The crowd erupted with cheers and applause — if you had your eyes closed, you wouldn’t have noticed the attendants of the rally easily averaged at over 50 years old. Following the lead of Taiwan’s former Premier William Lai (賴清德), a sea of silver-haired audience chanted in unison, “Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), re-election! Tsai Ing-wen…”
A few weeks ago, Lai attended an election rally campaigning for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen in northern California. He spoke to a crowd of approximately 200 Taiwanese with the sole message of keeping Tsai in office for another four years. The entire speech was delivered in Taiwanese-Hokkien, a language that resonated most with his audience.
“The primaries have ended, now is the time to unite. We now need to work together to protect our sovereignty by re-electing President Tsai and becoming the majority party. Can we do this together?” Lai asked the crowd.
