Taiwan election: Meet Tammy Lai, the Netflix star running for vice-president

An actress who starred in a high-profile Netflix drama will be running for vice-president of Taiwan. Tammy Lai, who was in the hit Taiwanese show ‘Wave Makers’ – which caused a #MeToo reckoning in the country – was chosen by Foxconn founder Terry Gou as his running mate in his long-shot bid for the presidency. Lai, interestingly, herself played a presidential candidate in her hit show – which ended with her winning the polls. That series, about the members of an election campaign team, including a supportive manager who convinces a young staffer who was groped that the issue is too important to be swept under the rug, kicked off a renewed #MeToo movement in Taiwan. “I’m quite open-minded. I told myself that last year I would set no ceiling for myself, and I didn’t expect I’d actually be raised up this far,” Lai told reporters. “After meeting chairman Gou two or three times, I was very sure he’s someone I could cooperate with. Because he’s fascinating,” she added. “I told him, ‘We’re going to have fun.’” But what do we know about Lai? Let’s take a closer look: As per IMDB, Lai was born on 8 June, 1963, in Taipei. Lai has a PhD in law from China’s Jinan University, as per Taipei Times.

She graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School.

She has starred in A Minute More (2014), Mr. Right Wanted (2014) and Life Plan A and B (2016). As per Bloomberg, Lai is a singer and an actress. She has authored numerous books on relationships and communication and spent years studying psychology. As per Taiwan News, some of Lai’s written works include the book The Power of Changing Your Mind" and the magazine Charming. Lai is also a ‘certified hypnotist’. UDN news reported that Lai has a professional certification in hypnotherapy from the US National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH), per UDN. The NGH calls itself “a not-for-profit, educational corporation” established by an “enthusiastic group of hypnotists." Lai was also an adjunct professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, as per the website. “I’d read the headlines but I wasn’t used to the way the media here communicates so I didn’t really watch the trends in Taiwan politics too closely, that was until Chairman Gou invited me to be his running mate.”  ‘Spiritual mentor’ Gou called Lai an “outstanding, all-round writer and spiritual mentor", as per BBC. [caption id=“attachment_13046692” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Foxconn founder Terry Gou announcing his bid for the Taiwan presidency. Reuters[/caption] “We have no political baggage, and we are deeply concerned about the needs of the people,” he added. As per Focus Taiwan, Gou said picking Lai as his running mate would help him promote gender equality. “Before September, I didn’t understand much about Taiwanese politics,” Lai was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.  “I’d read the headlines but I wasn’t used to the way the media here communicates so I didn’t really watch the trends in Taiwan politics too closely, that was until Chairman Gou invited me to be his running mate.”

 **"**We are both political amateurs,” Gou added.

“But the public told me they have doubts about current politicians, as is the case in other countries.” Still, some have expressed doubt whether Gou picking Lai will have much of an impact in the upcoming polls.  Dennis Weng, an associate professor at Sam Houston State University in the US, told BBC Chinese, “Tammy Lai had a great performance in Wave Makers, and most of the audience are young people. But young people do not support Terry Gou.” Gou after months of speculation announced his run as an Independent candidate last month. However, the billionaire has continued to languish at the bottom of most opinion polls. He’s well behind the favourite – ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) William Lai who is currently Taiwan’s vice-president. Gou has been trying to unite the anti-DPP vote, but has so far not managed to reach an agreement with either the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, nor the small Taiwan People’s Party on how that might work. The other parties have yet to announce running mates for their presidential candidates. Gou must gather close to 300,000 voter signatures by 2 November to qualify as an Independent candidate, according to election regulations, and needed to decide his running mate before he could collect signatures. The Central Election Commission will review the signatures and announce the results by 14 November. Gou stepped down as Foxconn chief in 2019 and this month resigned as a company board member. With inputs from agencies