It’s a sneak-peek to the world’s most anticipated drama: elections in China.
Campaign flags and banners streaming on a pedestrian overpass near my house.
The other “China,” the Republic of, Taiwan, will hold nationwide municipal elections this Saturday, November 27. Politicians, organizers, and citizens have been taking to the streets in Taipei for the last few weeks, once again showing the world what “Chinese” democracy really looks like.
If one could deduce what democratic elections in the PRC would look like, the West’s incessant preoccupation, wouldn’t looking at one of Asia’s most successful democracies be a solid starting point?
Taiwan’s elections highlight the joint efforts of a vibrant, emerging democratic society. I cannot impress upon friends back home exactly how confusing and yet wholly inspiring it is for an American to witness the process here; to witness anything political here.
Taiwan mobilizes with an ease I have never seen. These are metropolitan elections, the equivalent of the US mid-term Congressionals. But besides the ubiquitous rectangular Name-’Year signs and the odd town hall gathering, you don’t see a lot of mobilization in the States– even in this time of Tea Partiers, Palins, and other assorted sociopaths.
Taiwan is noisy. Colorful. And noisy.
Flags fly everywhere. Long vertical streams line every median, any inch of non-concrete. Billboards– happy, smiley, slogany– cover the dingy bareness of Taiwan’s concrete cityscape.
The sheer number of flags and billboards is astonishing. Prime location: Pedestrian overpasses. Yet, amazingly, I have never seen violence over this flagpole paradise. I would expect it in China, where people feel entitled to take and use without an inkling of concern for others. You see in the States, to an extent; one truck drives down the street plunging signs into the roadside and a half-mile back an opposing party truck crawls along plucking them out.
Translating the slogans splashed on this party paraphernalia is one of the little joys of my morning commute. They range from your run-of-the-mill “老经验，新活力” (roughly: Old experience, new energy), to the more cutesy “台湾的女儿” (Taiwan’s daughter), to the more emotive about children’s futures, safety, and new dreams.
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But above all, what makes Taiwanese elections so seemingly Chinese? Loudspeaker trucks.
Between signs and smells, it is tough to say which of the two senses faces a rougher transition when living in China or Taiwan. In Shanghai, I would awake to an old man on a bicycle riding through my neighborhood at 6am every morning. Strapped to his self-made bicycle/truck would be an old tape deck blaring (the amazingly invariable) prerecorded call for recycling of large household items… “冰箱！洗衣机！电视机！”
Taiwanese elections have the loudspeakers on bicycles and scooters, but mostly on vans. Larger than a golf cart and smaller than a Rav-4, these vans set cruise control to a snail’s pace and canvass city streets. Covered in decorative flags and miniature billboards, they boast the name, number, and slogan of their respective candidates. Through the loudspeaker, almost always indistinguishable over the clamor of traffic, the politician waxes on about issues essential to their election chances.
The stakes are increasing as election day nears. Today, a full parade of these vans, flanked by larger troop carrying trucks, inched its way down my street at lunch time. Scouts sprinted ahead of the platoon to lay explosive charges (fireworks?) along the road, a precursor to the drum-banging hootin’-and-hollerin’ of the battle-clad supporters in the back of the convoy.
The whole spectacle is part parade, part noise pollution– all exuberant.
It reminds me of when I saw a get-out-the-vote parade in Mozambique just prior to its 2005 presidential elections. A bunch of maniacs on scooters decked out with streamers and party flags raced through the streets of Maputo honking their horns. An armored Toyota Landcruiser took position in the middle of the mob. I happened to be on the street when the convoy screamed past. As I turned, shocked and fearful, I had just enough time to snap a blurred shot of eventual-winner Armando Guebuza propped out of the sunroof, waving with one hand and holding on for dear life with the other.
Democracy isn’t a one-size-fits-all. No one knows what democracy in China may one day resemble. But Taiwan is already the portrait of what peaceful, energetic, and progressive elections look like right in China’s backyard.
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Tags: Armando Guebeza, China, Chinese democracy, democracy, democratization, DPP, elections, KMT, Maputo, Mozambique, noisy, Shanghai, Taipei, Taiwan, Tsai Yingwen, US elections, V for victory, vote
