Taiwan Rock: Tsai & Freddy Lim Joined by Fire EX in Rousing Taipei DPP Rally

Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held a rally for local legislator candidates in Taipei’s Da’an Park on Friday evening following a tumultuous couple of weeks in Taiwan politics in the run up to January’s presidential election, in which incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will face off against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) challenger Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

The event, Taiwan Rock, seemed aimed at attracting young voters with its innovative format and sharply focused one-word message: Vote. The mix between rock concert, talent show and karaoke was punctuated with relatively little politicking—it was arguably the bands themselves that made the strongest political statements.

Highlights included performances by rock band The Chairman (董事長樂團), local folk art group Nine Days (九天) (complete with the temple gods that are often seen swinging down the streets in Taiwan in parades), popular punk band Fire EX (滅火器) playing Goodnight Formosa (晚安臺灣), and rapper Dwagie (大支) taking the stage with a three song set mainly in Taiwanese. There was also a highly amusing rendition of Wubai’s “Express Love Letter” (五百—愛情限時批) by Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜). The evening was rounded off with Tsai Ing-wen taking the stage to stump for the local DPP-aligned politicians.

Lev Nachman, a political scientist who attended the event, said afterwards: “I thought it was good for Tsai to turn up for the local Taipei candidates—it wasn’t really a Tsai rally as much as it was for them, and her taking the time to make an appearance was smart. A lot of those candidates are running in tough districts and need all the endorsements from Tsai they can get.”

Indeed, with candidates such as Kao just 3.5 percentage points behind KMT challenger Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) in the Neihu and Nangang district legislative race, as reported on Nov 20 by the Liberty Times, Tsai’s support may certainly help energize the candidates’ campaigns.

Around 3,000 people stopped by to enjoy the entertainment with the majority of the amphitheater-style seating taken up by the older crowd, who presumably hadn’t had to rush from work to make the 6.30 p.m. start. While the crowd was mixed, there were fewer young people than might have been expected from an event boasting some high-profile artists who are popular with the younger demographic. As the evening went on, many people, including young onlookers, gathered on the surrounding slopes.

An interesting side-effect may turn out to be a legion of elderly people getting into Taidu Rap. Dwagie might not be expected to be every grandparent’s cup of tea, but it was clear that his Taiwan-independence-centric music went down well, with several grandpas and grandmas spotted enthusiastically waving along with their rainbow LED pool noodles and bopping their heads along in time to the music. One adorable grandma even made up her own set of hand movements.

Taiwanese rapper Dwagie performs during his Taiwan independence themed set.

Asked why he had chosen to attend, Chuck, 26, a Taiwanese national who grew up in and currently lives in Australia, said: “I came to experience the democratic ways in my home country. Especially with this political climate, I felt like it was important to come back and experience it.” Chuck confirmed that he plans to vote in January. “I intend to go to rallies from both sides just to experience the political outlook. [Voting] is part of the reason I have come back now, especially with what is happening in Hong Kong. I don’t want Taiwan to lose its democratic rights.”

Rodo, 67, a retired mathematics teacher from Taipei City, said that he has been keenly observing his fellow residents in what he describes as a traditionally “blue” (KMT-leaning) community in Xinyi district. Over the past few months. he has observed a sea change in the voting mood, with formerly staunch KMT voters saying that they will choose not to vote at all, rather than vote for Han Kuo-yu, who they appear to hold in low regard. Some, he said, even plan to switch over to the DPP.

Reports last week by Formosa Television suggested that a Han Kuo-yu Facebook fan page with 10,000 followers switched its allegiance to Tsai after their ‘heavy Chinese’ accented sponsor stopped calling after the story of self-confessed Chinese spy Wang Liqiang broke. The group’s founder voiced suspicions that the sponsor was an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), according to Formosa Television. Therefore, indications of such dramatic switches may not be as outlandish as they seemed earlier this year, when Han dominated opinion polls. Tsai has since roared back to become a heavy favorite, and polling by online news outlet My-Formosa.com released on Friday indicated that the KMT may face further voter defections, with the DPP rising by around 7 percentage points to seize a 27-point lead overall.

Asked about Tsai’s chances in the upcoming election, Hsing-fu, 39, who lives in Taipei City but is registered to vote in New Taipei, said cautiously that while Tsai seems to be leading in the polls, he believes that anything could happen between now and election day. “But do I hope she wins? Yeah, of course.”

For the most part, the candidates kept their comments short and sweet, simply encouraging the crowd to remember to vote for both themselves and legislator-at-large seats for the DPP. Current legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) expressed concern that her name (Wu Si-yao) might be confused with controversial KMT party-list candidate Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) and led a quick chant of “Wu Si-yao in! Wu Sz-huai out!”

La Petite Nurse (小護士樂團) peppered their chorus with cheers for Tsai and spoke between songs to reinforce the overall message: “Vote for the love of Taiwan, vote for the love of freedom, vote for the love of democracy.”

Taiwan’s election campaign has been spotted with concern that overseas political pundits will over-estimate the effect of the situation in Hong Kong on the January vote. It is interesting to note, however, that every person Ketagalan Media spoke to at the event brought up Hong Kong unprompted, despite none of the politicians raising the issue directly. Early on in the evening, Ji Dong (阿吉), lead vocalist of The Chairman, brought it up in a short speech in Taiwanese before the band starting its set, as did La Petite Nurse. It is possible that the allegations made by Wang Liqiang in Australia have drawn even more scrutiny upon Beijing’s attempts to manipulate the public in Hong Kong and Taiwan and its ultimate plans to unify the country with China.

Rodo believes that, for young people, Hong Kong is a pivotal factor that he hopes will encourage them to vote. He said he worries for the future generations in Taiwan, pointing out that his own children in their 30s were not at the rally—for them, Friday evening is a chance to catch up on sleep after a long working week.

Daniel, a young professional in his 30s, has returned to Taiwan from the United States to observe the election. Even though he cannot vote, he is interested in learning more about the process. He said he has not been to a non-DPP rally since 2008, aside from some smaller events. Asked about the difference in atmosphere between 2008 KMT rallies and the DPP rallies, he pointed to the localization platform of the DPP. “The way they talk to people is very vernacular,” he said. “They try to talk to you person to person so it’s very relatable, more so than any other rally I’ve stepped into.”

It is notable that, despite being held in the heart of Taipei much of the evening, well over 60% of the event was conducted in Taiwanese. The Republic of China (ROC)—perhaps less surprisingly—was not mentioned once. Han rallies often focus on preserving the concept of “Chinese culture” to protect the youth from the insidious nature of dangerous progressives who threaten to tear down the glorious and righteous zhonghua mingguo (the Mandarin term for the ROC). The DPP, conversely, uses the preservation of Taiwan as its centerpiece. A common refrain throughout the evening was: “If the DPP wins, Taiwan will win!”

The message seemed to resonate. Rodo, without hesitation, said that he came to the event “for Taiwan.” This was the first DPP rally he has attended this year, and he said he was astonished by its overall quality, saving particularly high praise for Tsai’s speech. “It’s the hope, you know?” he observed.

The framing of what could otherwise have been a pretty dry event as a rollicking roll through top-notch musical acts, with a hearty side serving of KTV favorites, worked well. It is no secret that Taiwanese have an ongoing love affair with karaoke, with warm receptions given to even the worst of singers in KTVs across the country. The jovial and (for the most part) well-rehearsed performances went down a storm. The duo between Kao Chia-yu and Freddy Lim was a particular highlight—at best, KTV renditions of Wubai’s “Express Love Letter” often present in a who’s-strangling-the-cat form, but this was a particularly excellent example of that—that had many in the crowd, as well as Freddy onstage, in stitches. It turns out even a professional singer can die on the KTV stage, and the audience loved Lim and Gao all the more for it.

It should be noted that Han rallies also use karaoke and musical acts at their events. It is a fairly acceptable practice at political rallies in Taiwan to have politicians belt out (and murder) classic Taiwan songs. But the decision to focus the entire evening on music was a shrewd political move by the local DPP nominees and Lim. One wonders if it would have been possible to arrange without Lim, who also fronts the popular death metal band Chthonic. Lim is currently an independent candidate, having split from the New Power Party (NPP) in August. At the time of that announcement, Lim signaled his intention to support Tsai’s campaign. It was noteworthy that he was positioned at Tsai’s right shoulder when she gave her speech on Friday.

The format certainly went down well with Chuck, who described it as “far more interesting and engaging for me than any normal political rallies … because at least there were some quality acts in between to break up the monotony of the usual political chants and candidate speeches!” However, he observed that, for many, the main draw of the night and the biggest rock star was Tsai herself. “For me, seeing her onstage in person alone was worth it,” he said.

While the KMT seem in utter disarray over their choices of various candidates—with public infighting, obvious sniping and disinclination by some prominent KMT figures to appear onstage with the party’s presidential nominee—the DPP seemed utterly cohesive on Friday evening. Han rallies often channel the concept of an army fighting the various evils of the DPP. This DPP rally, however, felt more like a family coming together to have a good old KTV session, thoroughly enjoying themselves while gently taking the mick out of each other. There was little in the way of grandstanding. Tsai’s speech, which lasted around 12 minutes and was delivered almost exclusively in Mandarin, was measured, warm, and responsive.

Tsai started by welcoming everyone to “our Taiwan party” on a rainy Friday evening, asking the crowd what they thought of the performances. They can all sing really well, she observed good-naturedly, especially our Freddy Lim. She went on to suggest the crowd wouldn’t want to hear her try to sing. The crowd encouraged her to have a go, but she wisely demurred.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen laughs during her speech at Friday’s rally in Taipei.

Keeping the warm, light tone, indeed at times hardly holding it together with all the gentle teasing she was dishing out, her voice often trembled with suppressed laughter as she went through each of the eight candidates pointing out their particular focuses, strengths and characteristics. Hsieh Pei-fen (謝佩芬) the candidate for Da’an district, attracted particularly loud cheers from the crowd, as did Neihu district’s Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜). However, Freddy Lim got the strongest response by far.

Han rallies tend to focus on everyone getting rich, with little offered in the way of how this will happen. Tsai, with the benefit of being the incumbent, instead spoke for around five minutes of the improvements the DPP had made, mentioning the hard fights (such as pension reform) that she had pushed through, and how returning businesses from China have already broken ground on new factories, offering jobs and security to young people so that their children can have a better future and families can take care of their elders adequately. She finished by suggesting that if the electorate give Tsai Ing-wen four more years, Taiwan will have a brighter and safer future.

With this being Taiwan, the use of ‘fighting’ as a concept was still on the agenda—after all, one must fight in an election to win it. However, it is interesting to note that the DPP uses the English word ‘team’ while the Han fans refer to themselves as an ‘army.’ The warmth and hope that permeated this small DPP rally was palpable. Aside from the frequently displayed graphic that read, simply, ‘Vote,’ the message appeared to be: Here we are together on this (KTV) stage, and together we will vanquish the forces that hope to see Taiwan crushed. And while we are at it, who’s up next on the mic, Freddy?

An earlier version of this article erroneously identified an interviewee, Daniel, as intending to vote.