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Seeking younger voters, Hsieh hits YouTube Web site

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has added filmmaking to his election repertoire after he shot videos of himself and posted them on YouTube to attract the attention of young voters.

The first of the short videos were posted last Thursday to showcase the human side of the politician, who is known for his quick wit and sense of humor. Three more clips were released yesterday.

In one, Hsieh is asked by a staffer if he knew what a "self-shooting portrait" (自拍) was. Hsieh, who was patted on the back by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) before their first televised presidential debate on Feb. 24, said that patting somebody else on the back during a hand-shake was not "self-patting" but patting oneself on his own shoulder was.

"Oh, it's such a bad joke," his staffers respond.

When asked about his thoughts on the racy photographs of Canadian-Hong Kong singer Edison Chen (陳冠希) and female friends that have appeared on the Internet, Hsieh reminded those who want to show their pictures to others that they must make it clear whether they are showing their "portrait" or their "spicy photographs."

On a more serious note, Hsieh urged the public to respect individual privacy, saying that respect for personal privacy is the first step toward respect for human rights.

Hsieh was also asked what he though of Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee's (李安) latest movie, Lust, Caution. He said different people have different perspectives of the movie. Older viewers focused more on young people dedicating themselves to the democracy movement, he said, while young people often asked his opinion on the "69" position of love-making, or "paper clip" position in Mandarin.

"It is strange. I did not see any paper clips in the movie," he said.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment on the latest poll by the Chinese-language paper United Daily News, Hsieh urged the public to look at the credibility of that paper's polls over the years.

A United Daily News poll published yesterday said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was more popular than Hsieh among young voters.

The newspaper claimed that 60 percent of respondents aged between 20 and 29 years said that they supported the Ma-Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) ticket, while 21 percent said they backed Hsieh and running mate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).

Four years ago, the numbers were 32 percent for the KMT ticket of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), and 58 for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), the report said.
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