In Wave Makers, Chang Ya-ching exposed her #metoo story with the help of Weng Wen-fang, a lesbian political consultant. Screen capture from Netflix's Youtube Channel. A belated #MeToo storm hit Taiwan after a victim of sexual harassment posted a Facebook post exposing how the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) neglected or even suppressed complaints from within the party. Amid the storm, nearly 800 DPP staffers released a joint statement opposing the party’s decision to support former Kuomingtang (KMT) spokesperson Lee Cheng-hao in his candidacy for the Yonghe district seat in the upcoming legislative yuan elections. Lee was accused of taking nude photos of his former girlfriend and using them to blackmail and manipulate her. In response to the criticism, Lee stressed he won the court case over the dispute. The DPP staffers cited court records and slammed him for avoiding pieces of hard evidence presented in court, which included nude photos and chat records that established the prosecution's case. Their statement said his response to the sexual harassment allegation was misleading, unethical, and unrepentant. Certain details of Lee’s case resembled the fictional “Wave Makers,” a popular Netflix drama that explores gender and sexual dynamics in politics against the backdrop of a presidential election in Taiwan. In the show, a ruling party politician, Chao Chang-ze, manipulated his staffer-mistress, Chang Ya-ching, with her nude photos. The latter finally had the courage to expose her #MeToo story with the help of Weng Wen-fang, a lesbian political consultant from the opposition party. The DPP staffers’ statement pointed to the Netflix drama and urged the party to stand with progressive values and stop ignoring sexual harassment inside the party under the pretext of privacy or “domestic matters.” Concurrently, Amber Chen, the original whistleblower on sexual harassment within DPP, spoke out on May 31. Chen told her #MeToo story on her personal Facebook page. She was a former DPP staffer in the women's department. The sexual harassment occurred in a vehicle when she was working for the Taiwanese district elections in September 2022. When she filed a complaint with her supervisor, she was ignored and blamed for not “screaming out for help” or “jumping out of the car” when the harassment happened. Chen said that she was inspired by “Wave Makers” and was disappointed the party did not have someone like Weng Wen-fang to back her up. After Amber Chen’s testimony, more DPP former staff members came forward and told their stories of sexual assault and harassment from within the party. Another former DPP staffer from the youth department revealed on Facebook that she was pressured to resign after filing a sexual harassment complaint with her supervisor, who allegedly blamed her for seducing the perpetrator. Political scientist Sung Wen-Ti has followed Taiwan's # MeToo moment closely: Taiwan's #MeToo moment, day 2: 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sexual harassment complaints popped up against ruling party DPP's upper-middle management — the oldest case goes back to 2018. The power of example and a sense of safety in numbers are encouraging more survivors to come forward. pic.twitter.com/YbCoeD7HOI — Wen-Ti Sung (@wentisung) June 2, 2023 By June 9, a dozen middle to top-ranking DPP staffers were accused of sexual harassment. Within one week, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen apologized twice to the public and stressed that the ruling party had zero tolerance for sexual harassment. At least three key party staffers, including one of Tsai’s political advisers, Yan Chih-fa, resigned. The #MeToo storm has affected not only the ruling DPP but also the pro-China KMT, as well as the civil society sector. Taiwan's #MeToo moment, Day 3: Ruling party DPP's favorability rating drops from 0.53 to 0.21 (only 21% of online comments re DPP are positive). But the fire is spreading. New allegation emerge against a very senior figure in opposition party KMT. /1 pic.twitter.com/bb3IhCSei9 — Wen-Ti Sung (@wentisung) June 3, 2023 On June 2, one of the scriptwriters for “Wave Makers,” Chien Li-Ying, took to Facebook to claim that an exiled mainland Chinese poet Bei Ling had sexually harassed her. The prominent writer denied it and said the allegation was fabricated, but others stood up and backed Chien’s testimony. Also, on June 2, Lee Yuan-chun, a political activist, accused prominent Tiananmen activist Wang Dan of attempting to rape her in a hotel room in 2014 during a tour in New York City. He was 19 when the incident happened. Wang denied the allegation and suggested that it was politically motivated. Lee then took his case to the court to clear his name.