Dr. MAK Sau Wa2024-06-042024-06-042024In Bozoğlu, G., Campbell, G., Smith, L., & Whitehead, C. (Eds.). (2024). The Routledge International Handbook of Heritage and Politics. Routledge.978103229260197810322930669781003300984http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/10202This chapter explores the role of emotions associated with cultural heritage in political activism. Although researchers have examined what emotions inspire or deter different forms of socio-political movements, this chapter takes a new direction by considering what heritage items, online practices, and emotional stances are necessary to legitimate alliance building and energise the transnational pro-democratic movement among young Asians. The chapter examines Facebook content and Instagram hashtags as discourses of emotions regarding cultural heritage and social movements, with a focus on milk tea as a heritage symbol and the pan-Asian pro-democratic #MilkTeaAlliance movement. I argue that through everyday rituals of posting milk tea-related content on social media, including texts, illustrations, photos, cartoons, and memes, young Asian activists establish milk tea as a common cultural heritage, evoking emotions about their common past and the autocratic present, to justify a sense of closeness and build trust for alliance formation. In addition, drawing on the past regarding milk tea makes it a powerful political symbol for activists to express their anger towards political injustice and nurture the emotional commitment required to energise the pan-Asian pro-democratic movement in the long term.enBook Chapter