President Chen's daughter gets engaged

President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) only daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) yesterday celebrated her engagement to Chao Chien-min (趙建銘), an orthopedic surgeon of the National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital, with a ceremony held at the presidential residence.

The traditional ceremony and banquet for the new couple was not open to the media. Therefore nearly 100 reporters gathered in front of the presidential residence to cover the whole event from a distance. Four members of the newly launched Next (壹周刊) magazine, however, pretended to be photographer's assistants in an attempt to enter the presidential residence, but were caught and ejected by security guards.

Chen Hsing-yu, 25, met Chao last October; when the couple were introduced to each other by Han I-hsiung (韓毅雄), a senior NTU Hospital doctor. They announced their intention to marry in April.

President Chen and his in-laws to be are all from Tainan County, a bastion of traditional standards in wedding and engagement ceremonies. As part of the tradition, the president's 70-year-old mother Chen Lee-shen (陳李慎) personally shelled 12kg of water chestnuts, an important agricultural product of Chen's home town, as a gift to her future grandson-in-law.

The engagement ceremony began at around 10am, an auspicious hour according to the Chinese Lunar almanac, and was finished within one hour. The first family and Chao's relatives, about 50 people, then enjoyed a banquet prepared by the Asia Pacific Hotel's Chao Chou restaurant in Taipei.

The banquet, usually an opportunity for the bride's family to show off, was relatively modest -- a 12-course Cantonese meal for 50 guests at NT$1,500 (US$43) per person, according to the caterer.

President Chen personally instructed the caterer last week to change the original menu of the banquet and take off the usual delicacy -- shark fin soup, replacing it with oyster soup.

Soup made from the fins of sharks is a Chinese delicacy traditionally eaten on special occasions. But environmentalists warn that as so many sharks are being killed for soup, the fish could soon face extinction.

Earlier yesterday morning, four reporters from Next magazine drove a black Honda Accord in an attempt to mingle into the Chao family motorcade and enter the presidential residence. Security guards were suspicious after counting seven cars in the motorcade entering the compound, instead of the six they expected.

After checking the last car, the security guards rushed to check the previous cars, which were already in the compound. They found four people in the black Honda Accord, who were unable to produce identification. The four initially claimed that they had been sent by a wedding boutique company hired to take photos of the ceremony, according to the police. Police detained the four for questioning.

The four were identified as a reporter and two photographers from Next magazine and a driver. The first family has filed charges against the four, who face up to one year in prison if convicted of trespassing.

Later yesterday evening, the Presidential Office issued a press release expressing regret for the incident. The statement said that while the first family has tremendous respect for the freedom of the press, since the incident endangered security at the presidential residence, it was a matter for the presidential security detail to handle.