Chen and Ma sell competing ideals on campaign trail

As Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) auctioned tea to promote the city's revitalization yesterday, his rival, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), was autographing his new book in Taichung to promote country management.

Addressing 150 supporters who had waited for his autograph for almost three hours at a book-signing fair, Chen encouraged readers to finish reading the entire book before jumping to any conclusion.

"I welcome any criticism, but first of all they have to read the book from start to finish," he said.

Chen emphasized that the book was not a diary but a story about his feelings, thoughts, and ideals.

"I hope I can share the pride, agony, and achievements of the past 500 days since I was sworn in," he said.

The first to obtain Chen's autograph was a married couple, Chang Chang-yin (張昌印) and Liu Su-ou (劉素娥), who came to the store at 10am.

"Our entire family are big fans of the president. We'll buy another book for reading, and keep these two as souvenirs," they said.

Officiating at an auction in the Tatung District, Ma helped sell a 66-year-old poster among other tea memorabilia.

"We'd like to see the city's older communities come back to life because they're so rich in history and culture," Ma said. "Urban revitalization might do just that and create more business opportunities."

The event, co-organized by the city's Bureau of Urban Development and the Taipei Tea Merchants' Association (台北市茶商業業), was held to help promote the Tatung District -- once an important tea-growing and trading area during the Ching Dynasty.

The program included the auction, a quiz testing participants' knowledge about tea, and a tea party where various types of the beverage were available for sampling.

Auction proceeds will go to the city's Bureau of Social Affairs.

Hsieh Chien-yu (謝建裕), a seventh generation tea exporter, forked over NT$30,000 for a framed vintage wage slip.

The slips were handed out to laborers as proof of their day's work and could be exchanged for cash at the end of the working day.

Hsieh said his money had been well spent.

"I've never seen anything like this before, although I've heard about it from my father," he said.

Wang Gou-lai (王國來), who is the fourth generation in his family in the tea business, demonstrated how to hand pack a 150g tea container using cotton paper.

"When plastic and aluminum foil were scarce back then, we used cotton paper to wrap tea before putting it in containers," the 77-year-old said.