From Korean Wave to Ocean Wave: Lin Jianzheng, a retired scholar from Yangming Jiaotong University, observes the wave of Taipei mayoral election campaign

From the Korean Wave to the Ocean Wave, Lin Jianzheng, a retired scholar at Yangming Jiaotong University, said that the familiar wave of the election campaign will determine the outcome of the election campaign. (Taken from Shen Boyang’s social fan page)

Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang established his campaign headquarters on October 4, claiming that 120,000 people showed up to support the election. Lin Jianzheng, a retired scholar at Yangming Jiaotong University, also wrote in an article that from the "Korean Wave" in 2018 to the "ocean current" in 2026, there is a familiar campaign wave, and this campaign wave will also determine the outcome of the year-end election.

Lin Jianzheng observed the Korean wave brought about by Han Kuo-yu after his two promotional activities in Gangshan and Qishan in 2018. At that time, Han Kuo-yu was good at using golden phrases, such as "Kaohsiung is old and poor", shouting that "goods can go out, people can come in, Kaohsiung will make a fortune", and even used his image of a commoner with "a bowl of braised pork rice and a bottle of mineral water" to contrast sharply with the sense of distance between traditional politicians. At that time, President Tsai Ing-wen was carrying out a number of major reforms, such as one-case-one-day off, pension reform and other policies, which dissatisfied some voters. Han Kuo-yu became the outlet for this sentiment. The Hallyu Wave first ignited the enthusiasm of Deep Blue supporters, and then attracted the attention of middle voters. Infected by the entire election atmosphere, it finally became unstoppable.

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Now, eight years later, the "ocean current" emerging on the streets of Taipei gives him a sense of familiarity. Shen Boyang himself said that everyone was not optimistic about him at the beginning of this election campaign. This was exactly the same situation as Han Guoyu when he went south. On October 4, Shen Boyang's campaign headquarters was established, and it was said that 120,000 supporters crowded the venue. At the same time, Jiang Wanan’s Facebook was flooded with hundreds of thousands of messages. Supporters invented their own language, spread symbols, and participated in a local election as a movement. This is a replica of the spontaneous creation and spread of Korean fans in the past.

He believes that ocean currents are also significantly different from Korean currents. At that time, Hanguo-yu was fighting for success in Kaohsiung, a city with a green camp, while Shen Boyang challenged the current mayor in Taipei, a city with a blue camp. The basic base of the Blue and White cooperation is quite impressive. If Shen Boyang wants to make a comeback, he must get a higher number of votes than the Green camp candidates in Taipei in the past. For the green camp, the real test is whether it can convert the enthusiasm of supporters into votes in the hands of voters. How the blue and green face and respond to this "ocean current" will determine the outcome of this election.