Taiwanese celebrities and public figures braced themselves to have buckets of ice water dumped on their heads yesterday as they joined an Internet sensation to raise awareness about a paralyzing disease.
Business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) took the Ice Bucket Challenge in New Taipei City alongside people fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and volunteers from the Taiwan Motor Neuron Disease Association, which helps people with ALS.
Standing under a bucket controlled by a robotic arm, the chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, also known as Foxconn in China, was soaked after his wife and an ALS patient in a wheelchair pulled a rope tied to the device.
Photo: CNA
Gou participated after being nominated by Xiaomi Corp CEO Lei Jun (雷軍) for the task, in which participants can either douse themselves in ice water or donate US$100 to an ALS charity, or both.
However, Gou did not stop at US$100, but pledged US$200,000 to the Taiwanese association and announcing a further cash donation of US$100,000 to a former employee who was diagnosed with the disease.
Gou also nominated others to take on the challenge, including Taiwanese supermodel and actress Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), who has agreed to take part, he said.
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and his main rival in the Taipei race, independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), took the plunge a day earlier, local politicians continued with the challenge yesterday.
KMT Yilan County commissioner candidate Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞), after having a bucket of ice water poured on her, challenged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The Presidential Office said Ma opted to make a donation rather than take the icy bath.
However, Taipei City councilor Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) of the Democratic Progressive Party deplored the “celebrity showboating” aspect of the phenomenon.
In a post on Facebook yesterday, Wu said the name-dropping in the Ice Bucket Challenge has become a celebrity marketing activity, “to show off how well-connected a person is and to flaunt one’s wealth and power networking... The focus now seems to be on the ice bucket rather than ALS sufferers.”
“When a charity campaign becomes a celebrity PR activity, those who benefit from it are not society’s disadvantaged,” she added.
Citing examples, Wu said National Development Council Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), after dumping ice water over himself, challenged newly sworn-in Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) to do it, and from there, Duh named some business tycoons to follow up.
Wu added that after Lien drenched himself, he challenged New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who in return nominated Wowprime Group chairman Dai Sheng-yi (戴勝益).
“Doesn’t this manifest the intricate links of business money and political power in Taiwan? Through the Ice Bucket Challenge, this link between politics and money is shown in its naked openness to the public, and these people have no qualms about it,” Wu said.
“After Lien was doused with the ice water, he said: ‘It felt great!’ That left me speechless. As it becomes about showing off, concern for ALS sufferers fades into the background,” Wu said. “Most of the time, government officials try to evade responsibility when things go wrong. Miraculously, officials are now serving easy balls for each other to hit. The Ice Bucket Challenge has become ‘showboat’ time for these figures.”
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