Perception of Political Outsiders in Taiwan

Taiwan’s 2016 elections were victorious not only for the Democratic Progressive Party (Minzhu Jinbudang, DPP), and its front-runner Tsai Ing-wen, who was elected the President of the Republic of China. Another notable victory was that of Freddy Lim - front man of the metal band Chthonic and his not so long ago established (early 2015) New Power Party (Shidai Liliang, NPP). NPP has emerged as the third largest political party. If only with 5 out of 113 seats (4.4%) in the Taiwanese Legislative Yuan (Lifa Yuan), it was a great victory for the newcomer to the politics to come right after the two giants – the KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomintang) and the DPP, reigning over the political stage of the island for the last decades.

This article examines the phenomenon of the newcomers to Taiwanese politics (later referred to as outsiders, political outsiders, also abbreviated to POs or novices). It does not look at them through the prism of populist doctrine but leaves the theoretical classifications aside in order to inquire into the popular understanding and societal expectations held towards POs.