Distributing or selling Lunar New Year holiday items to raise campaign funds is a time-honored tradition for Taiwanese politicians, but this year several lawmakers said their products are designed to highlight special causes.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧) chose teabags filled with Taiwan-grown Assam tea to highlight her rural roots and farm-worker activism.
The type of leaf she chose is Tea Research and Extension Station No. 8, which is grown in her native Nantou County, she said.
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
“Growing up in a village, I served tea to friends and guests, and it was a very important social ritual,” she said, adding that promoting agriculture from her home county is never far from her thoughts.
She became executive secretary of the Executive Yuan’s 921 Earthquake Relief Foundation to help rebuild the county, and during her tenure, she worked closely with foundation executive director Hsieh Chih-cheng (謝志誠) to create a farmer’s market, held the following Lunar New Year, she said.
She served a lot of tea to the farmers taking part in the market, she added.
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
A vibrant and sustainable local economy is crucial and rebuilding Nantou’s agriculture is part of that process, she added.
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), who represents a district in Kaohsiung, is selling specially designed spring couplets (春聯) with the chance of winning chicken eggs, as high-quality chicken eggs are in high demand over the holiday.
Donors who buy a couplet set would be eligible for a lottery for eggs from Agriculture Certified Agricultural Standards-approved farms, he said.
However, they would have to take a photograph of the couplets pasted on their doorways and upload the photos to his official Facebook page, then visit his office and tag their visit on Facebook, he said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), who represents a Keelung district, said a poll he conducted found that politicians’ spring couplets are not really that popular with the public.
For his supporters, he decided on a red shopping bag illustrated with a pig and a sample of his calligraphy that reads zhao cai (招財, “welcoming prosperity”), he said.
The bag has been a success with homemakers, he said.
Many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers sought to make connections to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) with their items, such as Kaohsiung-born KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民), who represents a Taipei district.
His couplets bear Han’s campaign slogan, “Kaohsiung Will Get Rich” (高雄發大財).
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said her office was conducting an online lottery to give away 3,000 bags of “lucky money” blessed by the Temple of the Gods of Wealth in New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山).
KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), who represents a Taipei district, said she wanted to avoid cliches so her office prepared chocolate gold coins that donors could use as lucky charms or eat.
KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華), whose constituency is also in Nantou County, is selling calendars featuring photographs of herself, at NT$500 apiece, with the money to go to children’s welfare.
Hsu was Miss Republic of China in 1996.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS