Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday apologized for calling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) “ractopamine pork auntie,” while KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) urged the public not to judge politicians based on age or appearance.
“There is no need for people to judge politicians based on age or physical appearance, or to use discriminatory words,” Wang told the launch ceremony of a KMT shop on the e-commerce platform PChome.
“The DPP claims to be a progressive party. Its young members should not use discriminatory language,” Wang said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
She said she hoped that the DPP could learn from the incident on Monday, when DPP online community center director Fan Kang-hao (范綱皓) called her on Facebook the “already 50-year-old Alicia Wang.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as a female politician and chairperson of the DPP, should share her opinion on the issue and instruct DPP members not to discriminate, Wang said.
Fan posted images of Wang and DPP Legislator Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤), with captions for both photographs reading: “Young person.”
Under the image of Wang, the caption was crossed out and “Auntie?” had been added, leading to accusations of age-based discrimination against Fan by KMT members.
Fan removed the post on the same day and apologized.
KMT Youth Department director Chen Kuan-an (陳冠安), who heads the KMT e-commerce center, said that the center’s telephone lines have since the incident been jammed with people seeking to purchase recently launched jackets, to express their support for the party and Wang.
“If Rosalia Wu minds the title ‘auntie,’ I am willing to apologize,” Lo wrote on Facebook with the hashtag: “I called Rosalia Wu auntie. I apologize.”
Lo, who is also director of the KMT’s Institute of Revolutionary Practice, asked if Wu would apologize for calling former KMT legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) “Grandpa Ting,” or for calling him chihan (癡漢, foolish person), accusing the DPP of double standards.
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