“A-bian rarely comes back anymore,” one shop owner said. A-bian hadn't returned in “a long time,” another resident chimed in.
As for tourists, their numbers are dwindling in the wake of scandals surrounding Chen, said a police officer at the guard post facing the Chen family home.
“The decline in tourism here has been very noticeable,” the officer told the Taipei Times. Two tourists from Taipei milled about in the rain, snapping photos of the storied house.
Although tourism hasn't totally dropped off and many Hsichuang residents still back Chen, clues that his popularity is not what it used to be are everywhere. The town's young adults, for instance, were much slower to speak up on behalf of their president — if at all — than older residents.
“I have nothing to say,” one younger resident said when asked if he still supported Chen.
Female residents also tended to be circumspect, saying that regardless of what they thought of Chen personally, the fact remained that one of their own had made it into the Presidential Office. “And that has been good for business here for the rest of us,” one female resident said.
Not far from Chen's house, a grand, lustrous temple marks the center of town. A nearby apartment building was decked with yellow banners advertising Falun Gong.
The temple boasts an “A-bian's Hometown Service Center” (阿扁故鄉服務處) as an annex, presumably to offer help and directions to visitors. Its doors were wide open, but the inside was dark, empty. Cardboard boxes and exercise equipment cluttered its floor. Once again, a blown-up poster of Chen was tacked up, but his big smile rang hollow in the darkness.
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