Meredith Huang entered the Legislative Yuan in March 2014 as an activist bearing two speakers and a microphone. Five years later, she’s a NPP city councilor.
The News Lens
Date: 2019/04/04
By: Cat Thomas
Credit: Courtesy of Meredith Huang
Ask yourself for a moment: You have helped plan an act of civil disobedience, but it is all disintegrating into chaos. What saves the day?
Meredith Huang (黃郁芬) is a former activist who played a pivotal role in Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Movement. She was part of the small group who first hatched the plan to storm the Legislative Yuan. The following morning, it was Huang, as the assigned media contact, who emerged to speak to gathered journalists. She’d barely woken up and hadn’t expected the cameras from the TV stations but quickly gathered herself and rolled with it. From that point onwards, she became an official media spokesperson for the movement.
In the years following the Sunflower Movement, Huang, now 29, has gone on to put her money where her mouth is, converting her activist roots into a string of political assistant roles. In November last year, she won a seat on Taipei City Council representing the people of Shilin-Beitou District for the New Power Party (NPP).
The News Lens sat down with Huang in her office at Taipei City Council on March 22 for an interview where we uncovered rather more than we had expected. By the end of the interview, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, it became clear that this is a young politician to watch: This is the legacy of the Sunflower Movement in action.
[FULL STORY]
