Protesters hold up placards bearing Chinese characters that are a coarse play on words during a demonstration against President Ma Ying-jeou in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP

Around 1,000 people joined a “pajama parade” yesterday — though only a handful of people actually wore pajamas — organized by artists unhappy with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) leadership, calling on him to step down or to stop getting paid.

Following banners that read “stop paying the incompetent” and a woman dressed up as a Chinese zombie to portray Ma’s administration as a “zombie government,” demonstrators departed from the assembly point in front of the National Taiwan University and headed toward Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, before moving on to Liberty Square for a rally in the evening.