I recognized that name in the reputed rumor of her pilfering newspaper at Harvard. In fact, I’ve known her for a long time, though not personally.  I used to pick up my wife, Chou’s colleague, around 7 pm at Mega Bank(former ICBC), where and when I could almost always behold Ms. Chou leaving the building and approaching her SUV parked at a metered lot in front the Bank. I was so impressed that she was such a plain-suited, denim-clad professional woman, exactly what you saw from telecast in these
days, and I was so touched to see a modern fairy tale incarnated in
mundane Scandinavian countries could also happen in Taiwan: then the wife of the mayor of Taipei City driving to work, not at all in dressy clothes, every day.

Now she is the first-lady-to-be and the same Ms. Chou, except now she goes to work by bus. It is said that the reason why she discontinued driving to work was she didn’t want to occupy a parking space, though a metered one, all day long in a congested area where Mega Bank is located.  Is this her true sense of empathy or just a histrionic gesture? Time will prove everything.

Let her go to work by bus now. After 520, there are bound to be a better arrangement.  Afraid of assassination? Who’s the hell dares to hurt a popular, cute, fair lady like her, self-effacing but independent, not a beauty but a jolie laide?  She’s turned the tradition upside down, the conventional wisdom with regard to Chinese women. I would say the surging phenomenon of Ms.Chou will affect all Chinese societies, especially the ones in anti-democratic Mainland China and Singapore, and its implication
will be surely immeasurable.

March, 2008