ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the evolution of Taiwan’s electoral politics after the Sunflower Movement to understand how this unprecedented protest helped to usher in a new political generation, whose activism has resulted in significant changes. Quite a number of Taiwan’s young protest participants turn out to be pragmatic by taking the route of electioneering to continue their activism. In particular, the chapter examines the Sunflower activists’ participation in the 2014 local election and the 2016 legislative election. Second, this chapter analyzes the adaptive strategy adopted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has scored landslide victories in the two consecutive elections. That the DPP skillfully harnessed this unexpected surge of protest activism contributed to their electoral triumph.