and over again.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

This weekend we saw thousands of people in LA and Minneapolis standing up against unchecked government power. Just like six years ago today, over a million Hongkongers took to the street calling for freedom. Never underestimate the will and rage of the people.

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Cha: An Asian Literary Journal @asiancha.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

[𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖] @sharonyamsy.bsky.social‬ on @jwassers.bsky.social‬’s 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑘 𝑇𝑒𝑎 𝐴𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (@columbiagr.bsky.social‬): "Wasserstrom is interested in the quiet resilience embodied by youth activists as they resist authoritarianism & cultivate cross-border solidarity." ⧉ chajournal.blog/2025/05/28/m...

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

My interview with Mari on her new book is now out! It was a beautiful conversation about queer(ing) families for a more livable joyous world. newbooksnetwork.com/queering-fam...

newbooksnetwork.com

Tamara Lea Spira, "Queering Families: Reproductive Justice in Precarious Times" (U California Press, 2025) - New Books Network

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Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

“One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. *** He “began to whimper,” as his head was roughly shaved, “folding his hands in prayer as his hair fell.” He “asked for his mother & cried as he was slapped again.”

time.com

What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced

Exclusive photos of the arrival of Venezuelan detainees deported from the U.S.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

What shocking to me is how many US citizens found this surprising, that agents can take and go through your phone. Aliens (whoever isn't a citizen is legally an 👽) always know how much power border agents have. That's why borders, a liminal space where rights are suspended, are so dang scary.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

State sponsored genocides racism, immigration crackdown, and attacks on higher ed are always linked. And now we are very clearly seeing that connection.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Rubio’s position seems to be: - We get to say who is a terrorist. Our decision is final. It can’t be challenged. Just trust us. - Once we decide you are a terrorist, we can immediately deport you. No judges. - After we deport you, we can make you rot in a foreign prison. No criminal charges needed.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Authoritarianism is a transnational networked enterprise: Hong Kong journalists who worked for @radiofreeasiapr.bsky.social face not just unemployment, but persecution by the HK gov for the human rights reporting they did.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

This world is so darn much sometimes. While in the US we witness the kidnapping and silencing of pro-Palestine activists here and suppression of speech, a social worker in Hong Kong was sentenced for rioting because she dared urge cops to keep their cool and not open fire at unarmed people.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Pronatalist policies like this encourage only people the gov seems "good" to have children. Case in point: Single fertile women in HK still cannot legally use their own eggs in IVF.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

The lawmaker who reintroduced the anti-DEI bill in KY yesterday said it was built upon U of Kentucky and NKU's preemptive closure of DEI offices last year. Complying in advance only leads to more suppression. kentuckylantern.com/2025/02/12/r...

kentuckylantern.com

Republican lawmaker renews fight against diversity policies at Kentucky universities • Kentucky Lantern

Republican lawmaker files sweeping bill aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Kentucky public higher education.

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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

"I just want to be clear about what's going on here." - @warren.senate.gov www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIHN...

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

"You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time." (Angela Davis)

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 05/02/2025

they are mostly targeting black employees so this is quite literally just a repeat of woodrow wilson’s segregationist purge of the federal government

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

The cruelty of this administration knows no bounds. We are socialized to be individualistic and have a scarcity mindset. In moments of precarity, we may want to double down protect only ourselves and our immediate circle. But this is exactly when we need to expand our circle of care.

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Loren DeJonge Schulman @lorenraeds.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

You say: they shutdown USAID. You mean: they illegally broke in to a secure facility over a weekend, hijacked sensitive data on vulnerable people and US businesses, destroyed property Americans paid for, cut off resources for sick and hungry families, and fired Americans across the country.

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 04/02/2025

According to a senior CDC official, some of the pages that were removed on Friday have been reinstated due to backlash from the scientific community and the public. Keep speaking up, it matters!

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Authoritarianism aims to make us feel powerless. Because if we believe that we are powerless, we will eventually resign, comply, or worse, actively collude for self-preservation. Doone thing a day that reminds you of your power. Draw inspiration from histories of resistance outside the US.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Hong Kong Teachers have had their teaching license revoked for participating in protests and for using "one-sided and biased teaching materials." This is what could be coming in the US.

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Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Weird how not a single one of the newspapers and magazines that have been breathlessly churning out "cancel culture" thinkpieces for the past four years have managed to use the word "censorship" at all to describe the most rapid and comprehensive campaign of mass-censorship in recent US history.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Yesterday I searched for "social movement" in Hong Kong's public library historical archive, and got 0 results. The two authoritarian govs may be in a trade war, but they surely deploy the same strategy to stifle dissent.

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Shameful and murderous www.propublica.org/article/trum...

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

It's true that mass deportation will drive up grocery prices and hurt the economy. But if we only care about immigrants because of what it means to our wallet, we are only playing further into this neoliberal capitalist hellscape that hurts us all.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

There's already limited research on trans health and medicine. Community led studies are now more important than ever.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 31/01/2025

California DOE fires back against Trump's executive order: "It does nothing" "It is against federal law for the White House to dictate what educators can and cannot teach" Will not comply.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Remember that sex and gender binary has a colonial racist origin. It was used by white colonizers to animalize Indigenous, Black, and brown folx (they were too "primitive" to have sex differentiations). Anti-trans and anti-DEI policies work hand in hand to advance white supremacy.

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Em Gunter 顧安 🍉 @emgunter.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

BREAKING: UVA Health has also decided to comply in advance by suspending all gender-affirming care for patients under 19 years of age, per an internal communication sent to medical providers employed by UVA.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Check out Resilience Innovation Lab, an org founded by Asian human rights activists and researchers that advance archival activism as a way of civil resistance. resilienceinnovationlab.org

resilienceinnovationlab.org

Resilience Innovation Lab – Just another WordPress site

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Sarah Lazare @sarahlazare.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

People are understandably feeling scared as Trump unleashes his torrent of attacks on vulnerable populations. But some in the grassroots are fighting back, piece by piece. @rebeccaburns.bsky.social burns and I documented one such effort in Chicago disrupting Trump’s mass deportation plans.

inthesetimes.com

“Don’t Open the Door”: How Chicago Is Frustrating ICE’s Campaign of Fear

Months of know-your-rights work has Trump’s border czar complaining.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

🧵Grassroots tactics Hongkongers used during the 2019 protest that may come in handy now: 1. Privacy and security: Use apps like Signal, Telegram, and Jitsi. In semi-public organizing chats, develop a protocol to suss out infiltrators from the government.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Another feature of living under authoritarianism is that records would be erased at an alarming rate, while most of us are too overwhelmed by explicit repression to even notice. Think of any materials you find valuable that are publicly available now. Back them up.

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Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

It makes me sad that so many of us have given up political imagination and have lost the ability to believe we deserve better from leaders. It’s just sad.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

A USAID HR director sent out this email today to staff letting them know he was placed on administrative leave. “Today, representatives of the Agency's front office and DOGE instructed me to violate the due process of our employees by issuing immediate termination notices to a group of employees.”

Farewell and Thanks (Again) - Illegal Activity in the USAID Front Office
Inbox
Nicholas Gottlieb
to amsofficercouncil, ALL, HCTM.ELR, Alpana, Danielle, Sheila, Sepideh, William, Anya, Stephanie, Lindsey -
All:
4:19 PM (4 minutes ago) #
Today, representatives of the Agency's front office and DOGE instructed me to violate the due process of our employees by issuing immediate termination notices to a group of employees without due process. I refused and have provided Acting Administrator Gray with written notification of my refusal. I have recommended in that written notification that his office cease ar desist from further illegal activity.
It is and has always been my office's commitment to the workforce that we ensure all employees receive their due process in any of our actions. I will not be party to a violation of that commitment.
I was notified moments ago that I will be placed on administrative leave, effective immediately. It has been an honor working with all of you at this Agency, which i treasure.
Please be kind and considerate of my staff at hctm.eir@usaid.gov. who will be very short-staffed and pressed over the coming months. Until you hear otherwise, Kirsten Gunsolus will be acting in my absence.
If you would like to stay in touch, I can be reached a
wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Gottlieb
Director, Employee and Labor Relations
US AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
HCTM, Rm. 4.07A RRB, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20523
USAID gov | @USAID

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Sheera Frenkel @sheeraf.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Meta is renewing its threats against employees, telling them today that they will hunt for leakers and tolerate zero leaks. Want to know how that is going? Three Meta employees who I’ve never spoken to before just cold messaged/emailed me offering me to be sources.

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Sharon Yam @sharonyamsy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

This. Corporations don't love us back. And neoliberal higher ed institutions are like corporations.

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