Kaohsiung was supposed to be a DPP stronghold. So why did residents plunk for the KMT’s Han Kuo-yu in this year’s election?

By William Kung (孔德廉) and Roger Yan (嚴文廷)

Photos by Su Wei-ming (蘇威銘) and Lin You-en (林佑恩)

Translation by Aaron Wytze Wilson

This piece originally appeared in the Reporter in Traditional Chinese and is translated with permission of the publisher.

On the eve of Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) election victory, the Reporter went to Kaohsiung to meet with residents on the streets, at election rallies and at military dependents’ villages. We wanted to understand why Han was greeted with such enthusiasm, and what it means for this industrial port city.

The military dependents’ village: “More enthusiastic for Han than even President Ma”

It’s the night before voting day, and residents from the Guomao Community in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying district are waiting on the streets, with mini Republic of China (ROC) flags in hand. Han Kuo-yu’s campaign car will soon make its final swing through the area, and residents are hoping to catch a glimpse of Han himself.

As the campaign car winds its way through the narrow alleys of Guomao’s public housing projects, the car’s loudspeakers fill the night air with a song called “Night Attack” (夜襲)— a song that harkens back to Taiwan’s martial law era, when music was composed in service of the state, and celebrated the courage of the ROC’s armed forces.

In the last Kaohsiung mayoral election, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s Chen Ju (陳菊) defeated the KMT’s Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) by a huge margin. But in Guomao, a community with a reputation for strong KMT support, Yang picked up 73 percent of the vote.

This election, Han Kuo-yu’s candidacy is garnering far more excitement. Pundits and KMT supporters are calling Han’s newfound popularity “hanliu”—the “Han Kuo-yu Wave”. Hanliu is also a play on the word “hallyu”, a term used to denote the skyrocketing popularity of South Korean pop culture, which just happens to share some of the Chinese characters in Han Kuo-yu’s name.

As the campaign car passes through, Guomao’s borough warden, Han Te-ping (韓得平) says the community hasn’t been this passionate about a political candidate in a long time. “The last time we felt this way was during Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)’s first presidential run in 2008!” he says.

“The 700 mini-flags I prepared in the morning have all been snatched up, and even the big flag I had in my office was taken away. The warden’s office is totally empty.”

When Han Kuo-yu came to Kaohsiung to take up the post of the local KMT branch in Kaohsiung, and Han’s plan to run in Kaohsiung was only a rumour, no one expected his candidacy would cause such a sensation.

“The community used to be even more pro-KMT, but now, more than half of the people in Guomao don’t come from a military dependents’ village. But this place is still a storehouse for KMT votes, through and through,” says Han Te-ping.

He raises an interesting point about the Han Kuo-yu Wave, “Han is different from elite KMT politicians with a Mainlander background. Han speaks in a straightforward way, and he’s the kind of guy who you can sit down with and have a beer. That’s something KMT candidates couldn’t do before. Even local legislators can’t do that.”

An older gentleman standing by interjects, and says Han Kuo-yu speaks with boldness. “Seeing him talk that way is refreshing, we second generation Mainlanders do things the same way.”