TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The passage of controversial measures to expand the legislature’s powers has spurred the creation of a new protest group called the “Bluebird Movement.”
On Tuesday (May 28), the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) joined forces to pass the third reading of amendments to the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan`s Power (立法院職權行使法). Outside, 70,000 gathered as part of the newly formed Bluebird Movement to express their opposition to the expansion of the Legislative Yuan's powers.
As for where the name came from, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-Yu (王定宇) was cited by FTNN News as saying it was meant to "counter algorithms."
Outside the Legislative Yuan is Qingdao East Road, which is named after the city of Qingdao in China, but translated reads as “Blue Island East Road” (青島東路). It is said that whenever "Qingdao East" was mentioned online, algorithms would decrease the visibility of the term.

To counteract this, they changed it to "Bluebird East" (青鳥東) by keeping the Mandarin character for “blue” but changing the character for “island” to “bird.” Wang said the name of the protests outside the legislature soon morphed into the Bluebird Movement.
In addition, Wang said that in mythology, the bluebird symbolizes happiness and represents the Taiwanese people's pursuit of democracy and freedom. He said bluebirds are highly protective of their nests.
Therefore, Wang said the Bluebird Movement is a collective creation of Taiwan’s civic movement, showcasing the “cute side” of citizen activism.
On Monday (May 27), Wang posted an illustration of a bluebird and announced the “May 28 Bluebird Movement” protest rally slated for Tuesday. In a Facebook post uploaded by Wang on Tuesday (May 28), he said that 51 DPP legislators had joined the Bluebird Movement and included illustrations of each of the lawmakers depicted as a cartoonish bluebird.