English masters

The election posters of Hsinchu politician Lu Hsue-Chang, 呂學樟, are seen all over town at the moment (including on the back of local buses). A smiling, and thumb-upping, Lu is making it clear that he is ready to kick some serious butt in next year’s national elections.

Very prominently on the posters feature the information that Lu has a yingguoshuoshi, an “English Master’s degree.” I’ve never seen politicians anywhere else boast about their academic credentials. Terrified that they be regarded as educated, politicians usually try their best to hide such information. But in Taiwan degrees are flaunted, ideally PhDs, and ideally from the US.

Lu is a bit of a disappointment in this respect. His degree is a mere MSc, and it turns out to be from the University of Glamorgan, a former polytechnic somewhere in Wales. Strictly speaking, the poster is misleading. What he’s got is a weileshishuoshi, a Welsh MSc. But perhaps that doesn’t sound grand enough for Hsinchu voters.