Recollections:

A citizen and a family member

At the time of the 2012 presidential election, Kurt Lu’s father was in hospice care, dying of cancer. Yet that night his family still gathered around the TV to watch the vote counting, with his father taking a deep interest in the ebb and flow of ballots for the candidates, Ma Ying-jeou, Tsai Ing-wen, and James Soong. At that time Lu didn’t comprehend how his father could be concerned about an election even as his life was ending.

It was only many years later that he gradually understood. “He was constantly thinking about whether his family would have a good life after he was gone. And that life depended on the kind of country and leader they would have.”

Four years later, he directed a short video for what he jokingly called Tsai Ing-wen’s “job search”—her 2016 presidential run—on the theme “Wishing You Peace.” It expressed hope as well as the weight of the country’s history and status. The word “wish” (yuan) in the title was in fact the name he gave his soon-to-be-born daughter. “If we think of a country as a family, we are all family members,” he says.

Lu compares the nation’s president to a community manager. “In the past, we had no input in presidential elections. The biggest change with direct elections was that we finally understood that leaders do not exist on some remote plane, but are public servants chosen by the people to get things done.” Voting is the way this idea is put into practice and is the duty of every citizen.

“If we think of a country as a family, we are all family members,” says Kurt Lu. In 2016 he filmed a short video for the presidential campaign of Tsai Ing-wen on the theme “Wishing You Peace.” Pictured above (top) is a hand-drawn conceptual draft for the ad. (courtesy of Kurt Lu)

Elections in Taiwan’s cultural landscape

A few years ago, Lu made the short film Oh! Miss Village Chief, about an Yilan independent bookstore owner running for election as village chief. With no money for billboards, she made tiny campaign signs using bamboo chopsticks and drove a small farm vehicle through the countryside to share her ideas. Scenes so familiar to Taiwanese viewers left a strong impression on a Google Asia-Pacific executive.

“He told me the film showed two distinctive cultures: rural culture and election culture,” Lu recalls. Only then did Lu realize that consistently democratic elections are not a given across Asia. After 30 years of direct presidential elections, voting, campaigning, and public debate may seem ordinary in Taiwan, but for many elsewhere, this ideal of everyday democracy remains an aspiration.

Observing his father’s devoted attention to an election even on his deathbed, Kurt Lu came to realize that the reason for his dad’s concern was that the selection of the country’s leader would affect his family’s future after he was gone. (MOFA file photo)

Figuring out where he stands

When reflecting on the changes brought by Taiwan’s democratic development, Lu unexpectedly pivots to a family trip to Taitung. As they drove, his daughter taught him stuff the whole way, including information about the area’s prehistoric cultures and the Baxian Caves (Baxiandong), site of the oldest evidence of humans living in Taiwan.

Thanks to his daughter, Lu learned a lot about the land under his feet. “It was only then that I truly realized ‘where’ I was.” In the past, schools in Taiwan did not teach students about the foundations of their own lives, but focused on distant places, so that Taiwanese did not learn much about their own homeland. He adds: “I have always believed that whether or not a person will sell out this land depends on how deep their emotional connection to this place is.”

Democracy in his mind has never meant just a system, but a feeling of down-to-earth connectivity with this land. “I have always believed that such a link means to genuinely feel the warmth of this place and to know where one stands and why. This comes from having one’s feet planted firmly on the ground, without which it is easy to become disconnected from one’s roots.”

Voting is a way of affirming that one is still tied to this land, as it means that one can affect the future of this place.