Campaign brochures distributed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday telling the story of the Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha received negative reviews from netizens, who called the leaflets a failed attempt by Lien to shed his “princeling” image.
Titled “Spreading the Seed of Hope,” the pink brochures listed Lien’s policies along with photographs and messages from the mayoral hopeful to Taipei residents.
It starts off with Lien asking the reader if they remember the song The Sky of Taipei (台北的天空), before he goes on to describe his two brushes with death — once when he was shot and the other when he was diagnosed with cancer — and thanks the residents of Taipei for giving him the courage to give something back and help create the Taipei of tomorrow.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The brochure’s content continues with the story of Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha, who was a prince and later became a Buddha to help mankind, and then tells story of Jesus Christ, describing how he was a carpenter before he began preaching what later became the Christian religion. It ends with the quote: “A man’s worth is not in his background, but in his mannerisms and acceptance of responsibility.”
A comment from netizen “sdg235” on the Professional Technology Temple — the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board — said that Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha had spent many years meditating, but Lien was “seeking to be mayor after he is done chilling at home,” while another netizen using the handle DASHOCK said that the Buddha had not worn brand-name clothes or driven expensive cars.
Another netizen, Kondyu, said the Buddha “Did not live in [Taipei luxury residential complex] The Palace (帝寶) and ask for alms.”
Lien yesterday said he was a mortal man and could not hope to compare with any great deities, adding that the brochure aimed to tell Taipei residents that he sought to emulate the spirit of what these great men did. As for the criticism, Lien said he paid it no mind as it had been going on for 10 months.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS