Protest Scenes, Inauguration
An intense two weeks in Taiwan
Hello dear readers,
A lot has happened in Taiwan since we last wrote. On May 20, William Ching-te Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party was sworn in as Taiwan’s new president. Inauguration ceremonies are always a moment for a country to take stock of its past, present, and future; they’re also an opportunity for the country to present itself to the rest of the world. In this wonderful thread on Twitter/X, Ian Rowen called the inauguration “exuberant and eclectic,” and we heartily agree. Read his whole thread to understand how it differs from President Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration in 2016, whose self-serious narrative of Taiwanese history gave a condescending and anachronistic view of indigenous people, while also attempting to recreate the 2-28 massacre.
In comparison, Lai’s inauguration ceremony was fun and kooky. There were Taiwanese operatic acrobats in one moment, then Taekwondo athletes in another. Rappers took the stage, then indigenous pop stars. The pièce de résistance was undoubtedly a performance from the Paper Windmill Theater troupe (紙風車), an organization that was founded in 1998 to offer creative programs for children. A gigantic 10 meter tall papier-mâché “rain horse,” blue with a rainbow mane, strode through the ceremony. In Hakka folktales the horse brings peace and good fortune. Accompanying the horse were costumed dancing tigers, floating birds, gigantic vegetables, and a smaller dancing horse.
China’s response to this moment of psychedelic wonder? It launched two days of military drills to “serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces.”
On the second day of China’s military drills, almost 100,000 people gathered in front of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s parliament. Protests had been building since May 17, when a spontaneous group of concerned citizens rushed to the Legislative Yuan in response to an attempt by the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to ram through a controversial bill to “reform the legislature.” Legislative reform is broadly popular and a longtime goal of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). President Tsai campaigned in 2016 on a platform calling for sweeping reforms to the legislature; her proposals then also included an expansion of the legislature’s powers and responsibilities.
So why was this time different? The DPP had two major objections. The first was the norm-breaking way in which the KMT-TPP alliance pushed through the bill. The Taiwanese legislative process expects extensive discussion both within committees and a unique process of “cross-party negotiations”—a remnant of the 1990s democratization movement in Taiwan, when few legislative bills passed through parliament. When the DPP held a majority in the legislature from 2016 to 2024, bills of enormous consequence—such as a revision to the Labor Standards Act in 2017—took into account the suggestions and revisions from the KMT before being voted on in the general floor.
But this time, legislative records show that over seventy articles in the bills were not discussed at all. And during the cross-party negotiations, only four articles were put on the table for discussion. As we mentioned previously, a brawl broke out in the legislature on May 17—three days before President Lai’s inauguration—because the KMT and TPP did not even reveal which version of the bill they would be voting on, and they did not require a roll call, instead asking for a show of hands.
The DPP also criticized the actual content of the bill. One of the most hotly contested aspects of the bill involved the attempt to create a “contempt of congress” law.
Analogues certainly exist in both the U. S. and the UK; in this case the KMT and TPP use “contempt of congress” to penalize any private citizen or public official who fails to appear for a subpoena. These new powers would embarrass members of the executive branch, as well as bog down their operations. Indeed the moment after the law was passed in the legislature, the KMT party whip Fu Kun-chi proclaimed that he wanted to create a “special investigative unit” to investigate corruption cases during President Tsai Ing-wen’s presidency.
The brawl on May 17 was the spark, and the fire kept growing over the next week. On Tuesday, May 21, a group of fifty NGOs—largely spearheaded by the Economic Democracy Union, a group founded during the Sunflower Movement of 2014—organized a day-long protest outside of the Legislative Yuan as the articles and bills were being voted on in parliament. On Friday, May 24, the crowd had swelled to 100,000. The final day of protests, May 28, when the actual bills were rammed through, drew a crowd of 70,000. We drifted in and out of the crowd all three days, and were incredibly impressed by its organization. The organizers set up ample chairs, stations for childcare, food, water, and toilets. The general vibe was that of an inclusive and serious street fair, with a lot of speeches, songs, and spontaneous conversations.
The group chants rotated between the very specific demand of retracting the bill and conducting more dialogue about it. But as protesters are wont to do, they also called for other things, too, such as “Justice for Hualien” (where the aforementioned detestable Fu Kun-chi comes from). Organizers set up various interactive tables; one was a banner-writing campaign, where you were invited to write your wishes and tie it to the gates of the Legislative Yuan.
If you read some of the foreign coverage, you'll get the impression that the protests were animated by anti-Chinese sentiment, and the legislative bills were “pro-China.” Certainly, there were a lot of anti-Chinese slogans at the protests, partly inspired by the fact that the KMT party whip, Fu Kun-chi, had just led a delegation of KMT party members to China in late April. But to frame the protests as an anti-China outpouring would be to miss the forest for the trees. The consistent thread in all the protests was the explicit attempt to create inter-generational conversations about democratic politics. We were moved to see people from different generations encouraging each other. We heard from elders in the pro-democracy movement, including a political prisoner who was jailed for over twenty-two years for attending a leftist reading group in the 1960s. We saw veterans of the student movements of the 1980s, now well-established scholars and figures on the national stage. (People passed out wild lilies and sunflowers as a nod to popular protest movements of the past.) We ran into an active member of the Sunflower generation, now a farmer in Yilan who sells organic rice, who brought his young daughter. We saw high school students attend their first protest, traveling sometimes hours to get there. University students set up their own soapboxes, and they talked movingly and intelligently about the increasingly inclusive and empathetic society that they hoped Taiwan would become. Everybody there wanted to express their desire to push forward new democratic norms that they believe should take root in this country.
Ah, the creativity of the protesters! We saw saxophone players, massage-givers, and oh so many creative signs. There were a lot of references to manga and Boys Love (BL) fiction. And like in all Taiwanese protests, there were so, so many puns. The atmosphere was remarkably peaceful.
For some of Michelle’s students, it was their first protest.
The protests, like the inauguration, were so very Taiwanese, mixing kooky idiosyncrasy with values of mutual respect. At its core is a commitment to the fragile democratic order that exists on this island.
Links
The protests have generated a wealth of excellent content. We’ve heard so much talk by politicians and reporters about the future of Taiwan’s constitutional system, legislative procedures, and politics. One podcast that we’ve found indispensable has been hosted by the excellent Chi-Xin Liu, a journalist who works for The Reporter. He’s smart, humane, and empathetic. We particularly recommend his most recent conversation with Citizen Congress Watch, a parliamentary monitoring organization here in Taiwan who helps to situate the current protests in a longer historical trajectory. We also really loved his conversation with ten young people on 5/21 about why they took to the streets.
One of the interesting trends that has emerged in the past couple of months is the proliferation of Taiwanese politicians producing YouTube videos, livestreams, and podcasts to explain their policies and ideas. We’ve mentioned Miao Poya multiple times in the past. Her YouTube channel and podcasts is the most informative and interesting source for understanding what’s going on in parliament. But we also recommend Wu Cheng’s YouTube channel, as well as Wu Pei-yi’s podcast. For some balance, here’s the YouTube channel of Huang Guo-chang of the TPP, who has pushed much of the legislative reforms and livestreams from the floor of the Legislative Yuan.
For content in English, Brian Hioe and New Bloom has been indefatigable in its coverage. William Yang has also tirelessly produced wonderful analysis for VOA. Michael Fahey has been clear-eyed and judicious on the protests; he’s read all the bills in Chinese and situates these protests historically. He was excellent on Taiwan This Week in a conversation about the protests.
A great short piece by Jeff Wasserstrom and John DeLury captures our hearts with these two lines: “A final lesson that emerges from East Asian examples is the perpetual underestimation of young people. Just a year ago, many would have doubted that Gen Z students in the United States could sustain an activist movement over a foreign policy issue.” The kids are all right.
Book Club: Claire Keegan and then Claire Messud
Thanks for everyone who joined us for our last book club! We are especially excited about the next two book clubs, as we think the books are amazing. For June, we’ll read Claire Keegan’s FOSTER and SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE. For July, we’ll read Claire Messud’s THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY.
Friday, July 5th 7 PM EST / Saturday, July 6th 7 AM Taiwan time. (Note the time change a week later! apologies, apologies). For this book club, we’re reading Claire Keegan's FOSTER & SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE.
Friday, Aug. 2 7 PM EST / Saturday, Aug. 3rd, 7 AM Taiwan time. We're reading Claire Messud's THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY.
Great photos!
Thank you for such a wonderful account. I totally agree with your observation on the overall longing for democracy across generations. Taiwan really is a beacon for democracy.