Lin Ying-meng (; born 20 October 1983) is a Taiwanese politician. She has served as a councillor of

Taipei City Council Taipei City Council () is the city council of Taipei, Taiwan. One of the largest local councils in Taiwan, the city council is currently composed of 63 councillors, all elected lately in the 2018 Taiwanese local elections. Composition ...

since 2018. She was elected councillor representing Taipei City District 6 during the

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

, and is one of the first openly

LGBT people The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...

voted into local

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

s in Taiwanese history.

Early life and education

Lin Ying-meng was born in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

on 20 October 1983. She received her education in Stella Matutina Girls' High School, a Catholic missionary school in the city. She obtained a Bachelor of Humanities and Sociology from

National Tsing Hua University National Tsing Hua University (NTHU; ) is a public research university in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. National Tsing Hua University was first founded in Beijing. After the Chinese Civil War, the then-president of the university, Mei Yiqi, and other ...

(NTHU), situated in the neighbouring city of

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

. She then pursued a Master of Sociology in the prestigious

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

(NTU). When Lin was a child, she was fond of

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, and used to aspire to be a

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

. She did field research work in a

maid café are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan. In these cafés, waitresses, dressed in maid costumes, act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as café patrons. The f ...

for two years, in order to understand the social phenomenon. The experience helped her write her graduation thesis in NTU's research institute. Lin assisted in developing

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

s in a game company after her studies.

Social activism and political career

Lin was initially a volunteer in social movement organisations. She started to know fellow activists Wu Cheng (吳崢) and

Freddy Lim Freddy Lim Tshiong-tso (; Tâi-lô: ''Lîm Tshióng-tsò''; born 1 February 1976) is a Taiwanese politician, musician, and independence activist. He is the lead vocalist of the Taiwanese heavy-metal band Chthonic. and the lead vocalist of the ...

during the 2014

Sunflower Student Movement The Sunflower Student Movement is associated with a protest movement driven by a coalition of students and civic groups that came to a head between March 18 and April 10, 2014, in the Legislative Yuan and, later, also the Executive Yuan of T ...

. When the NPP won seats in the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

, the national parliament, Lin was motivated to take part in parliamentary work. On 24 March 2017, Lin was appointed spokeswoman of NPP headquarters. As a social and political activist, Lin is concerned about topics such as gender, culture, politics, human rights,

political status of Taiwan The controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan or the Taiwan issue is a result of World War II, the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949), and the Cold War. The basic issue hinges on who the islands of Taiwan, Peng ...

, transitional justice, generational justice (世代正義) as well as

marriage equality Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

. She previously also served as leader of the bills (proposed legislation) team in Legislator Freddy Lim's Office. She took office as councillor of

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

City in 2018, on Constitution Day, which coincides with

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

. Her term will end in 2022. As a member of the legislature in the capital of Taiwan, the

Taipei City Government The Taipei City Government (TCG) is the municipal government of Taipei. History The Taihoku City Government was founded on 10 October 1920 in Taihoku Prefecture during Japanese colonial rule. The original city hall was located at the site of ...

and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

is responsible to her and her colleagues. When questioned by Lin in 2019, the administration in Taipei confirmed that all same-sex couples who intended to marry on 24 May, the date when same-sex marriage was implemented nationwide, within the capital would be able to do so. All Household Registration Offices would work overtime to accommodate these couples. Lin left the

New Power Party The New Power Party (NPP) is a political party in Taiwan formed in early 2015. The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan independenc ...

in August 2020. In August 2022, Lin and her former partner were charged with violating the Anti-Corruption Act and the . Lin hired her then-boyfriend, Yeh Yao-chang, as a political aide at the start of her term as councillor. She also paid a student for part-time work. After the student left her office, Lin continued applying for the subsidy that would have paid the student. Separately, Yeh left Lin's office to establish a public relations company, and Lin was accused of forging documents on Yeh's behalf, placing an employee of his on her payroll so that the employee would be paid with public funds.

Personal life

Lin has come out openly as a

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

woman. On 20 January 2018, she announced during the NPP's anniversary that she would run for the seat of councillor representing

Daan Daan may refer to: People *Daan (given name), Dutch short form for Daniel *Saumya Daan (born 1982), Indian voice actor *Serge Daan (1940–2018), Dutch zoologist * DAAN, a Belgian band led by Daan Stuyven * Da'an, a character in the television ser ...

- Wenshan, becoming one of the first openly LGBT officials in Taiwan.

Notable works

* * *

References

External links