Think Think (Chinese: 想想; pinyin: Xiǎngxiǎng) and Ah Tsai (阿才; Ācái) are two cats belonging to the former president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen. Think Think is a female gray tabby, while Ah Tsai is a male ginger tabby.
Origin of the cats Think Think was adopted by Tsai in 2012, after being brought to her as a homeless kitten by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Hsiao Bi-khim. Hsiao had found the kitten on a muddy road by a railway station near Hualien after Typhoon Saola. Tsai named the kitten after "Thinking Taiwan" (Chinese: 想想論壇), an education foundation she was working on at the time. Ah Tsai (meaning 'talent') was a farm cat, and a gift from a friend during Tsai's presidential campaign. The cat was found near a pineapple field in Taitung County in eastern Taiwan. Prior to her election as president, Tsai lived in a modest apartment with the two cats. Think Think was originally skinny, covered in mud and suffering from skin diseases – but soon recovered under Tsai's care. Tsai says that the cats generally get along well with each other, but do fight occasionally.
Social media updates During her presidency, Tsai has regularly posted social media updates which include her cats, and these are popular. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of these posts discouraged Taiwanese citizens from performing April Fools' Day pranks which involved false rumours. Posting a picture of herself with one of the cats, she said: "...we can exercise our sense of humor...but we can’t make jokes about the pandemic, to avoid breaking the law", and: "I wish everybody not only a humorous, but also healthy and safe April Fools’ Day". When baseball games resumed after Taiwan's pandemic lockdown was partially lifted, with the Chinatrust Brothers taking on the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, Tsai posted a picture of herself watching the game at home, accompanied by one of the cats. A new Twitter hashtag – #ThisAttackComeFromTaiwan – aims to welcome overseas visitors to Taiwan after the pandemic, and includes images of Taiwanese landscapes, bubble tea, and Tsai's cats. In 2019, Tsai posted pictures on social media of Ah Tsai attentively watching television, and enjoying the Animal Channel. On Valentine's Day in 2019, Tsai's message to citizens featured the two cats. In the lead up to the 2020 election, Tsai advised her supporters to ignore 'fake news' about the cats' health, and that they were in fine form. In July 2020, Tsai visited the Hsinchu Animal Protection Education Park, where she made a statement urging citizens who wanted pets to adopt stray animals, instead of purchasing them.
Media coverage
Supporters and critics Shortly after Tsai was elected as president in 2016, she was criticised for being a single woman – and therefore 'emotional' and 'erratic' – in a newspaper article published by China's state news agency Xinhua. The article, written by Wang Weixing a military officer in the PLA, provoked an outcry for its sexist views, and was quickly withdrawn. Taiwanese activist magazine New Bloom describes her as 'an unorthodox politician... a female academic who loves cats and supports gay rights'. Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times observes that Tsai is one of two cat-lovers who have recently risen to power – the other being Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party. In June 2016, while in Miami, Tsai met Taiwanese professional baseball pitcher Wei-Yin Chen, whose gifts to her included feeding bowls for each of the two cats and three adopted dogs.
Election campaigns
2015–2016
Think Think and Ah Tsai featured as part of Tsai's presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, with the press sometimes referring to her as 'Cat Woman'. During the campaign, Tsai's Facebook pages on cat-related topics received many more hits than pages discussing policy issues – with the rate of 'likes' being up to 50 percent higher. A page showing Ah Tsai receiving a vaccination on World Animal Day was especially popular, with nearly 30,000 'likes' (as of October 2015). Her campaign team produced an animated film, Cat in a Paper Carton – Think Think; and the feline also appeared in Light up Taiwan, a book outlining Tsai's political views. Tsai's love of cats is well known among her supporters, and young people in particular are fans of the two cats. Her Chinese New Year video message in 2015 included a grey tabby cat trying to break free from her arms. As part of her campaign, Tsai and her cats were transformed into anime video characters. The animated cartoon was not in Mandarin, the language promoted by the ROC government for decades, but Taiwanese, a language which was once scorned by Tsai's opponents, the previously dominant Kuomintang (KMT). Davina Tham of the Taipei Times said that Tsai personifies the nation's attitudes toward women in power. Tham cites a comic strip created in 2016 by "Stupid Sheep" called Presidential Slave to Cats, portraying a cartoon likeness of Tsai juggling presidential duties with her devotion to Think Think and Ah Tsai. Tham also cites another cartoonist, Wei Tsung-cheng, who created Conqueror of the Seas, which portrays a young girl named Ing who grows up on a patriarchal island-nation; and overthrows oppressive forces which terrorise her people.
Celebrating Tsai's election victory, the national postal agency, Chunghua Post, created a special stamp issue. It featured people from all walks of life, along with a dog and a cat; and drew attention to issues of equality and cultural diversity in Taiwan. The pixelated faces of the President and Vice President were intended to express the idea that these are individuals who embody the collective spirit and style of the nation. Other icons represented various occupations, genders, social roles and ethnic groups. It was the first ever Taiwanese stamp not to feature the national flag.
2020
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
