Five years after the MeToo movement took the world by storm, Taiwan is witnessing its own reckoning over sexual harassment after hit Netflix series “Wave Makers” which follows the fictitious lives of a team of campaign staffers in the run-up to a presidential election in the country, was released. The political drama's take on sexual harassment has attracted the most attention.
The show sparked more than a dozen MeToo accusations involving political figures in Taiwan as it gears up for a presidential election in January. The allegations rocked the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), prompting resignations and public apologies from president Tsai Ing-wen.
“As the former party chairman, I should bear full responsibility,” Tsai wrote in a Facebook post vowing to “reflect on our mistakes.”
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The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party has also been hit. The growing list of allegations has hit academia, sports and cultural circles surprising the creators of the show who said that they had not expected such an impact and were now witnessing “high waves” being made every day.
“Cases have been popping up in all walks of life recently, and you can see why it resonates,” Chien Li-ying, who co-wrote the script with Nina Peng said, adding, “There had been so many incidents like this, but they couldn’t be discussed or told.”
{{/usCountry}}“Cases have been popping up in all walks of life recently, and you can see why it resonates,” Chien Li-ying, who co-wrote the script with Nina Peng said, adding, “There had been so many incidents like this, but they couldn’t be discussed or told.”
{{/usCountry}}The main story line of the show features the solidarity and support between its two female protagonists. A powerful line from one of the best known scenes in “Wave Makers” the main characters is being used. In the show, one of the characters, a senior party member, tells a junior staffer who had been groped by a colleague, “Let’s not just let this go, OK? We can’t let things go this easily. Otherwise, we’ll slowly wither away and die."
The line was referenced at the top of a Facebook post that kicked off the whole MeToo movement in Taiwan.