Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) made the best of an unfortunate situation when he was suddenly vomited on during Lunar New Year celebrations at a temple in Tainan.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) was giving a speech at the Sacrificial Rites Martial Temple on the second day of the Lunar New Year when the temple’s elderly chairman began to grimace and clench his fists. The chairman, who was standing to Lai’s left, turned away from the crowd and toward the president just as he became sick, splashing vomit on Lai’s red “Taiwan” sweatshirt. The likely cause was norovirus, which was responsible for 7,500 diarrhea-induced hospital visits during the first few days of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan.
Videos of the incident show Lai initially stepping out of the splash zone before turning around to walk toward the temple chief, who was stabilizing himself against a table. Lai, a trained doctor, reportedly directed first aid measures.
Later that same day, at a different temple in Pingtung County, Lai rushed to the aid of a woman who had fainted. Taiwanese media noted that this was the tenth instance of Lai showing his “doctor’s spirit” since entering politics. “President Lai’s Record of Saving Lives Is Unmatched in Politics,” proclaimed one headline.
Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the former chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), dismissed reporters’ questions about “Doctor Lai,” saying that the apparent frequency of Lai’s contact with people who have fallen ill in public places was, statistically, “a bit strange.” “We’ve already done the calculations,” Ko said during a visit to Longmen Temple in Taipei on February 19, “I’m also a first aid expert, and I rarely encounter people fainting.”
Perhaps Ko is envious of the fawning coverage. For a clip featuring vomit, it is as flattering as can be. Lai seems calm in the face of discomfort. This is not a situation we could ever imagine Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in, but Lai is the leader of a free country, and unpredictability is intrinsic to open politics.
But one Taiwanese fortune teller warned that the vomiting incident was a bad omen. Gao Fu-Jin (高輔進) consulted the I Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text, about the incident and cast a “void hexagram.” In a Facebook post, Gao said that this is the fifth void hexagram he has cast since December, which means that “good things are hard to come by, while bad things keep piling up.”
The divination also suggested that a major international event might occur in September or October. Gao specifically warned about “betrayal by major allies, delays or failures in arms deliveries despite defense purchases, Taiwan being hollowed out despite TSMC mass production or Taiwan being treated as a ‘cash machine’ without gaining international political leverage.”
Unsurprisingly, the several news outlets that reposted on this divination lean blue, meaning they tend to support Taiwan’s leading opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its ally the TPP.
Partisan tensions in Taiwan’s divided government are inflamed at the moment, as the opposition-controlled parliament continues to reject the special defense budget that Lai proposed in November 2025. The delay could jeopardize arms deliveries, which Taiwan relies on to bolster its asymmetric defense capabilities against China. If this impasse is the bad omen coming to fruition, at least we know Lai is adept at staying cool under pressure.
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