The Gen Z revolution is spreading in Asia

Nepal is just the most recent country to have seen the ruling elite toppled by frustrated young people.

- Andres Schipani

The streets of Kathmandu are marked by the signs of revolution.

The stains of crusted blood on the pavement being washed away by the late monsoon rains; crushed china inside the ransacked residences of politicians; the stench of smoke from torched public buildings.

But it is an inscription with black marker on a marbled wall of the charred Parliament building set on fire in Nepal’s capital last week that encapsulates the moment: “From now, only Gen Z youth will be in this place. Corrupt leaders will be sent out of the country. Long Live Nepal. Long Live Gen Z youth.”

The demonstrations in Nepal have been called the protest of Gen Z - which generally refers to people born between 1997 and 2012 - after young people, some in school uniforms, took to the streets against what they saw as an ageing and crooked political elite.

After two days of deadly and destructive protests, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Sept 9. The police said on Sept 12 that the death toll from the turmoil had reached 51 nationwide, with almost 1,400 injured.

The initial rallies were sparked by a government ban on leading social media platforms but became a tipping point of longstanding sentiment against politicians and their families seen as corrupt.

“We were just there to revolt against corruption,” says Ms Anjali Shah, a 24-year-old law student who saw some of her fellow protesters being shot at with live bullets by the police. “We felt that they can ban us online, but we can still be on the streets demonstrating against the government, demanding to know where our taxes are going, how they are having these lifestyles with a public servant’s salary while we struggle.”