Word: bian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Drastic measures had to be taken?and fast. On July 8, President Chen Shui-bian summoned 34 of Taiwan's brightest minds to the presidential palace, put them in a conference room, and told them not to come out until they had a plan for fixing the shuddering economy. The best and brightest dutifully took their places around the mahogany table and Premier Chang Chun-hsiung opened the floor to ideas. One came from banker-tycoon Jeffrey Koo, who said the meeting was a big waste of time because there were too many politicians present. Morris Chang, celebrity chairman...
...lifts off from Nantou air-force base, he considers the evolution he must make from brilliant lawyer and astute politician to wise leader, perhaps, and even great man. It is a question raised by the very aspirations of his people and the potential of his state: Is Chen Shui-bian good enough, smart enough, man enough, to take Taiwan where it deserves to go? The helicopter takes flight, pushing the President back into his silver seat. He looks even smaller than his 5 ft. 4 in. You can't help thinking of the mission ahead of him--to lead Taiwan...
They call him A-bian, a diminutive that can be traced to his boyhood in Hsi-chuang, a village 40 min. from Tainan, Taiwan's fourth largest city. This is the Taiwanese heartland, where kids still play marbles with pits of the dragon-eye fruit the way Chen did as a boy. They still go swimming in the creek and roast water chestnuts on charcoal braziers. His family's red-roofed Taiwanese house consisted of four rooms built around a courtyard and an open hearth. They used chalk to write on the charcoal-stained walls how much they owed neighbors...
...Taiwan's rigorous academic meritocracy, good students are praised and respected; superior students become objects of local pride. A-bian was the finest student Tainan County had ever seen. "He was always the brightest in his classes," says Chen Chia-cheng, his sixth-grade teacher. "He used to finish his homework for the night before lunchtime." His classmates recall a studious, diminutive boy, annoyingly prim, his hand shooting up to provide correct answers to teachers' queries. The takeaway from his childhood successes: as long as you have boned up on whatever subject is at hand, you will succeed. That principle...
...Taiwanese Al Gore, and that's part of his problem. He could do with a bit more Clintonian warmth and charm. He struggles to connect, which is surprising, considering that during his campaign he conceived and delivered a cuddly, cute sort of marketability--the doe-eyed A-bian doll, which by all accounts, helped him charm younger voters in last year's election...