Artist Lin Guo-wu (林國武) has attracted media attention after he was arrested on Thursday for drawing a picture that depicted President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) having sexual intercourse with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The painter had remained relatively unknown for the last 13 years despite depicting many politicians in obscene drawings.
Taipei County Councilor King Chieh-shou (金介壽) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) recently received a postcard from Lin showing the image of Ma and Clinton.
After investigating, Taipei County police said Lin had also drawn crude pictures of former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Lin told the media he would have sent the postcards straight to the police had he known he would have received so much media attention over them.
PHOTO: HUANG LI-HSIANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The postcard King received depicted Ma standing on two bricks having sexual intercourse with Clinton using jiujiu shengong (九九神功)a method of qigong (氣功)in which practitioners hang and lift heavy objects such as bricks with their genitals.
King reported the matter to the police, saying that the postcards were insulting to the president. Lin was arrested by within 24 hours. Police said they found and confiscated two original sketches of the picture, postcards and a list of names of well-known people that Lin uses in his artworks.
The police originally thought Lin was a political extremist obsessed with politics, but later discovered that his works have also used Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet as subjects and are now at a loss as to what Lin intends with these illustrations.
From other works confiscated, the police could tell that Lin was a painter because of the fine detail of his work. The police also discovered that Lin’s name is registered in a cultural database kept by the Council for Cultural Affairs and that Lin had staged exhibitions of his works in 1993 and 2001, all on the subject of jiujiu shengong.
Lin, 48, graduated from the fine arts department at Chinese Culture University and delivers newspapers to make a living, earning NT$10,000 per month.
Lin’s mother said her son’s personality totally changed about a decade ago after he started learning jiujiu shengong and that she hoped the police would let her son free. However, Lin said that he didn’t mind going to jail for his art.
After questioning, the police charged Lin with “offenses against sexual morality (妨害風化罪).”
The police added the people depicted in the pictures could sue Lin if they feel their rights have been damaged.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS