Among the more unusual personalities celebrating legislative election victories yesterday were a TV celebrity, an award-winning movie actress, a basketball star and a convict.
Former DPP spokeswoman turned TV host, Sisy Chen (
She adopted what she described as an "alternative campaign strategy," involving no billboards or campaign rallies, but small events at which she generated publicity with performances of songs and entertainment routines in department stores and public parks.
Another media celebrity elected as an independent legislator is film star and former singer, May Chin (
Chin is best-known for her performance in The Wedding Banquet, directed by Oscar-winning Taiwanese director, Ang Lee (李安).
The PFP's Cheng Chih-long (
Among the more unsavory winners was convicted felon Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) who was elected as an independent legislator with 34,003 votes in Taichung County.
A former Taichung County Council speaker and an influential member of a local political faction in the county, Yen was convicted in August of attempted murder and corruption and denied bail by the Taiwan High Court. His campaign was conducted by his son, Yen Kuan-heng (
Yen remains in prison and his case is on appeal.
Another well-known gangland figure, Hsiao Teng-shih (
Hsiao, a former Chiayi City Farmers' Association chairman, was sentenced to three years in prison in July for illegally manipulating a Taiwan Provincial Farmers' Association election.
Also among the well-known defeated was sitting legislator Shih Ming-te (施明德) who failed to secure a legislative seat in Taipei City's southern constituency.
Shih, a former DPP chairman, had campaigned with Sisy Chen using an alternative campaign strategy, forsaking billboards and campaign rallies and often appearing with Chen at her informal performances.
Ko Szu-hai (柯賜海), who is well known for a series of high-profile and off-beat campaigns ostensibly on behalf of stray dogs, including taking groups of the strays with him to protest at government offices and bombarding the phone lines of businesses with repeating computerized telephone calls also failed to win a seat in Taipei South.
Ko, who maintains hundreds of stray dogs, has often been seen campaigning with a van full of the animals.
Actress Wang Hsiao-chan (
Wang had followed Chang throughout his campaign in order to attack him.
Two gay candidates, James Jan (詹銘洲) and Webster Chen (陳文彥), who sought to take the fight for homosexual rights into the national political arena, lost their bid for Kaohsiung City and Taipei City's northern district respectively.
The DPP's Chen Yi-hsin (陳義信), a national baseball star, was defeated in his run for an Aboriginal legislative seat.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
Taiwan is gearing up to celebrate the New Year at events across the country, headlined by the annual countdown and Taipei 101 fireworks display at midnight. Many of the events are to be livesteamed online. See below for lineups and links: Taipei Taipei’s New Year’s Party 2026 is to begin at 7pm and run until 1am, with the theme “Sailing to the Future.” South Korean girl group KARA is headlining the concert at Taipei City Hall Plaza, with additional performances by Amber An (安心亞), Nick Chou (周湯豪), hip-hop trio Nine One One (玖壹壹), Bii (畢書盡), girl group Genblue (幻藍小熊) and more. The festivities are to
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
RSS