Annette Lu's admirer strikes again on Valentine's Day

The English teacher who has been pining for Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) professed his undying love for the 58-year-old spinster politician yesterday.

After a debt collector with a criminal record tried last year to propose to Lu, only to be turned away by police, English teacher Tony Chen, 43, unfurled two huge scrolls declaring his adoration.

"Tony Chen, famous English teacher, is the true love of Annette Lu," read the two-story-high scrolls in Chinese hung outside a cram school Chen runs in Taichung City.

"I'm attracted by her unique personality," Chen said. "I want to say happy Valentine's Day. I love you more than I can say."

He first revealed his love for Lu last weekend by buying advertising space on a large billboard erected beside a highway near Changhua.

Chen explained that his admiration for Lu was first aroused when he was a radio reporter covering trips by the vice president to central Taiwan. He said Lu had the qualities he had always sought in a woman -- integrity, courage and an easy-going personality.

The billboard stunt failed when authorities pulled down the NT$1 million poster because it was a "distraction to drivers."

Undaunted, Chen said "I'll wait for her for the rest of my life."

He dismissed a rival lover, ex-convict debt collector Tung Nien-tai (董念台), who attempted to propose to Lu in December by leading a 24-sedan motorcade to the Presidential Office. Tung, 52, was turned away by police.

"Tung and I are different. ... I really love her," Chen said.

An embarrassed Lu shrugged off the latest amorous declaration.

"I'm too old," she told a reporter.