As France burns amid protests and unrest, a haunting song from Suzanne Collins’s dystopian novel series The Hunger Games has taken on a real-world resonance. The Estelle Violoncelle Association and the New World Orchestra performed ‘The Hanging Tree’ during what organisers described as an authorised concert, even as tear gas grenades were fired nearby.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said that more than 2,513 people have been arrested nationwide since this weekend, with 67 sentenced to prison and “dozens” of criminal cases opened, according to AFP. The performance comes amid protests and unrest in France, where demonstrations have drawn attention to issues including the rising cost of living and public services.
The stir had begun four weeks earlier, when students took to the streets to demand better conditions in their schools. Nearly half a million people marched across France on Saturday to protest – which turned violent in some parts, according to local media reports.
Interior minister Laurent Nuñez told the Senate that police had opened internal investigations into 36 allegations of violence by officers against demonstrators, according to The Guardian. In February 2021, medical workers and protesters in Myanmar also adopted the three-finger salute to oppose the military coup that overthrew the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The complaints include claims that four children were “mutilated” by explosive weapons, six people sustained “significant injuries”, and other incidents involved physical assaults, insults and alleged sexual assault. Police responses to demonstrations, including the use of tear gas to disperse crowds, have also come under scrutiny. From the three-finger salute to ‘The Hanging Tree’, The Hunger Games shows how symbols of resistance can escape the fictional worlds that created them. What began as expressions of defiance in a dystopian story have since become rallying cries in real-world movements, bringing protesters together against authority and oppression. In France, the orchestra’s performance of ‘The Hanging Tree’ amid tear gas offered a striking reminder of how art can become an act of resistance, turning a song about rebellion into a call for solidarity.
In Thailand, demonstrators began using the gesture after the military coup in May 2014 to express opposition to military rule.
Authorities warned that people using the salute at political gatherings could face arrest, according to The Guardian. The gesture subsequently became a recognisable symbol of anti-coup resistance.
