Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

For the upcoming combined Presidential and Legislative Yuan elections in Taiwan (Jan 14th 2012), both the main political parties (pro-China KMT and pro-Taiwan DPP) have been busy producing video content so as to get their campaign messages across to a nation that increasingly receives much of its news online. Both parties are using a mixture of humorous and serious approaches.  Below is a selection of what I think are the slickest and most memorable campaign videos. 

Keelung mayor Chang Tong-rong, center left, and Japan's Miyakojima mayor Toshihiko Shimoji, center right, shake hand after unveiling a statue to commemorate Okinawa fishers who died during the 228 Incident in 1947 during a ceremony in Keelung yesterday.

Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times

Braving strong winds, rain and waves pounding the shore, officials and residents from Keelung and Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture yesterday jointly unveiled a statue of an Okinawan fisherman with cheers, music and words of friendship to commemorate Okinawans who died during the 228 Incident.

The ceremony started with a Buddhist rite, hosted by the head monk from Seikoji Temple in Okinawa, at Wanshantang — a small temple with urns containing bones and ashes of people of unknown identity or those who died without descendants — near the monument on Keelung’s Heping Island (和平島), which is just off Taiwan proper.