Talking Taiwan: Jiho Chang: City Councilman Talks About his Career in Taiwan Politics

My guest on this episode of Talking Taiwan is Keelung City Councilor, Jiho Chang. Jiho spoke with me about his work as a city councilman, and how his interest and involvement in Taiwan’s politics dates back to his time as a university student, and the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait missile crisis that happened after KMT presidential candidate Lee Teng-hui visited his alma mater Cornell University and before Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in 1996.

Jiho was among the activists who occupied the Legislative Yuan during the Sunflower movement. He's also one of the co-authors of The Oral History of Su Beng (史明口述史), a biography of the late revolutionary and lifelong Taiwan independence activist Su Beng. We’ll have him back on another episode to talk about all that.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode: 

·      Jiho’s background and upbringing

·      How/why he decided to return to Taiwan after spending 10 years in Canada

·      His study of political science at university in Canada and Taiwan National University

·      The 1995-1996 missile crisis in Taiwan

·      How he was involved with the 2014 Sunflower movement

·      How his first attempt to get elected as a neighborhood warden aka borough warden aka village warden (里長) failed

·      How he previously worked as a speechwriter for presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen

·      How he got elected as Keelung City Councilor in 2018

·      How he got in trouble for posting about his work on as a speechwriter for President Tsai on Facebook

·      What his work as a city councilor involves

·      How Keelung is one of the smallest cities

·      What it took to campaign for the position of city councilor

·      Why he ran as a DPP candidate

·      The Taiwan People Party and New Power Party

·      How long each city councilor position term lasts

·      The Ghost Month in Taiwan

·      What Jiho finds most rewarding about his work as city councilor

·      How Jiho advocated for and helped the widow and family of a man in his constituency to obtain NT$1,000,000 in compensation for his death from his employer of 20 years

·      Jiho’s future political aspirations

Related Links:

Jiho Chang’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JihoTiun/

Taiwan’s first direct presidential election (1996): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Taiwanese_presidential_election

Taiwan’s cross strait missile crisis of 1995-1996: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis#:~:text=The%20Third%20Taiwan%20Strait%20Crisis,1995%20to%2023%20March%201996.

Lee Teng-hui: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Teng-hui

Sunflower Movement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement

President Tsai Ing-wen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iingwen

Tsai Ing-wen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsai_Ing-wen

DPP (Democratic Progressive Party): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Progressive_Party

https://www.dpp.org.tw/en/about

Taiwan People Party: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_People%27s_Party

New Power Party: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Power_Party

KMT (Kuomintang): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang

Ghost Month: https://oftaiwan.org/culture/ghost-festival/

Taiwan News article, “12 Ghost Month taboos to watch out for in Taiwan”: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3990308

Su Beng: http://aboutsubeng.com/

Listen to Episode 149: Jiho Chang: City Councilman Talks About his Career in Taiwan Politics HERE

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