Dafydd Fell - Taiwans Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan

Alternative Politics in Taiwan

Dafydd Fell

First published 2021

by Routledge

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2021 Dafydd Fell

The right of Dafydd Fell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-65031-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-12750-5 (ebk)

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There are so many people that have helped me over the past eight years, it is hard to know where to start. Firstly, I want to thank all those GPT figures who taught me about the party in the interviews listed in Appendix 1. I am grateful for their generosity in spending so much time to share their experiences and views and also for helping me to gather the relevant research data. If I have to narrow down to two GPT figures, then I need to thank Yu Wan-ju for the initial invitation to start researching the GPT and Peng Yen-wen for being my perfect research partner for the first half of this project.

I could not have completed this project without the support and love of my family, especially my wife Jewel Lo () and son Laurence Fell (). Laurence was with me at that first acrimonious GPT focus group on December 17, 2012. Both have helped me with the time-consuming task of transcribing interview data. However, since Laurence went to university in the second year of the project, he has not had to put up with as much as Jewel. Jewel has joined me on numerous field trips and sat through many of my interviews. Particularly in the last year when I started writing the book, I have become more and more obsessed. I have got into the habit of turning every conversation topic back around to the GPT or Trees Party. On our daily walks, over meals, I have been constantly talking about actors from this book. She has told me I sometimes talk the GPT in my sleep. I am sure this did not happen for my first or second books. She has often listened patiently to me as I read out favourite quotes or paragraphs. She also checked my final chapter drafts, often finding typos and suggesting revisions. Im delighted that she likes this book even more than the earlier ones. I have been encouraged as while checking the chapters, Ive often heard her laughing uncontrollably. Even though she does yet not fully share my passion for the subject, she did write two understanding blog essays about observing my GPT book writing process, titled Its hard to write a book (, !) and The GPT, Lobsters and Beer (, ).1