President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has teamed up with Taiwanese YouTube host Tsai A-ga (蔡阿嘎) in two short videos.
One was titled “Ga with Celebrity to Talk about Taiwanese” and the other “What is the President up to?” Within 24 hours of being posted on Tuesday, they received 670,000 and 220,000 views respectively.
It was the first time that Tsai Ing-wen had worked with a Taiwanese YouTube celebrity, and many people have said that this is the first time they have seen the president loosen up and show that she has a funny side.
In one video, Tsai A-ga joked with the president, saying that he had mistaken her for Masa (瑪莎), the bass player for Mayday.
He also jokingly called her “English Tsai,” a direct translation of her name, which can be taken as meaning “poor English,” and went on to joke that “I am the first YouTuber in the world to diss a nation’s president in person.”
The two traded banter, while the president also gave quick replies to short questions, and discussed interesting uses of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) words and phrases.
The president later admitted that she was somewhat nervous at the beginning and even held her hands tightly, as it was the first time that she had taken part in this sort of entertainment.
Some netizens said that the videos are symbolic of Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.
“After watching this, I feel proud to live in a free, democratic society in Taiwan,” one person wrote.
“No matter if you like her or not, we should appreciate the liberties and freedom of speech we enjoy in Taiwan,” another wrote.
Other commentators said that Taiwan has what many other countries do not.
“It is impossible for China to have these kinds of videos,” one person wrote.
In the second video, the president gave the Republic of China flag to Tsai A-ga at the Presidential Office, and announced that the YouTuber has been chosen to represent the nation later this summer in New York.
The New York Mets baseball club is hosting a Taiwan Heritage Night at the team’s Citi Field, with a pre-game ceremony featuring Tsai A-ga.
“We look forward to Tsai A-ga taking our flag to the New York Mets’ stadium,” Tsai Ing-wen said.
Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said that the president regularly posts messages on her Facebook page and she shares photographs on Instagram.
Her official Line messaging app account has gained more than 200,000 followers in two months, Lin said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas