The Taipei mayoral election is gradually heating up. Recently, the current mayor Chiang Wanan has been faced with controversies such as his son's exchange student, campus food safety, rat infestation in the Dome, and damage to neighbors. On the other hand, the focus of discussion for Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang of the Democratic Progressive Party has also begun to shift from "how to criticize Chiang Wanan" to "what would he do if he became mayor." According to an analysis by the Facebook fan page "Voice and Politics", after Shen Boyang's recent interview with senior producer Wang Weizhong, the video accumulated approximately 790,000 views and 20,000 likes, and the search popularity has also increased significantly. It may become an important observation point for the change in the volume structure of the Taipei election.
Judging from the number of views of the YouTube live broadcast of the Facebook fan page "Watch Politics", the green live broadcast with Jiang Wanan as the keyword had about 38,500 views on September 7, which increased to 49,100 on September 8, and further reached 57,800 on September 10, an increase of about 50% in three days. On the same day, there were about 13,500 views of pan-blue live broadcasts, and pan-green was about 4.3 times that of pan-blue. This shows that the recent negative issues surrounding Jiang Wanan have continued to receive attention. Comments believe that the recent controversies Jiang Wanan has faced may not be directly related to each other, including his son's exchange student, student diarrhea, rat infestation in the Dome, and damage to neighbors on Minquan East Road. However, when different events occur intensively, the outside world may gradually form the overall impression of the city government's governance.
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The fanzhuan pointed out that the article also focused on Jiang Wanan's response when facing controversy, believing that he often adopted an offensive and defensive strategy of changing issues in the past, but when similar situations occurred repeatedly, he was easily labeled as "asking A and answering B" by his political opponents. Once voters form this expectation, it may be more difficult to effectively change public opinion even if the city government provides an explanation later. At the same time, commentators believe that Shen Boyang's role in the recent election campaign is changing. In the past, relevant news mostly focused on how he criticized Jiang Wanan, but recently, policy proposals including the AI municipal platform "Mayor, please listen to me", all-age social welfare, and mountain trails have been exposed one after another. External discussions have also begun to shift from political offense and defense to examining his municipal governance concepts.
Fanzhuan continued to point out that among them, Shen Boyang recently accepted an exclusive interview with Wang Weizhong, which is regarded as an important driving force for this wave of publicity. The video currently has accumulated approximately 790,000 views and 20,000 likes, with an average of 1 like every 40 views. Commentators believe that in addition to the number of views, what is more worth observing is that Wang Weizhong’s audience is different from other general pan-green political programs, and may reach some intellectual blue and middle voters. Commentators analyzed that this kind of "breaking circle" effect may not mean that voters who originally supported the blue camp will immediately change their voting intentions, but it may make some viewers who were originally not interested in Shen Boyang, or even had a negative impression, willing to re-understand his policies and personal characteristics.
According to Fenzhuan analysis, in addition, changes in Google Trends are also regarded as another observation indicator. The article pointed out that before September 10, Shen Boyang's search popularity on YouTube in Taiwan ranged from about 8 to 13, while Jiang Wanan's search popularity ranged from about 5 to 11. After Wang Weizhong's exclusive interview spread, Shen Boyang's search popularity rose rapidly, reaching a maximum of 100, while Jiang Wanan's peak during the same period was about more than 20. However, the "100" in Google Trends does not mean 100 actual searches, but represents the relative search peak within a specified period. Commentators believe that what is more noteworthy is that after the interview was exposed, some viewers further actively searched for Shen Boyang, showing that the topic did not stop at watching a single video, but may extend to a better understanding of the candidate.
Commentators added that the changes that really deserve attention in the Taipei election campaign are not just the recent increase in negative publicity about Chiang Wanan or the rise in Shen Boyang's online publicity, but the fact that the two men's roles in the eyes of voters may begin to change. As the current mayor, Chiang Wanan originally had the advantage of administrative experience and municipal familiarity, but recently he has to continue to deal with different controversies; Shen Boyang has gradually moved from being a challenger to being further tested under the framework of "what would happen if he governed Taipei?"
The fanzhuan bluntly stated that the article believes that when the issues discussed by voters have gradually extended from "What happened to Chiang Wanan again" to "What would Shen Boyang do if replaced by Shen Boyang?", it means that the focus of the election campaign is no longer just the current mayor's political offense and defense, but has begun to compare the governance capabilities of the two candidates, and the Taipei mayoral election has therefore entered a new stage of competition.
