Cai Kangyong appeared in Shen Boyang's competition: the meaning of "breaking the circle" beyond labels

[Reporter Fu Mingyu/Special Article] Cai Kangyong appeared at Shen Boyang's presidential competition and immediately became a topic. Some people regard it as a symbol of breaking the circle, while others interpret it as a political statement; but Tsai Kangyong himself is actually very clear: he is here to see and hear different voices, and he also hopes to have the opportunity to interview each candidate.

This sentence seems to be a reservation, but it is more meaningful than a statement. In today's political atmosphere, we are too accustomed to categorizing each other first. Whichever game you go to, who you are in the same frame with, and which likes you click, you are immediately put into a certain camp. Therefore, many people who were originally willing to understand simply chose to stay away, lest a word or an action be magnified and interpreted as a declaration.

This is where Shen Boyang's recent "breaking of the circle" is most worthy of discussion. A more accurate question should be: Why has a candidate who was rarely discussed in different political spectrums recently begun to be seen by more people from different backgrounds?

Judging from the timeline, this is not a phenomenon caused by a single occasion. In August, Shen Boyang proposed five major municipal axes with "HEART" as the core, covering housing and urban space, youth opportunities, parenting and long-term care companionship, transportation and urban resilience. After that, he was interviewed by Ping Xiulin's "POP Grand National", Lin Shuwei's "POP Most Punctual", Wang Weizhong's China Broadcasting Program and Li Siduan's "Looking for Four Ends Tonight". These programs may not all be reduced to a specific political position, but at least the audiences do not completely overlap, nor are they all the support circle he is most familiar with.

Among them, the interview with Wang Weizhong is the most iconic. The video has accumulated more than 3.6 million views in the 3 weeks since it was released. Wang Weizhong was even criticized by some Blue Camp supporters as "Green Weizhong" because of his invitation to visit Shen Boyang. This does not need to be romanticized as a large-scale movement of voters, because the traffic may include supporters, opponents, curious people, or it may just be algorithmic push; 3.6 million views cannot be directly converted into 3.6 million votes.

However, Shen Boyang has successfully obtained a rarer opportunity than "stratospheric likes", allowing people who may have only known him through labels to begin to have access to his complete discussion.

In the past, Shen Boyang was understood by many people as national security, anti-China and Taiwan, or even simpler political labels; but he continued to enter different programs, different markets, and different audiences, putting himself in a position where he might be questioned and compared. What he strived for was not just recognition, but an entrance for voters to judge for themselves, and returned the focus to specific issues of urban governance, whether young people can afford to live in Taipei, whether their parents have breathing space, how to improve old apartments, and whether transportation and public spaces are really more convenient.

Cai Kangyong's presence can also be understood in this context. He is not an official supporter and does not canvass votes for Shen Boyang; his appearance represents "I haven't reached a conclusion yet, but I am willing to listen to it myself." This is perhaps the most conservative and meaningful definition of "breaking the circle." It does not prove who has switched to whom, nor does it declare that the outcome of the election has been decided; it shows that a candidate has begun to have the ability to transcend existing labels and enter the ears of people who would not otherwise listen to him.

The healthiest moment for democracy is not when everyone quickly comes to the same side, but when people who are separated by labels and prejudices are still willing to take a step closer to each other. What Shen Boyang has created now may be just such an entrance.