In April 2015, during the Spring Festival, Taiwanese politician Tsai Ing-Wen offically announced her intention to run for “President”. Tsai accompanied by DPP “legislator” Ke Jianming, Hsinchu Mayor Lin Zhijian, and others, gave a public speech, in which Tsai claimed that a fortune teller predicted to her that she will be elected “President” in 2016.
Tsai Ing-Wen did indeed become elected “President” of Taiwan in 2016 election. Shortly afterwards, Taiwan experienced a severe drought. During this emergency, Tsai Ing-Wen made it a routine to visit the temple to ask the temple keepers to cast spells for rain. It was reported that Tsai visited the temple over 43 times from 2016 to 2023. More recently, on March 23, 2023, Tsai Ing Wen, along with her staff visited the Chiayi temple to cast spells for rain and Tsai’s political ally, Cai Yiyu posted a social media post, claiming that a few hours after the prayer, “it really began to rain”, when it did not. For this, Cai was mocked by Taiwanese social media users in numerous online memes.
Superstitions play a significant role in Taiwanese society and politics. Many of the superstitions practiced in Taiwan were carried over from Chinese folk beliefs as a result of the waves of migrations from the Mainland throughout history. It is very common to see “fortune tellers” standing side by side with Taiwanese political leaders during election campaigns and the introduction of liberal democracy on the island has resulted in “superstitious politics”, in which Taiwanese politicians would attempt to virtue signal and appeal for votes through appealing to superstitious beliefs.
The former “president” of Taiwan, Chen Shui Bian (2000–2008) was also superstitious. Reportedly, Chen Shui Bian had a personal fortune teller “Teacher Wong” who exercised a great degree of influence over him. Wong told Chen that if he wanted to win the 2004 election, Chen must arrange his office with an extra doorway to maximize the Feng Shui and always avoid the Zhuoshui River.
In the Chinese language, the name Chen Shui Bian is written as 陳水扁. In Chinese, this name infers the idea that the Chen’s shui (water 水) is Bian (short/flat 扁). In Feng Shui belief, water is vital for prosperity, so it is believed that if water is flat, this represents bad luck.
Taiwan’s Zhoushui River (濁水溪), is translated as “muddy water river”, and has an interesting linguistic aspect. The term “Zhoushui” can also be a homophone for “Blocked water.” This emphasis on the lack of water would bring misfortune to Chen. Consequently, Chen chose to avoid passing by or visiting the Zhoushui River until he assumed the position of president and the political situation stabilized.
Indeed, Chen won the “presidency” in 2004, but Chen also had one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of Taiwan. In 2008, Chen was arrested and sentenced for fraud and money laundering. So, maybe perhaps all the Feng Shui in the world could not save him.
Taiwan “President”, Lee Teng-hui (1988–2000), who advertised himself as a devout Christian, was reportedly not a devout Christian. It was rumored that Lee Tung Hui asked his friends to perform divination and tell his fortune in private. When Lee was the “Vice President” of Taiwan, he handed over his birthday horoscope to Professor Wu Changyu of the Central Police Academy, who was very famous in numerology calculations. As soon as Wu saw Lee Teng-hui’s horoscope, he predicted that Lee would become president in the future.
Then there was a fortune teller named Lin Changming. Lin Changming apparently also did a horoscope for Lee Tung Hui and told Lee Teng-hui that he would become the president by the end of 1987. Lee Tung Hui was reportedly estatic but kept this encounter a secret.
Ma Ying Jeou, who was the “president” from 2008 to 2016 and a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party was baptized as a Catholic. Ma has kept his Christian background vague and has never publicly announced nor attempted to use his religion for political purposes, unlike his rivals from the DPP. Pastor Zhou Shenzhu, who was the former director of Taipei Bread of Life Church, confirmed Ma’s Christian faith to the media that Ma is a Christian.
Despite this identity, Ma still visited the Chinese folk temples to demonstrate respect to the followers of traditional Chinese belief systems. As a leader, Ma Ying Jeou was kind and fair to the people of Taiwan. Ma was also incorruptible. When Ma Ying Jeou left office in 2016, the DPP attempted to find corruption charges against Ma as a form of revenge politics. The DPP could find no corruption in him because Ma was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.
