1981 Irish hunger strike showdown between the prisoners and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker, Bobby Sands, was elected as a Member of Parliament during the strike, prompting media interest from around the world. The strike was called off after ten prisoners had starved themselves to death—including Sands, whose funeral was attended by 100,000 people. The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics, and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin to become a mainstream political party. There had been hunger strikes by Irish republican prisoners since 1917, and twelve had previously died on hunger strike, including Thomas Ashe, Terence MacSwiney, Seán
Students' hunger strike at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests one of her classes from Zhang Boli, a visiting writer at Peking University. Zhang said that he was inspired by Gandhi. In addition, she was told a story by two men from the national security force on April 27 about a single hunger striker, who was easily chased away on April 19. Some student leaders heard about the idea as early as April 23 from Hong Kong students, who proposed a hunger strike. Student leaders like Wu'er Kaixi believed it was a good idea, but students like Li Jinjin, a master's student from Peking University's Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation, believed