Chang Bo-yang: The Anti-Han Prince

Chang Bo-yang, aged 31, is running for Kaohsiung city councilor in Sanmin District, representing the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP).

Chang is perhaps more notoriously known by Kuomintang (KMT) supporters as being one of the “Four Anti-Han Princes,” the group that spearheaded the successful recall of former KMT Mayor Han Kuo-yu.

Though Chang is often seen on political talk shows, avidly defending Taiwanese sovereignty with his quickwittedness and fast-talking, it’s hard to imagine that politics was not Chang’s original calling and that his involvement came in gradual progression.

Chang was born in Pingtung to a Hakka family. He first set foot in Kaohsiung when he attended the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, from which he graduated with a degree in engineering.

His political rite of passage first came when he was still a student, becoming involved in the Anti-Media Monopoly Movement, which protested the pro-China Want Want Group’s attempt to purchase China Network Systems, the second-largest cable television provider in Taiwan.

Though extremely passionate about political affairs, Chang pursued a job in engineering based in Kaohsiung after graduation. It was only until seeing the Sunflower Student Movement erupt in 2014 did he join the TSP as an unpaid volunteer, inspired by the party’s strong commitment to Taiwanese independence.

The TSP is a hardline pro-independence party that positions itself as more radical than the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence. The party was founded in 2016.

As a party volunteer, Chang would attend to his engineering job during the day, and at night, ride his scooter to the TSP headquarters based in Kaohsiung’s Sanmin District. There, he delivered brochures, moved equipment, and chauffeured party members.

“From a volunteer who only knew how to fold flyers and set out chairs, I listened to every speech, learned the party’s discourse, and bit by bit, began to write my own speeches,” Chang said. His abilities did not go unnoticed by the party, which tasked him with writing social media posts.

After five years of volunteering, Chang’s party affiliation deepened in January 2019, thanks to one man– Han Kuo-yu.

In 2018, the former Kaohsiung Mayor emerged as the dark horse candidate that won the Kaohsiung race for the KMT. Four months after assuming mayoralty, his eyes were set on the presidential race, sowing the seeds of discontent among the citizens of Kaohsiung.

In 2018, the former Kaohsiung Mayor emerged as the dark horse candidate that won the Kaohsiung race for the KMT. Four months after assuming mayoralty, his eyes were set on the presidential race, sowing the seeds of discontent among the citizens of Kaohsiung.

Chang, the TSP’s media coordinator at the time, was naturally a strong critic of the KMT’s populist mayor. He joked that he was Han’s “number one fan,” committing to memory Han’s daily routines and each of his unfulfilled campaign promises. When political and civil groups began their grassroots mobilization against Han in January, Chang became the party’s face in the recall effort.

“The petition involved three groups: WeCare Kaohsiung, Citizens Mowing Action, and the TSP,” Chang explained, “but the recall process was going to take 168 days, and if we did not provide a face to this movement, everyone would only ever remember Han’s face. We weren’t going to let Han dictate this recall.”

With the Four Anti-Han Princes, Chang removed Han from Kaohsiung, but he says that his work is not done.

“Why was Han able to rise? Because people were politically lazy,” Chang said, “just like with Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, and other strongman politicians, people wanted charismatic demagogues to make decisions for us instead of focusing on what the city actually needed.”

Chang believes that the recall was a wake-up call for Kaohsiung citizens, one that is sorely needed again in 2022 with the Chinese threat being more present than ever.

“The political atmosphere is eerily cold in Kaohsiung this election cycle,” observed Chang. He pointed out that over the two years since the 2020 elections, citizens have voted three times in Han’s recall, the subsequent mayoral by-election, and a failed attempt to recall city councilor Huang Jie.

With the mayoral competition being “too predictable,” he said, suggesting that incumbent DPP Mayor Chen Chi-mai will be reelected, little attention is paid to the Kaohsiung race because voters are suffering from political fatigue.

Chang worries that voters are engrossed by political spectacles such as academic plagiarism and family scandals when they should really be considering the implications of this election cycle. The political laziness Chang saw in 2018 was slowly making its way back into the electorate, and the TSP is the bulwark against the coming crisis.

With 128 candidates running for 65 city council seats in Kaohsiung, the TSP, composed of mostly young, first-time candidates, has a new strategy. It has marketed the party as a brand, as a seal of approval for each and every one of its candidates– TSP henceforth will be synonymous with the qualities of boldness, outspokenness, and being close to the people.

This is not unlike the New Power Party’s (NPP) strategy in 2018, following the Sunflower Movement, when the party was founded by the very leaders of the movement. Voters who supported NPP candidates then often knew quite little about individual candidates, but because they believed in what the party stood for, cast their votes for its candidates.

For the primarily residential Sanmin district, where Chang has lived for over a third of his life, he aims to revitalize the commercial area around the train station, improve its sports center, and increase Hakka representation. Chang also looks forward to a pan-green majority in the city council, where the TSP and the DPP will continue to safeguard democracy.

Though the upcoming elections determine local representation, Chang reminds all that Taiwan’s democracy is always at stake– even when voters become unforgettable, Chang and the TSP will be there.