Elections in Taiwan are a lot different from the Hong Kong ones. Having participated in the 2008 and 2012 Legislative Council Election as volunteer for two different political parties, this Taipei mayoral election trip gave me some really interesting food for thought. It is impossible to name all of them in this article but here are some major surprises that this mayoral election has given me.
The souvenirs competition
The first thing that popped out in my mind about the election is the pack of napkins I received from the Ko’s team. Taiwan elections have been famous for giving out souvenirs and pricy offers to gain voters’ support. Some other journalists cited examples of souvenirs like mince pork buns, wooden back scratchers and cosmetic kits. All these are good reflection of the Taiwanese election culture. Had any of these souvenirs distributed in Hong Kong, that candidate or his/her political party would have been attacked mercilessly for vote-buying, or the Hong Kong saying, ‘snake soup, vegetarian food, cake and rice dumpling’ – offers that some political party gave to attract votes. News report even cited banquets, discounted air tickets and cash handouts – seems like Hong Kong is a little behind in the vote-buying offers. For this biggest-ever ‘9-in-1 election’, it is not surprising for candidates to use different method to attract voters’ attention. This situation of gift handouts is especially obvious in the less developed rural cities. In fact, there is a legal limit for souvenirs of NT$30 (approximately HKD$7.5) per voter per election cycle, but with 19,762 candidates running for different level of posts in Taiwan, it is understandable that monitoring work can be difficult. Taiwanese are taking this responsibility by using smartphones to take photo of the gifts that might have exceeded the limit.I guess it is a good example showing the progress and development of the Taiwan civil society, which has been notorious for accepting vote-buying and election-related corruption.
Excessive publication – the more, the better?
It gives me a feeling of ‘the more the better’ when it comes to the extensive use of different publications like stickers, flags and leaflets. At the night rally just before the election day, a massive amounts of flags and flyers were distributed to the supporters of Ko, and all these makes the beautiful and passionate scenes you saw on TV. People were shouting and waving the colourful flags together, many middle-aged women standing next to me in the rally were holding more than 10 flags with different colours and slogans. It is, however, amusing to me as Ko actually emphasise a lot on environmental protection and sustainable development in his campaign. I can’t say it is a waste of resources printing all these publications, but are there better ways to do the campaign promotion? Are these spendings really inevitable? To me, it is money down the drain. Having participated in the election rallies in Hong Kong, I fully understand the cost and effectiveness for publications in LegCo election. Distributing stickers and flyers will be a complete waste of resources and elderly people would prefer napkins or paper fan. This undoubtedly created the united and ‘as-one’ atmosphere, but I believe the Ko’s team can do better than this in environmental protection.
‘Wei Xingfu Jiayou’ – emotion-provoking slogans
You can see the word ‘xingfu’ or ‘kuaile’ on nearly every banner of the candidates, which is fortune and happiness in English. Lines like ‘let’s work together for our happiness’ and ‘Taiwan will have good fortune’ are popular choices of propaganda. In Ko’s campaign theme song, the last two lines are ‘Turnover darkness, break the ties, open your heart, create new dreams for the future of our beautiful capital city’. Sentimental, isn’t it? When I recall the slogans and taglines in Hong Kong elections, most of them are really pragmatic. You can rarely see lines that involve vague words like ‘happiness’ and ‘fortune’, but ‘economy’, ‘stability’, ‘prosperity’ etc. Probably because the education level and economic development level of the two places are quite different, it is quite obvious that Taiwan emphasise more on preserving local culture and work hard for the betterment of this small island, but Hong Kong cares more about economic prosperity and the position as world no.1 international cosmopolitan city. Taiwanese seems to be contented on their own, but Hongkongers are thirsting to breakaway from this small city and position themselves in the global market. Another reason might be the cruel truth that Hong Kong does not have one person one vote in electing for either Legislative Council and Chief Executive, which makes the candidates target only one specific group of voters, and come up with slogans that only take care of their interest. Taiwan election candidates have to meet the expectation of as many voters as they can, sentimental and emotion-provoking lines then work well to attract their support.
Reference made to Hong Kong political situation
On the Facebook page of Tsai Ing-wen, the chairperson of Democratic Progressive Party(DPP), she posted a video showing her support towards the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong, with the caption “democracy won’t just fall from the sky. Oil up Hong Kong, oil up Taiwan!” Be it the Sunflower Student Movement versus Umbrella Movement or the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement versus Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, numerous linkages and comparisons were made between the political situation of Hong Kong and Taiwan. When we were interviewing young people on the streets, nearly all of them are curious about the conflicts happening in Hong Kong. “That’s why we need a change, we cannot elect the pro-communist Kuomintang(KMT) anymore,’ they said. The extensive coverage of Apple Daily Taiwan on Hong Kong situation keeps many Taiwanese updated with the progress of the Umbrella Movement, most of them eloquently described the conflicts between the police and the protesters as if they are a part of it. Although linking Hong Kong and Taiwan together might be a little too sensitive(to China) as the political regime is entirely different, it is unavoidable for young people to exchange views and information on social platforms like Facebook. No matter it is the Sunflower Student Movement or the mayoral election, Hong Kong young people are fixing their eyes on the progress and results of democracy in Taiwan. After the DPP won it big and KMT lose it hard, many Hongkongers expressed their envy towards the Taiwanese one-person-one-vote. The distance between the two places is much closer than 812 km, and the connection is becoming tighter between the youth, the netizens.
A colourful white – the power of youth engagement
Years before, Taiwan and Hong Kong youth are similarly apathetic towards socio-political affairs. However, many recent events exemplifying the disappointing performance of the government seems to be alarm clocks waking the young people up. In this mayoral election, young people are especially attracted by the Ko’s team. As he does not belong to any political party, many see him as a good candidate to lead the change of Taipei. Like the US president Barack Obama in 2008, Ko emphasise ‘change ‘ and ‘choice’. The truth is, young people are not fascinated by the blue and green; not attracted by the political stars; but annoyed by the conventional and monotonours rivals between KMT and DPP. The Ko’s team never stick to any colour, and they claim themselves ‘the power of the white’. Even in the crowded night rally that involves tens of thousands of people, all of them are holding flags of different colours. In the past elections, you can’t attend the events of the blue camp when you are wearing green or you will be in serious trouble. Yet, Ko created a new kind of colour – a colourless white background with most colourful supporters. Ko’s team used ptt, a social platform exclusive for Taiwan university students, to recruit volunteers assisting the election. Surprisingly, they received enormous response – more than a thousand university students signed up and joined the Ko’s team as volunteers, braved the pre-dawn morning and work as ambassadors monitoring every voting station. Although Hong Kong university students are more proactive these days, I reckon if they are willing to spend so much time and support a candidate wholeheartedly. In fact, hardly any candidate can please the critical Hong Kong youngsters. According to the Ko’s team, they have 100,000 new eligible voters every 4 years, and I guess they can well attract votes from this group of people.
It was truly amazing having the chance to witness this biggest democratic election that is nearest to Hong Kong. After all that mentioned on the above, what impressed me most is how Taiwanese are satisfied with what they have on this unidentified island. They treasure the culture and simplicity they have. When it comes to economic prosperity, there is no comparison between Hong Kong and Taiwan; when all of us think that rapid economic development are Hong Kong’s most eminent bargaining chip, Taiwanese care a lot less about these, but to strive for ‘kuaile’ and ‘xingfu’ for each and every member in the society.
