The Funniest Commercial This Month

Almost every month I will pick out what I think is the funniest commercial and put it on my blog.

This one is really good, because it shows our desire to do something evil. Pay attention to the movement of camera. It's brilliant. You never see the person who is holding the camera in the first 40 sec, but we get the idea of who is holding it and what's her character.

Here is the description of this commercial on the veryfunnyads.com: "A German hardware store promises a hefty reward to the best do-it-yourself project--and sets the stakes very high."

We're attacked by millions of messages everyday and our desire for more funny video clips is harder and harder to be satistied. I feel sad that I've to find an interesting video in ads, but maybe only ads can meet my expectation. I am going to amuse myself to death......

Endless Protests

Yesterday on WSJ, I saw the image of a North Korean defector tried to set himself on fire to halt the torch relay, and the image of hundreds of red-clad Chinese supporters marched to the anti-China protestors, waving national flags as they took the streets of the South Korean capital to defend the torch.

We can see more clashes between the pro-China and the anti-China demonstrators on the media. Both sides know the camera is out there sending images all over the world, and both sides act crazy. Set oneself on fire? Waving national flags on the street of another country? Like Thomas De Zengotita said in Mediated, "we are all method actors now." All of these protesters are self-conscious performers. Who cares about whether the Dalai Lama is going to talk to the Chinese government? The image of conflict is the one that will attract readers and viewers.

Picture--Giselle

As most of my classmates know, I am living in the image of Giselle right now.

Again, this is the drawing I use in my video project. I first use photoshop to create a black-and-white version of her picture, then using pencil to copy it on paper. The drawing is not ART, but it looks good, right? We all love the remediated pictures of reality.

The decisive actor in boycotting the Beijing Olympics

As the torch relay heralding the Beijing Summer Olympics turns into a duck-and-cover operation in several cities, the conflict between pro-China and anti-China sentiment has intensified the duality of the pros and cons of boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

On the side of boycotting the Games, the anti-China camp focuses on the Chinese government's notorious human rights record, including backing the military thugs in Burma, blocking Internet access, fettering journalists, buying two thirds of Sudan's oil, and brutally cracking down on ethnic-Tibetan unrest. They believe boycotting the Beijing Olympics is a righteous way to bring China further into the community of responsible nations.

On the other side of the coin, the pro-China camp points out that the boycott will have opposite effects than intended. They claim the boycott of the Games' opening ceremonies and radical individuals' effort to extinguish the Olympic torch are odd ideas, for these moves might feed China's nationalism, make the regime in Beijing more defensive, and fortify Chinese people's belief that the West is trying to humiliate China.

But in spite of all these efforts to call for China to take its responsibility for its status as a superpower and bring the 21st century to a better place, people will find out that the pro-China and anti-China protesters are not the real determinative of the future movement in this boycotting issue; the decisive actors are the multi-national corporations.

Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, sees the Olympic torch uproar as a threat to its brand image. Investing more than $100 million in sponsoring the torch relay, Lenovo hope the Beijing Olympics can blast its name around the world and underscore the reliability of its computers, as it is now making an aggressive push into the U.S. market. However, the company now fears that the protests, intensified by the crackdown in Tibet, will tarnish the Olympic brand and Lenovo's association with it.

Lenovo's concern of the protests will certainly play a more powerful part than outsiders' demands in the government's decision making, because China's Communist Party leaders—mostly engineer—care more about the fate of the computer company that might influence China's economic growth than the human rights issues. We can imagine what enormous amount of fear will be aroused in China's Communist Party when the Western consumers boycott products made in China.

While some multi-national brand's disquietude over the protests might bring China to greater awareness of its crucial position in global politics, other companies might just strengthen the stubbornness and inertia of the Chinese government leaders. Coca-Cola, McDonald's and PepsiCo are still appealing to Chinese pride and patriotism even as the country is being pilloried overseas. Looking to expend their market shares in China, these international companies are cheerleading for China, asking customers to chant its Olympics refrain (including McDonald's "I'm loving China wins!"), and using nationalism as a strategy to build a closer connection with the Chinese people.

These major corporations fend off criticism from Tibetan and free-speech groups who want these companies to use their influence to improve China's human-rights record, and they're even apologizing for their support for the Dalai Lama or their use of Tibetan monks' image in commercials. Their attitude reminds us the fact that most surveillance software is manufactured not in China, Russia or India, but in North America. Shouldn't the world boycott America for manufacturing and exporting spyware to China?

As Joshua Meyrowitz warns in No Sense of Place, "The vacuum in our visible political realm of authority may be giving undue power to invisible men and women who run large national and multi-national corporations." These invisible business leaders who refuse to be viewed and examined by the public media can determine all forms of national and international communication technologies, university research, or even government foreign policies. One might argue that we, as consumers, can affect business leaders to push the Chinese government to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. But the fact is that not everyone is a consumer. Can you imagine what Chinese government's attitude toward Tibet will be if Tibetans are the largest consumer group in China?

Besides, when we have more option to choose whether to boycott Lenovo, McDonald's, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola for its association with China, we will, as Thomas De Zengotita points out in Mediated, only become more indifferent to our own decisions and to what is happening in the world. How many people think that their money spent in Starbucks will indirectly fund Israel arms fair when they enjoy a Tall Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte? Or how many people will even bother to know about the conflict between Israel and Palestine?

The real decision makers are still behind the camera, and all we can see on the media are the celebrities' boycotts of the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese Internet users' boycotts of companies for purportedly supporting the Dalai Lama. The issues of Tibet and Darfur will slowly be driven away by all these self-conscious performers until we no longer notice what is really happening.

Video Project

I draw this sketch for a video project, not for fun. The model--also the main actress in my video project--is my beautiful classmate. I hope all my classmates can recognize who she is.

I give this art work a 70, because it is not "real" enough. You know, I am not good at using the strategy of immediacy--imitating the real world without audience's awareness of the medium--to remediate reality through painting. I prefer drawing abstract painting. Besides, I don't have 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils, so the sketch is not dark enough. We have no fund in filming this project, and the paper I use is the cheapest one I can find in stationery store. It's difficult to draw without the right tool..................................... Alright, I admit that I am just not a good at sketch.

In the video cutting process, I plan to use this painting to dissolve in the real image. That means I got to depict exactly what's presented on the screen. It looks like I overestimate my ability, and I have to reduce my sleeping hours to finish four more paintings. Ahhhhhhh.

The biggest challenge in my life

Yesterday, my girlfriend, living with me, found out that two of her former colleagues got married. She looked all their wedding pictures and commented on every detail of their wedding ranging from the style of their dresses to the size of the wedding reception sites. She was particularly interesting in the wedding of a nurse colleague who marry to a rich doctor, because they invited almost 500 people to their extravagent "wedding of the century," as the bride shamelessly dubbed it. I worked in the same hospital with my girlfriend for three months, so she meticulously explained to me who hated the bride and who wanted to pursued her best friend while I was struggling in writing an English essays.

Then, she suddenly said, "What if I don't have so many friends in my wedding?" Yap, I know she wanted to get married after seeing all these pictures. Especially when she is now thirty years old (five years bigger than me), wedding pictures can easily stimulate her fantacy of having a romantic "wedding of the century."

Many friends said I am living a very boring and easy life--reading books, drawing ink painting, and cooking food for my girlfriend everyday. My parents pay for my tuition and I never have to worry about taking care of them after I graduate. But me living a carefree life? Look at my situation. Few months ago I just turn twenty-five years old, and now I have to worry about getting a decent job and pursuading her mother to permit our marriage. I also have to earn enough money in two years to satisfy my girlfriend's fantacy about her wedding, for she wants to get married before thirty-two years old.

Promising a girl who are five years bigger than you that you will marry her is definitely a challenge. In fact, I think this is the biggest challenge in my life.

Beach

Three places that I've lived for more than two years--Taiwan, Indonesia, and Singapore--are all surrounded by sea. It's natural for my parents to bring me to some beautiful beaches every year since I was a small kid. Indonesia and Singapore close to equator, so you can go to beaches and swim in the ocean every month. In Taiwan, the time you can go beaches is from April to November. But here in New York, we only have three months--from June to August--that are suitable for swimming in the ocean.

Singapore is just a tiny island, so there isn't much to say about its beaches. Most of Taiwan's beaches are too dirty, for Taiwan has overdeveloped heavy industry clustering in the small island. Indonesian's environmental protection is worse than both Singapore and Taiwan. However, I would say the most beautiful beaches I've seen is in Indonesia. You know, Indonesia has around 17,500 island, and many of them are far away from polluted cities. It's really easy to find a "paradise beach" with stylish resorts in Indonesia.

Yesterday, I've got the chance to go to Long Island Bar Beach Park. The sand is not so good, for it fulls of small stones and shells. I can't take out my shirt and lie on the beach because the weather is still cold--around 50 Fahrenheit. It seems like I've to wait for at least one more month to go to the beach, and when that time comes, it will full of people. Where can I find my ideal beach in New York?

My Professor on Japanese News Report

It's not only cool to see your professor on a TV news report, but also fascinating to watch how another culture presents him. The video clip above shows my professor Paul Levinson on Japan NNN-TV News talking about Obama's oratory skill. Here are few small things I notice:

1. In the beginning of Professor Levinson's comment about Obama's speech, he says, "I will give Obama a 98. You know, once in a while, he slips off, but he is really superb. I would give Hillary an eighty." However, in the Japanese translation, we can only see that "Obama's speech is 98 points, and Hillary is 80 points." It seems like only the scores matter.

2. The pronunciation of "writer" in Japanese is "laita," which sounds like "lighter." "Speech" is prounced "supiichi; "Hillary" is "Hilaly;" and "Obama" is--"Obama." Ohhh Yehhhh!

3. My school--Fordham--in Japanese is "Huodamu." I believe no Japanese will hear about Fordham unless I prounce it Huodamu.

If Japanese people value so highly the first hand information that they even come to America and interview my professor about his opinion on the US election, why can't China and Taiwan do the same thing? I gotta produce some video clips about the US presidential election for Chinese, so they don't have to tolerate the mishmash of China Central Television's reports.

My new pattern of behavior

The girl I love in high school is getting married. If this is not complicated enough, then listen to this: she wants me to give a speech on her wedding day.

We have known each other since we were eleven years old and we were classmates for seven years in Indonesia. In elementary school, she was a girl you wouldn't have a second glimpse. But in junior high school, she suddenly became so gorgeous that almost every boy in the class wanted to be her boyfriend, and I was not an exception.

I knew I liked her because of her look, not her personality or character. Maybe this was the reason why I never pursued her, for I realize that I was just blinded by her appearance. However, after 1998 anti-Chinese incident in Indonesia, most of our classmates went back to Taiwan, and only three of us--including a girl who was my "shadow"--left.

During these three years in high school with mostly three students in class, I got the chance to really look into her thoughts. She has a pure and unblemished mind. I usually said she was foolish, but what's underlied beneath was her conviction that all human are good and we should do our best to be a great person. I was deeply attracted by her childlike mind.

Now, she is going to get married, while I also have a beloved girlfriend. Knowing each other for such a long time, I find it's hard to accept her new role as a wife or a mother. Of course, wedding provides a ritual for her to change from one role to another, and we are all happy to attend this great ceremony. But giving a speech in front of her parents, relatives, friends, husband, friends of her family, friends of her husband, and all the other people that you would never think of makes me faint.

In No Sense of Place, Joshua Meyrowitz points out that the combiation of many different audiences (such as wedding) will create a new social situation that people would need to change the patterns of role behavior. What I want to say to her as a friend on the wedding might embarrass her family or husband, and what I can say to her parents and relatives might be too sloppy or boring for her. Maybe I should see the movie Wedding Crashers again.

Murakami Takashi

Brooklyn Museum is now having an exhibition of Murakami Takashi's art work. Murakami Takashi (村上隆) is one of the most influential and acclaimed contemporary artists to have emerged from Asia. His art style is mainly directed by Japanese animation. As he said, animation is "more representative of modern day Japanese life."

However, I think his art is too much alike Andy Warhol's. He repackages low culture and sells it to all other markets in different forms, including $5,000 limited-edition Louise Vuillton handbags. His distinctive style--superflat--has the characteristics of both consumerism and sexual fetishism. In this aspect, he is more like a business man selling products of popular culture than an artist searching for a deeper meaning of his work.

There are different levels of goals for artists. Scott McCloud divides the purpose of art work into six levels: (1) idea, (2) form, (3) idiom, (4) structure, (5) craft, (6) surface. The sixth level artists only consider what appears on their medium, whereas the first level artists ask for the purpose of their art. Murakami's art work is between the second and third levels. He developes his own personal idiom of art and discovers all that the art form is capable of, but he doesn't seems to struggle with the meaning of his art pieces other than selling them.

What is the level of my art work? Emmmm......I must belong to the seventh level.

I am gullible

At 11 pm., April 1st, I received a call from a female friend. She said, "I want to tell you something that I don't want anyone knows about it." I was in the middle of writing my book review for McCourt's class, so I didn't think too much about why she want to tell me or even what "day" it was.

After I said yes, she proceeded in telling me, "I am pregnant. I don't want the child. Can you accompany me to the hospital?" Then she began to cry and murmured about what she should do. Here, I need to explain a little bit about the story's background. First, we don't have any sexual relations, which means I am not the child's father; second, that female friend is also a foreign student, and it is quite horrible for this thing to happen on us, for we don't know anything about America's law or its medical environment.

I said nothing but my willingness to help her. To be honest, I was worried not only about her, but also about myself, for I didn't know what to do in the hospital.

At 1 am., April 2nd, she called me again. This time, she was not crying anymore. Immediately after her first sentense--"promise me you won't be angry with me"-- I knew I was fooled. Yah, now I realized it was April Fool's Day.

The most interesting thing was that after I told the whole story to my friend Brandon, he said to me, "On April Fool's Day, I always receive a lot of calls from girls saying they are pregnant. Of course I know they are fooling me. You are so gullible!"

Suggestions to these "gravidas":
1. Don't say you're pregnant on April Fool's Day, for even if it is real, no one will believe you anymore.

2. You guys should change April Fool's Day to Non-marital Pregnancy's Day.

Waiting

Who are you waiting for?

At least you have to pretend it!

"Are you a racist?" I jokingly asked a friend who talked about the weird hair style of a black man we saw on bus . Without hesitation, she answered, "Yes, I am." I was not only shocked by her answer, but also astonished by her shameless atitude of saying that.

This event brought me back to three years ago when I asked the same question to a friend who said Indonesians were noisy, rude, and uncultivated. She gave the same answer without a second thought. She even justified her thoughts by questioning me how I didn't notice the stupidity of Indonesians.

Gosh! Admitting yourself as a racist means that you are superficially judging people by their colors and races, not by their behaviors and personalities. It is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

Well, there are racists in every country. I don't expect them to disappear in this century, but at least they need to pretend that they are not racists and to feel ashamed of their superstition and bias.

Man's search for meaning

Don't ask the meaning of life; ask what life expects from you. Life has no general meaning. As Viktor E. Frankl points out, "life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

Professor Paul Levinson once asked us about what we want--fame, power, or money--in the future. At that time, I was the only one in class who chose fame. Now, I think I have a better answer. I want to find a meaning to my life.

The challenges of Taiwan's new president

On March 22, 2008, Taiwan people officially ousted the leading Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that had dominated Taiwan since 2000.

The new president belonged to the opposite party Kuomintang (KMT), and its candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won a landslide victory by gaining 2.1 million votes more than the candidate of DPP Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Ma garnered 7.6 million votes, or 58.45 percent, while Frank Hsieh had only 5.4 million votes, or 41.55 percent.

Many KMT supporters have been waiting this day for eight years. Four years ago on March 19, 2004, KMT had a great chance to defeat DDP in the 2004 presidential election. Every poll of major media showed that KMT candidate can win for more than 10 percents of votes than President Chen Shui-bian, who sought for a second-term presidency. However, on the day of election, President Chen was accidentally "shot "by assassinators who had very lousy gun shooting skill (or, I should say, extraordinary skill if he want to minimize the damage to human body), and the bullet only cause a five centimeter scratch on Chen's stomach. DPP acclaimed that the President was heavily wounded and accused KMT of hiring the gunman on the Election Day. Many naïve Taiwanese believed DPP's words and went to vote for the President, resulting Chen's small-margin victory and causing all Taiwanese to suffer four more years.

One year after the Election, the police found a suicide with no guns left behind and declared him the gunman in the gun shooting on March 19. Until today, many people still believe that the 319 Shooting Incident is planned by President Chen himself. Now, back to 2008 Election again, Taiwanese afraid there might be another "incident" on presidential candidates that could change the polls' results showing Ma as the possible new president. Fortunately, there is no surprise. Ma becomes the new president of Taiwan.

On the night of March 22, 2008, fireworks lit up the sky over the headquarters of KMT, as supporters put up victory signs not only to celebrate the winning of Ma Ying-jeou, but also to commemorate this great day of disengagement from President Chen Shui-bian's eight-year rule that has been dogged by controversy, corruption allegations and tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Yes, I know many Taiwanese would love to ignite fire crackers for the inauguration of their newly elected president, but they should hold their excitement after examining the five main challenges of Ma in the next four years.

1. The deficit and inflation
As Chen and Vice President Annette Lu congratulated Ma, saying the government will do all it can to maintain political stability and assist the winners in taking over from them smoothly, they leave a rotten legacy for the new president to fix. According Taiwan Treasury Department, the government debt has increase from NT$2.4 trillion to NT$4 trillion under President Chen's eight-year mandate. If we add the NT$300 billion deficit of the Second Stage Financial Reform (二次金改), the NT$50 billion loss on Government Fund in stock market, and all the debt on state own enterprises such as Taiwan High Speed Rail, then we will find that Taiwan have at least NT$13 trillion debt.

Taiwan's inflation rate is another major economic problem. The wholesale price index (WPI) is expected to increase 2.4 percent this year, following a rise of 6.5 percent 2007 owing to soaring international oil and commodity prices. Early in this year, when Minister of Interior Su Jia-Chyuan said the 8 percent growth of rice prices was nothing serious because the number only reflected a normal increasing rate, thousands of citizens called Interior Department to complain about Su Jia-Chyuan's indifference to the hardship of people. Consumer prices in Taiwan climbed 3.89 percent from a year earlier, which was more than 3.1 percent median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Meanwhile, Food prices rose 9.76 percent, import prices increased 14.06 percent, and wholesale prices rose 8.47 percent, while the only thing that didn't rise was the personal income of Taiwanese.

Thanks to President Chen, the new president has a lot of awful financial problems to fix.

2. The implementation of the three direct links
According to the director of Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, the new Taiwan's leader Ma can help spur the implementation of the "three direct links" across Taiwan Strait. The three direct links refers to direct cross-strait postal services, trade, and air and shipping services. Right now, if you want to travel from Taipei to Shanghai, you need to transfer flight at Hong Kong, which means you need to spend five hours on the flights, not including the time waiting for transfer in the airport. If you can flight from Taipei to Shanghai directly without transfer, it only takes you two hours for the flight.

President Chen's explanation for the absence of direct transportation links between Taiwan and mainland China is stupid and silly. He acclaims that China people are poor and evil, thus they cannot come to Taiwan's prosperous land. Taiwan lost its opportunity to become international financial center because of Chen's ideology. Many people have been brain-washed by DPP to believe that the completion of three direct links means China can easily control Taiwan. Now, Ma Ying-jeou not only has to establish regular direct flights between the island and mainland China, he also needs to convince Taiwanese that the national security has been well conceived.

3. The worn-out relationship with Beijing
President Chen makes Taiwan's relationship with Beijing worse in the past eight year by placing Taiwan independence as the top issue. Chen always threatens people that if they don't vote for DPP, China will take over Taiwan and jeopardize the rights they enjoy. This reminds me a question of a German student when I told her that I will like to work in China. She asked me, "Do you like China Communist Party?" It is a weird question. Why I must love Chinese government if I want to work there?

Ma Ying-Jeou must want to ask the same question: Why signing a peace treaty with Beijing and expending the China-Taiwan high-tech connection will lose Taiwan's sovereignty? Taiwan need to engage the mainland to improve the economy, for the island is too small to attract foreign investments that have been sucked out by China's booming economy. That German student who asked me a bewildering question is naïve in thinking that Taiwan can survive under the pressure of global economy without building business connection with China.

During the election, Ma has criticized Chinese government's crackdown on Tibetan protest, and supports the boycott against Beijing Olympic. Now, it's time for Ma to repair the relationship with China. Under the basic agreement that "One China Respectively Interpreted by Each Side," Ma must make sure all the negotiation on building close transportation and economic links with China will not threaten the sovereignty of the island.

4. The balance between building relationship with Washington and avoiding US arms procurement
While Washington switched formal diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, it still legally obligated to ensure Taiwan's security because Taiwan hold a very important position in American military strategy to block the diffusion of Communism. However, US always force Taiwan to buy exorbitant and obsolete American weapon. Yes, it is not that Taiwan doesn't want to buy any weapons from American; the truth is that American only sells some shitty weapons to Taiwan.

In the early 1990s, when US military refused to sell F-16 to Taiwan, Taiwan was forced spending 30 billion franc to buy French Air Force Mirages with overcharged prices. Also, when Taiwan had a contract with Boeing and Hughes for the procurement of personal portable Stinger Missile, what it got was the cumbersome Scorpion Stinger Missile that will decrease the mobility of the army. Sigh….Poor Taiwan.

Taiwan needs to build military capabilities to protect itself, but the amount it spends on arms procurement create a huge burden on its people. Now, Taiwan is the largest buyer of military weapons in the world, and even after KMT passed only one third of the military budget proposed by Defensive Department, Taiwan still need to pay $118 million to America. As I mentioned before, Taiwan already has more than NT$13 trillion debts. If Ma Ying-jeou and KMT submit under the pressure of the US government and pass the entire military budget, Taiwan's debts will increase to stratospheric NT$14 trillion, and every Taiwanese has to shoulder NT$150,000 (about $4700) for arms procurement in the next ten years. Taiwan still needs American protection, and Ma Ying-jeou needs to find a balance between building a friendly relationship with America and avoiding further robust defense spending.

5. The threat of one-party hegemony
It is clear that President Chen leaves an awful mess for Ma Ying-jeou to clean. Taiwanese should not feel relief simply because they change their president. There are still many obstacles on their way to build a strong country. KMT won 81 of 113 seats in the parliamentary election in February, and the overpowering of one political party is certainly not a good thing for the democracy of Taiwan. Lee Ao, one of the greatest human rights fighters in Taiwan, warns people that power can easily corrupt a man's soul, which is the reason why he always supports the opposite party.

My friend and classmate Brandon Hsu is a political enthusiast. He joined the Red Shirt anti-corruption movement in 2006, a campaign organized by former DPP leader Shih Ming-the (施明德) to depose President Chen, and he even designed his clothes and signboards for the movement. I don't like Chen Shui-bian, but I know the reason why I restrain myself to join the Red Shirt anti-corruption movement even the object of the protest is the person I hate. I know Lord Acton's famous proverb too well that "power tends corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Chen's corruption is nothing new and Taiwanese need to build a more powerful mechanism to supervise government, not one more political movement to divide its people. Besides, I prefer myself as a loyal opposition, keeping track of the policies of leading political party and supervising their every single movement, which are the only ways to make sure the healthy growth of democracy.

Since Ma, one of my favorite politicians in Taiwan, becomes the president, people should use higher standard to examine his ability and decisions. Even though I don't agree most of the DPP's policies and its pro-independence stance on the issues of two straits, I might support DPP in the future for the health of democracy in Taiwan. Wang Yeh-lih, political science professor of Tunghai University, believes Ma can minimize the concerns of one-party hegemony through arranging the premiership to an ethnic Taiwanese—as opposed to a Mainlander—with a background in economics, while assigning important jobs in government to women, no-party members and individuals from other political parties. But I believe the job of improving the democracy of Taiwan lies on the hand of every Taiwanese, and the work of making sure the freedom of speech and other human rights are in progress cannot depend on any politician, including Harvard-educated Ma Ying-jeou. John Stuart Mill points out in On Liberty that the only stimulus that can keep the ability of the body itself up to a high standard is the liability to watchful criticism of equal ability outside the body. It is every Taiwanese job to watch over KMT's activities in the next four years.