Lien Fang Yu, the wife of former Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan, looked on as a few intimate details about their relationship were revealed during a seminar in Hong Kong yesterday.
Chang Ling-chen, a professor with the political department at Taiwan University, told participants at the seminar on the prospects for cross-strait relations that the former KMT leader called his wife xiao guai in Mandarin, which translates into a small, obedient honey. In return, Mrs Lien called Mr Lien lao guai - an elderly, obedient honey.
Mrs Lien, a former botanist who was crowned Miss China in 1962, said she usually asked her husband to go through articles she wrote before she sent them to publishers, and he had gone over the material in her new book on the KMT's historic mainland trip earlier this year, An Encounter in Half a Century.
Recalling their historic trip to the mainland in April, the first by a KMT leader since 1949, she said she had been moved by the passionate welcome they received and the trust the central government had shown to them. 'So I'd like to write down what I've experienced honestly and faithfully, though this book may not be perfect,' she said.
Professor Chang said KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou lacked a strong image as a political figure.
'Ma Ying-jeou has a strong legal background but he is weak as a politician ... He should be more innovative [as a party leader] and come up with measures to lead public opinion instead of following what opinion polls say,' she said.