Now, turning to the Taipei mayoral race: the DPP’s candidate Chen Shih-chung and independent Huang Shan-shan attended the opening ceremony of Art Taipei on Friday. Though Chen and Huang had recently locked horns over gender equality policies, the two rivals seemed to be in high-spirits and almost amicable at the event. In contrast, Chen’s relations with his KMT challenger Chiang Wan-an remain tense, especially due to disagreements over policies relating to long-term care for older adults.

The DPP’s mayoral candidate for Taipei, Chen Shih-chung stands on stage with his independent rival, Huang Shan-shan at the opening ceremony of Art Taipei. Together they pour bottles of colorful sand over their own portraits.

Mark Ho
DPP lawmaker
Wait, wait. Huang Shan-shan’s sand is falling on your portrait! You need to pour some over here! Don’t let it fall on your side!

Hosting the event, DPP lawmaker Mark Ho pointed out that some of Huang’s sand was falling on Chen’s part of the portrait. It was all in good humor though, with laughs coming from the audience.

Mark Ho
DPP lawmaker
I support Chen Shih-chung, both rationally and emotionally. This is what friendship looks like.

Election competition seemed to be absent at the event. Just one day earlier, Huang had voiced criticism of Chen’s proposed gender equality policies, saying that Chen only now had finally caught up with the times. Chen responded to the criticism on Friday.

Chen Shih-chung
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate
The current Taipei policies offer subsidies at the middle school level. Our proposal is to extend that to elementary schools and high schools. As a male candidate, I know that we need to expand the range. Does she, as a female candidate, not know this?

Over recent weeks Chen has also engaged in a war of words with his KMT rival Chiang Wan-an over long-term care policies for older people. Chen has said that Chiang does not understand long-term care at all, while Chiang has said that Chen’s long-term care policies are tragic.

Chen Shih-chung
DPP Taipei mayoral candidate
He’s all talk. Under the DPP’s leadership, Taiwan’s long-term care 1.0 policy progressed to long-term care 2.0, addressing many social issues. The policy enjoys 93% support from the public. It’s not something you can achieve by just talking. He wants to solve issues by pushing for policies that fall outside the scope of existing laws. I’ll be waiting to hear how he proposes we should break through these legal restrictions.

Chen said Chiang’s long-term care proposals were out of touch, criticizing him for waiting until now to propose legal amendments, even though he had served as a lawmaker earlier. Meanwhile, the KMT has taken to calling Huang Shan-shan “Tsai Ing-wen’s daughter” in recent days. Reports say it’s an attempt to make her appear more DPP-leaning, so the party can capture more voters who are undecided but opposed to the DPP.