As Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) ratchets up his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary bid, he is running into opposition from an unexpected quarter: high-school students in the city.
During at least six events, Han has encountered challenges from teenagers, or students wearing sarcastic T-shirts or carrying signs or other props as they pose for photographs with him.
The first was a ninth-grader at Chung Shan Senior High School surnamed Wu (吳), who on Wednesday last week after being photographed with the mayor at an event honoring model students of the year, told Han: “Your bid for the presidency is ridiculous.”
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
“Do not allow your sentimentality to overpower your rationality. Wake up,” Wu added.
A Fongshan Vocational High School student surnamed Huang (黃) on Friday wore a T-shirt that read “Run Away” for a photo with Han at a ceremony for model students.
At a similar event on Monday at Kaohsiung Senior High School, one student held translation of US author Brian King’s book The Lying Ape as he posed beside Han; another student wore a Democratic Progressive Party campaign T-shirt for their photo opportunity.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
At Hsin Chuang High School yesterday, a student surnamed Chen (陳) held up a sign that read “Finish Your Term,” that she had hidden under her commendation until it was time for her to be photographed with Han, while a student surnamed Lee flashed a sign that read “Finish Your Term, Love Kaohsiung.”
A student surnamed Chen (陳) later told reporters that school officials had stopped him from bringing a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal to the event, which he said was meant to be a jab at the mayor.
“I think it is a great thing when young people speak their mind,” Han said yesterday in response to media queries.
He has always encouraged young people to express their opinions and will support them under any circumstances, but it is “inappropriate” to tie political issues to an educational event, he said.
“If students have opinions, they can express them off-stage,” he added.
Taking a photo on stage with the mayor after receiving an award for graduating with top grades is the “most honorable moment of [a student’s] life” and he hopes such educational events can remain pure, Han said.
New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) on Monday said complaints about the students’ lack of decorum or rudeness were misguided.
“Students are getting an education, not for the sake of their parents or teachers, but to have critical thinking skills for themselves,” she said. “Students should be encouraged to express their views and not live for the expectation or approval of their elders.”
Insurance company manager Wu E-yang (吳萼洋), who ran for Taipei mayor in last year’s election as an independent, was quoted by SET TV News on Friday as saying that Han had lost the respect of high-school students with his “unseemly ambition” and that his presidential aspirations could “end up being the joke of the year.”
The publisher of the Chinese-language version of The Lying Ape on Monday wrote on Facebook that the book was sold out.
Morning Star Publishing yesterday began running an advertisement banner on its Web site that said it was sorry that translation of The Lying Ape was out of print and suggesting readers choose Japanese psychologist Yuuki Yu’s educational manga, The Psychology of Lying.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon and Chang Chung-yi
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not