Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou appears in video as ‘shopkeeper for a day’ in bookstore
- Video clip shows 68-year-old serving customers to ‘earn some money’ for calligraphy brushes and ink to write Lunar New Year couplets for supporters
- Former Taiwanese president has been trying to rebuild his popularity, but his office says they are unaware of whether he plans to join 2020 election race
Ma Ying-jeou has been trying to rebuild his popularity, and the latest effort involves a video clip of the former Taiwanese president working as a “shopkeeper for a day” at a bookstore in Taipei.
More than two years after he stepped down from the top job and the helm of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang, the 68-year-old is seen in the video serving customers to “earn some money” so that he can buy calligraphy brushes and ink to write Lunar New Year couplets to give to his supporters.
The video has been viewed more than 110,000 times since Ma’s office posted it on YouTube on Friday.
But the Harvard Law School graduate is not a natural for retail work, judging from the footage. Dressed casually and wearing a face mask to hide his identity, when a customer asks to use JKo Pay – the local version of Apple Pay – Ma appears to have never heard of it.
Still, it is a chance to try to sell some copies of his book. But he fails to drum up any interest in his memoir until he removes the face mask, to the delight of some of the women customers at least.
According to his office, the video aims to show another side to Ma who, in his younger days, was known for his movie star looks and squeaky clean image.
“We want to let the public know that the ex-president is actually an easy-going person, the man next door type,” an official from the office said.