Undeterred by a recent publicity stunt in Taipei city council when a rival politician wheeled in a Trojan horse to criticize his frequent cross-strait trips and Chinese business interests, Sean "Achielles" Lien has made a bold publicity: crushing fruit with his bare hands.
Big-boned Lien has been dubbed by opponents in Taiwan as "God Pig," an allusion to his portly figure and considerable height. In Hakka culture, the God Pig is a hog grossly fattened (sometimes up to 900kg) for ritual slaughter in certain ceremonies. Normally, an orange is placed in their mouth for the ceremony, but the really huge ones get to bite on a pineapple instead.
The nightmare-fuel face of a real-life God Pig
With this latest offering, however, even his rivals in the race to become mayor of Taipei have to admit that his figure has improved. A clear effort to reverse his image and rope in the youth vote, the video was produced for Watchout, a Taiwanese new media website that recently launched a platform for citizens to direct questions to the capital's three candidates.
Instead of taking any questions in this video, however, Lien asks the audience whether or not they have "more constructive" things to ask about besides "dropping the orange," a figure of speech also derived from God Pigs that denotes having a big mouth and letting something regrettable slip, a habit for which Lien has also earned a reputation.
The video appears to have been a considerable success online, with web users commending his self-deprecating self of humor and laughing with him, rather than at him for once. In Taiwan, becoming mayor of Taipei is considered a stepping stone for the presidency.
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