Influencer Wang Wen-jui (王文瑞), known online as “Taiwan Grandpa” (台灣阿公), is a model for online “united front” propaganda, targeting central and southern Taiwan, as well as poorer and middle-class groups, National Cheng Kung University professor of political science Hung Chin-fu (洪敬富) said yesterday.
YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) on Friday released a video in which he said that Wang makes about 200,000 yuan (US$27,570) a month.
Wang, a Taipei native in his 60s, has gained a large following on Chinese social media and is known for collaborating with “Taiwan Cousin” (台灣表妹), another influencer.
Photo: Screen grab from social media
Wang has made a video saying that Ganzhou, Jiangxi, is his ancestral home and the starting point of the Long March.
“My roots are in this red land. I feel truly proud holding my hometown’s soil and never forgetting my Chinese roots,” he said.
Wang often collaborates with young Chinese influencers, once posting a video in which he was taken to an extravagant wedding banquet in China.
“I have never seen a wedding banquet like this in Taiwan, this is so extravagant,” he said in the video.
Tracing his roots and paying tribute to his ancestors is his life’s greatest wish, Wang said in an interview with Macau Satellite TV at the Straits Forum in June.
“You would benefit from visiting China because the motherland is great, even for young people,” he said. “You might even grow roots and thrive here.”
As “Taiwan Grandpa,” Wang said he hopes to contribute in whatever way he can to cross-strait exchanges.
Even though younger influencers are more popular in Taiwan, Wang’s content shows that China aims to comprehensively target all age groups and social classes in Taiwan, Hung said yesterday.
China’s “united front” strategies target small and medium-sized enterprises, middle to low-income groups, central and southern Taiwan, and young people, he said.
“Taiwan Grandpa” is meant to target central and southern Taiwan and “lower-class” people, he said.
Wang’s content is effective internal propaganda, as it portrays a struggling elderly Taiwanese moving to China and experiencing the “superiority” of China’s infrastructure and society, Hung said.
Wang’s videos might also resonate with some elderly or disheartened people in Taiwan, he said.
China’s “united front” strategies are creating a narrative in which Taiwanese of all ages and social classes can find opportunity in the “motherland,” he said.
“Taiwan Grandpa” is an example of this strategy, he added.
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