Who support Chen Shui-bian?

Chen Shui-bian is still the famous person in Taiwan, although he wears the stripes for a long time. When I read the articles about him, I always feel funny and annoying. The most interesting news is political news, because this kind of news makes of different benefits. Only 14 days past, many new stories appear. Along with the inquest process, many witnesses appear in count, so much low-down is exposed to the public. The stories about Chen Shui-bian is more than 11 thru, the number of news articles is about 50, and the editorials are more than 10. Three columnists published about nine column articles according Chen Shui-bian. Although the number of the editorials and column articles seems many, the slant of them is very obvious. Most of them support the opponents of Chen Shui-bian. Compared with one month ago, the crime of Chen and his family members is exposed much more, so the supporters of Chen cannot keep confident as before. The decline of Chen comes to stay, so many supporters begin to consider their future.

The most interesting report about Chen Shui-bian is according his birthday. Feb. 18 is his 58th birthday. As an ex-president, he experienced many royal birthday celebrations. But, this time, everything changes. I choose two representational articles from the editorials to do my analysis.

Although, Chen cannot bob up like a cork, many people still support him and his party. It is difficult to explain why they are such obstinate. The birthday of their hero is an important thing to them, so some of the supporters went to the jail to express sympathy and solicitude for Chen Shui-bian. Besides the Green people, who always support Chen, Chen’s colleagues went to the jail too. The common people expressd their opinion very directly. They brought the home-made traditional Chinese birthday food, and sung the Chinese birthday song together. The colleagues of Chen did not do so, but they took five big birthday cakes there. The outside of jail was very hilarious, but Chen, who must stay in jail, cannot feel it.

The media, which belong to the supporters of Chen, published the editorial according the contribution of Chen Shui-bian. They emphasized the support power to Chen Shui-bian all over Taiwan: the birthday cards, the slogan, and the fanatic behaviors of the supporters. Because the crime of Chen cannot be canceled, the supporters did not involve this topic. They adapted a new way to support Chen: the loss of Chen devoting himself in politics. The article described Chen as a heroic tragedy, who built up from nothing and contributed himself to Taiwan. In this editorial, the family members of Chen are all unfortunates. Because of Chen’s special position, his family members must tolerate many things. To the birthday celebration, this editorial praised the supporters’ behaviors certainly.

At the same time, the opponents would not miss the good chance to attack Chen and his supporters. The story is the same story, but different editorials pay attention to the different parts of the story. The anti-editorial said: the number of supporters of Chen is less and less. Only 30 to 40 people went to the outside of jail to celebrate the birthday for their hero. The colleagues, who took birthday cakes to jail, were described as designers. Because the birthday cakes cannot be taken into the jail, these cakes were political props. These former colleagues did not care if the ex-president can eat these cakes. The only son of Chen Shui-bian admited his guilt to the count, in order to reduce his penalty. His behavior, which is a serious bad behaviour in China, is regarded as unfilial. This time, the editorial emphasized the terrible family education again: none of the family members went to visit Chen on his birthday. The most interesting detail in this editorial is the dogs, which were taken to the outside of the jail. You cannot find dogs in the support articles, but the title of the auti-editorial is: dogs support Chen. The dogs wore special coats. The supporters wrote slogan on these coats. They wanted to add new support power to their team, but created a jok for the opponents.