Produced by | Huxiu Young Group
Author | Zhazha County
Title picture comes from pacificties
In Taiwan, what connects public opinion representatives and people's votes is not the top-level design of grand political ideals or some gorgeous words, but fried rice noodles.
Image source: Too Cheap Art
Every time there are elections, from the representatives of the villages and villages, from the leaders of the region, in order to attract more voters' attention, candidates who care about the world will always condescend and hold a momentum to create a conference to attract the people to listen to their political views and get votes.
The way for candidates at all levels to treat guests to dinner has become a hidden rule in the local area, so that locals believe that "will not be like an election without (no) fried rice noodles."
On September 30, 2018, former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou came to the campaign headquarters of KMT Keelung Mayor’s candidate Xie Ligong and ate fried rice noodles with his supporters. In Taiwan’s political terminology, Ma Ying-jeou’s operation is called a hen and a little chicken. It is translated as a big brother and a little brother.
Picture source: Zhongshi Zhang Yingqi/Photo by
The fried rice noodles at the canvassing party are not the Michelin delicacies in Taiwan’s Shanhailou, and they don’t even look very particular. Simply put, they use a large iron pot to mix the cooked rice noodles with the fried dishes, and then put them in a disposable lunch box and put them together.
Senior volunteer Wu Qiuxiang, who has been cooking rice noodles for political groups for many years, said that every election period, there will be about 100 servings per day. If you catch up with the large-scale campaign, it will cost 2,000 servings, and each pot of rice noodles can only be fried 50 servings; therefore, every large-scale election requires 20 to 40 servings, which is as tiring as marathon training.
Picture source: Zhongtian News
From the perspective of appearance, this fried rice noodles look very dirty and earthy, and feel it is particularly like the dirty stalls that were sticky on the floor a few years ago.
However, local Taiwanese people especially love this kind of fried rice noodles. Even the famous chef Aji praised this fried rice noodles that "eat for free" should go to the world food stage and compete with pasta.
Chef Aji
Picture source: Sanli Metropolitan Taiwan
In fact, this election culture is not a new initiative in the 21st century. In the "Repair of Miaoli County Chronicles: Volume 10 Autonomous Chronicles", it is recorded that during the first county magistrate election in 1951, there were representatives of public opinion to please voters through food:
At that time, Miaoli County , two candidates were running for county magistrates at the same time. One of the county magistrates surnamed Huang specially brought snacks and gave them to villagers from door to door, so that the competitors specially made a rumor: "Huang Yunjin, the eyes are gold, the money is divided, the food is not remembered, and the votes are scored by Liu Dingguo." This means: Huang Yunjin invites everyone to have snacks, but after eating, they forget, and they vote for Liu Dingguo instead.
"Repairing Miaoli County Chronicle: Volume 10 Autonomous Chronicle"
Picture source: Taiwan Memory
This food-linked behavior was completely replaced by fried rice noodles in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
There is a view that the origin of linking fried rice noodles with elections is the ingenuity of a representative of the Lin public opinion in Hsinchu. It is said that he was very eloquent and charming back then, so many listeners couldn't bear to leave when they heard that they were hungry. The representative invited Hsinchu rice noodles to enhance the "fan stickiness" to buy a good popularity.
From then on, fried rice noodles have gradually become the only way to stir up popular elections in Taiwan because of their easy-to-use, durable and delicious production. By the 21st century, the politics of rice noodles has moved from rural areas to urban areas, and even the election of leaders in Taiwan is not immune to the vulgarity.
In the 2011 election venue between Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ing-wen, although Ma Ying-jeou sold sandwiches and popcorn and Tsai Ing-wen sent hand-cooked corn, the soul food that attracts voters is still fried rice noodles with street stalls.
Picture source: Zhongtian News
The election battle ended at the beginning of this year is also full of the atmosphere of fried rice noodles behind Tsai Ing-wen and Han Kuo-yu.
No matter what level of campaign it is, the hard dish of fried rice noodles is mostly used in the end, because the team was afraid that the voters would run away after eating, leaving an empty room to tell the candidates.
Image source: Zhongshi Electronic News
Maybe you will think this is a farce like a shopping mall discount promotion, but in fact, rice noodles are a detail that Taiwanese candidates must pay attention to. After all, in the eyes of Taiwanese people: how delicious fried rice noodles will largely determine whether to vote for the candidate.
Image source: Internet
When media on the island observe the situation of political groups, they will also use the changes in the rice noodles market as an important parameter for evaluating the current status of political groups.
For example, in the previous year, the Kuomintang’s assets were frozen and there was no money to hold elections. Therefore, the free food in local elections changed from fried rice noodles and tribute ball soup to boiled water steamed buns. Therefore, the island used this to tease them, which was very miserable.
Image source: Minshi News
But for political groups, it is of great significance to invite voters to eat fried rice noodles.
On the one hand, we can take advantage of the fact that voters are "short-eating" when they eat fried rice noodles, and promote political views again, guide the public to shout frozen garlic (elected) and stir-fry the atmosphere.
On the other hand, according to veterans in the election, the environment for eating fried rice noodles is also a barometer for calculating the polls. They will carefully observe the popularity of the masses every time, and then report to the election headquarters to analyze the focus and adjustment direction of the next debate.
Image source: Oriental Network
Seeing this, some people may wonder: Why do Taiwanese candidates only invite voters to eat cheap foods such as fried rice noodles? Wouldn’t it be better to have a British afternoon tea?
First of all, it is because fried rice noodles have a good meaning, which means stir-frying and being prosperous, which is the result that candidates hope to see.
Tsai Ing-wen stir-frying rice noodles was regarded as an important signal by the media on the island.
Secondly, it is because of legal constraints.
Before, bribery became a trend during the democratic transition period in Taiwan. In order to constrain this phenomenon, the local government formulated the "Example of Bribery Criminals", which set the bribery standard at NT$30 (equivalent to RMB 7.2), but foods such as fried rice noodles do not include it. Therefore, the candidates can only honestly invite people to eat fried rice noodles for free.
Image source: Internet
Even though the regulations are so strict, there are always people trying to bypass it and try to get more public support. As soon as the
election arrived, someone went to eat fried rice noodles. At the end, he would bring a few more fried rice noodles home on the grounds that "the whole family will vote for you". Therefore, no matter where the election is held, the amount of rice noodles that political groups are always prepared to double the number of people present, which is convenient for selling favors.
But as this phenomenon increases, the political correctness on the island has begun to be accurate to the point where "whether it is a bribery after packing rice noodles and going home."
Image source: Zhongshi Electronic News
Now, there are two groups of political groups on the island, and they are also fighting each other around the issue of fried rice noodles.
In the incident of Han Kuo-yu being dismissed, one of the "accusations" was election bribery, saying that Han Kuo-yu treats guests to a meal for more than 30 yuan. But the person who attacked him was not clean either, such as allowing voters to pack.
Picture source: Sanli News Network
Which is right or wrong between the two sides is another matter, but even if the confrontation is a bad debt, it is no exaggeration to say that the election ecology of rice noodles and Taiwan has formed a symbiotic relationship.
Image source: Internet
In fact, for many Taiwanese people, every election is like a holiday.
Wang Mama in Daxi Town, Taoyuan, will ask about the activity time of each group during the selection period and record it with her hand account. She will accurately travel back and forth, listen to a lecture and be dazed, and bring a bunch of fried rice noodles back, so she doesn’t have to start cooking the next morning. Some office workers living in Taipei will use election fried rice noodles instead of work meals during the election period, saving money to buy figures.
celebrated Han Kuo-yu's election, and Korean fans gave away all kinds of delicious food, but were attacked by the opponent as bribery
Picture source: Zhongtian News
The people were very happy, but the campaign groups were disappointed. Because in many cases, the fried rice noodles that are hard to make cannot win the votes of the people.
For some Taiwanese people, eating is one thing, voting is another.Therefore, there is a particularly interesting phenomenon in the election, which is that they eat other people's food and do not vote for others. Some honest and kind people with firm positions are quite dissatisfied with this, thinking that people who eat and drink freely have no bottom line and should be struck to death by lightning.
Suiwon Guazi, who has been in Taiwan for half a year, said that this DPP luxury bento sold at least 40 in the Normal University night market, which definitely exceeds the bribery standard.
Image source: Social platform
Faced with this situation, the campaign groups also raised a question, that is, the uncertainty of giving rice noodles is too high, should we increase revenue and reduce expenditure and cut off rice noodles?
For example, a non-party public opinion leader who advocates clean politics is called Dai Zhaohua, once shouted on social platforms that he would fight an election battle without rice noodles.
Picture source: social platform
But behind the passion expressed by the exclamation mark, what I got was the ending of the election, and the second-last vote was won.
Therefore, many good people joked about him: In Taiwan, there are not necessarily votes for fried rice noodles, but there are definitely no votes for not fried rice noodles.
Image source: Zhongshi News
In fact, in Taiwan, the lower the election level, the higher the effectiveness of fried rice noodles.
In the early years, when the DPP and the KMT were elected, the KMT's support rate in the countryside was much higher than that of the DPP; the reason was that many news commentators believed that the KMT was richer in financial resources than the DPP could hype rice noodles.
Although it seems absurd to connect fried rice noodles with the soul of the campaign, no Taiwanese will deny it. No matter how grand political ambitions are, they are abstract, and no matter how cheap rice noodles are, they are real.
The situation on the island is rising and falling, and the leaders of public opinion are ups and downs. No one can guess the mentality of the people in the temple, and no one will know whether they will regret the bowl of fried rice noodles they invited to the voters to eat when they were depressed.
Image source: pacificties
Reference:
1. "Size and size selection depends on "this" fried rice noodles! People + Gather the hearts of the people", Zhongtian News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg19KbJXpiY2. "Fried Rice Noodle Fried Rice Noodle Filling and Soap Box Local Choice Is Necessary", Peng Qingren, China Guangfa News Network, https://news.cnyes.com/news/id/11893873. "Political Science of Human Relations of "Fried Rice Noodles", Qiu Xingwei, Key Comments, https://www.thenewslens.com/article/269514. "Hsinchu Rice Noodles Election Field", Lin Guannian, Story, https://storystudio.tw/article/gushi/hsinchu-election-rice-noodles/
