Culture | #MeToo in Taiwan

A TV drama about Taiwanese politics has sparked a social reckoning

The response to “Wave Makers” is a case of life imitating art imitating life

Weng Wen-fang standing opposite Chang Ya-ching on the balcony of a high rise in “Wave Makers”.
Image: Netflix
|TAIPEI

The clock is ticking down to presidential elections in Taiwan. Functionaries in the two main parties frantically smear the rival candidate and scramble to shape the image of their own, hiring influencers, coining catchy slogans and framing touching moments with voters on the street. But there is one key difference between the universe of “Wave Makers”, a hit political drama that came out on Netflix in April, and Taiwanese reality: in the series, the China question, usually the fulcrum of the island’s politics, does not exist.

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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The breaking wave”

From the June 24th 2023 edition

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