Taipei, Aug. 5 (CNA) New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) and Chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), both candidates in Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, made a rare appearance together on Saturday morning at a documentary premiere in Taipei.
The arrival of Hou and Ko in quick succession to an already crowed screening room caused great commotion among journalists who scrambled to take photos of them sitting together and shaking hands.
This rare appearance of the two side by side led to temporary disruption of the event and overshadowed the premiere of “Taiwanese, Forward” (台灣人 前進), a documentary about democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) and his resistance movement in the 1920s against the rule of Taiwan by the Japanese.
In his remarks following the screening, Hou, the presidential nominee for the main opposition Kuomintang, said he was “touched” by Chiang’s efforts to pursue democracy in Taiwan.
“We are all born here in Taiwan and are nurtured by this land,” he said, adding that it was important to set aside differences and party competition, and work together for a better future.
“It is my dream to unite Taiwan,” he said, pledging to bring the people of Taiwan together and continue promoting freedom and democracy.
Meanwhile, Ko sought to draw similarities between him and Chiang, as well as the TPP he established in 2019, with the political party Chiang founded in 1927, the Taiwanese People’s Party (台灣民眾黨).
Ko, who has on more than one occasion expressed his admiration for Chiang and even named his party after Chiang’s Taiwanese People’s Party, despite opposition from Chiang’s descendants, claimed he would “inherit” Chiang’s unfinished work.
“I was thinking about the goals Chiang Wei-shui was not able to achieve 100 years ago … we can now take on the challenge and strive to [fulfil them],” he said, without specifying what those goals were.
The 51-minute-long documentary chronicles the legacy of Chiang and the Taiwanese Cultural Association, an organization founded by Chiang and other intellectuals who called for greater autonomy for Taiwanese people living under Japanese rule.
Established in 1921, the association was dedicated to cultivating cultural and political thinking among Taiwanese people through lectures, theatrical shows and movie screenings, at a time when only affluent families could afford higher education.
Despite training as a doctor, Chiang devoted much of his life to politics and is widely remembered as one of the earliest democracy activists in Taiwan.
Saturday’s premiere was held on the campus of the Blessed Imelda’s School in Taipei, where the cultural association was headquartered more than a century ago.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and Secretary-General to the President Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event and gave their remarks.