The News Lens
Date: 2020/01/03

New Bloom interviewed Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤), legislative candidate for the DPP in New Taipei City District 12. Lai, who was a member of the Black Island Youth Front, was previously known for participating in social movements in cosplay in the years prior to the Sunflower Movement before later becoming a political worker and eventually deciding to run for office.

The video version of the interview can also be seen here. 

Brian Hioe: After participating in the Sunflower Movement and working in Freddy Lim’s office, why did you decide to run for office this time?

Lai: I have relatives who are from Ruifang, they run a small business there. So I visited often and I’m familiar with the area. I was quite concerned with things there. 

First, I’ll talk about the DPP.  I originally believed that the incumbent legislator, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), had a base here so this is a difficult district. I was going to give precedence to Huang. There was still the possibility of the DPP having a chance here, but it’s not as easy. 

At the time, the pan-Blue camp had already announced their candidate, who was a political elite, Li Yung-ping (李永萍). The DPP didn’t believe that it could run a candidate with a similar profile, so they decided to run a younger woman who wasn’t a traditional political elite instead. That’s why they chose me.    [FULL  STORY]