TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election on Saturday (Jan. 13) not only determined a new leader for the nation it also inspired a million memes.
As usual online, the sentiments were loud, clear, and often divisive. Here is a selection that reflects the views of mostly young Taiwanese, Western commentators, and Chinese dissidents.
Summing up a lot of feelings, local writer and political analyst Michael Turton shared a meme featuring the fierce Formosan black bear cartoon image that has been a feature of the Himalaya Formosa TW (台灣寶島喜新聞) group on Facebook (see main picture).
The community is also hosted on Discord and has the tagline in English: “We are the New Chinese who are taking down the evil Chinese Communist Party.”
On X (formerly Twitter) "#TaiwanElections" was trending directly after the vote closed at 4 p.m., with many Taiwanese sharing posts to indicate they had voted. There were also plenty of pledges of support for the election process in other countries.
For example, the anti-China activist Drew Pavlou in Australia posted, "Today is the day Taiwan." He then retweeted a cartoon by dissident Chinese artist Badiucao (巴丢草), adding "vote DPP and keep Taiwan CCP FREE!
Badiucao was on song for the election and another of his works was widely retweeted on X. This was his “Trust in Xi” cartoon, which he said was about ex-President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) telling everyone Taiwan should trust in the best instincts of China’s leader Xi Jinping (習近平).
This referred to Ma’s interview with DW News before the election suggesting that it was pointless resisting China’s advances. Ma said Taiwan could never win a war against China so trusting Xi was necessary because “as far as cross-strait relations, you have to.”
It was a similar theme with a Jojje Olsson satire piece in Kinamedia, which featured a Niklas "@KluddNiklas" Eriksson cartoon about Ma. The meme referred to having trust in China despite the country's threats toward Taiwan and meddling in its election.
(X, Kluddniklas image)
Returning to Badiucao, he also made a point with a cartoon showing the “difference between Taiwan and China’s political rights,” that shows two hands. The first represents Taiwan with a stamp on a wrist, which a voter gets after casting a ballot (many youngsters sent in snaps of their stamps). The other hand in the pairing suggests that a “vote in China” would lead to handcuffs and blood.
Taiwanese youngsters post pictures of stamps after voting. (X image)
There were also the usual hit pieces on Xi Jinping (習近平) comparing him to the evil Winnie the Pooh figure that has characterized his leadership for many in Taiwan. For example, this image is from “Mark Sabada 2029” on X.
(X, Mark Sabada 2029 photo)
— Mark Sabada 2029 (@2029_mark) January 12, 2024
