Wedding crashers / A sandwich denied
Today: Brian Hioe, Taipei-based editor, translator, activist, DJ, co-founder of New Bloom, and author of Taipei at Daybreak; and Jack Pendarvis, an American screenwriter, author, and voice actor.
Issue No. 543
The Madness of Elections
Brian Hioe
Kent Goes to Chelmsford: Episode 5
Jack Pendarvis
The Madness of Elections
by Brian Hioe
The other day, I attended a stranger’s wedding in Taipei (I was just there as a plus one, they were my partner’s colleague).
At the wedding’s climax, right before the end, I was surprised to see the groomsmen put on election vests of the sort that campaigners during election season might wear. The election vests had the name of the groom printed on them. Thus attired, they began handing guests small packets of tissues decorated with the image of the happily married couple. The wedding attendees were mostly academics, and not of a very political type. But this kind of thing is pretty normal in Taiwan.
Small packets of tissues are very frequently handed out to participants at political rallies as a campaign gift. Other popular gifts include fans and water bottles decorated with campaign images: always items with a low monetary value, in order to avoid falling afoul of campaign finance laws.
Some months before I attended a friend’s birthday party that ended with the birthday girl putting on a red sash of the kind that a political candidate might wear. The party guests chanted “Frozen garlic! Frozen garlic!” and then her name, as the election chant often goes.
Keep us breathing fire!
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