Twu Shiing-jer

In this Chinese name, the family name is Twu.

Twu Shiing-jer (Chinese: 涂醒哲; pinyin: Tú Xǐngzhé; Wade–Giles: T'u² Hsing³-che²; born 17 June 1951) is a Taiwanese epidemiologist, physician, and politician. He was the minister of the Department of Health from 2002 to 2003 and later served in the Legislative Yuan from 2008 to 2012. He was the Mayor of Chiayi City from 25 December 2014 to 25 December 2018.^[2]

Twu Shiing-jer
涂醒哲
Official portrait, 2014
7th Mayor of Chiayi
In office 25 December 2014 – 25 December 2018
Deputy	Hou Chong-wen[1]
Preceded by	Huang Min-hui
Succeeded by	Huang Min-hui
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office 1 February 2008 – 31 January 2012
Constituency	Party-list
8th Minister of Health
In office 1 September 2002 – 18 May 2003 Acting: 1 September — 31 December 2002
Prime Minister	Yu Shyi-kun
Preceded by	Lee Ming-liang
Succeeded by	Chen Chien-jen
1st Chief of Centers for Disease Control
In office 29 May 2000 – 30 June 2002
Minister	Lee Ming-liang
Preceded by	Chang Hung-jen (acting)
Succeeded by	Chiang Ying-lung (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1951-06-17) 17 June 1951 (age 74) Puzi, Chiayi County, Taiwan
Political party	Democratic Progressive Party
Education	National Taiwan University (BM, MPH) University of California, Los Angeles (PhD)
Chinese name
Chinese	涂醒哲
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tú Xǐngzhé Bopomofo ㄊㄨˊ　ㄒㄧㄥˇㄓㄜˊ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Twu Shiing-jer Wade–Giles T'u2 Hsing3-che2 Tongyong Pinyin Tú Sǐngjhé MPS2 Tú Shǐng-jé

Early life and education

Twu was born in Puzi, Chiayi County, to Tu Bing-rong, a mathematics teacher, and Tu Hou Cai. He has four brothers and sisters. In 1969, Twu graduated from National Chiayi Senior High School.

After high school, Twu graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Medicine (B.M.) in 1976 and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in 1978. He then completed doctoral studies in the United States, earning his Ph.D. in epidemiology in 1995 from the University of California, Los Angeles, under professors Roger Detels and Sander Greenland.^[3] His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Does hepatitis B viral infection promote HIV-1 infection and the progression to AIDS?".^[4]

Health minister

Twu succeeded Lee Ming-liang as minister of the Department of Health on 1 September 2002. Diane Lee publicly accused him of sexually harassing ("ear-licking") a male restauranteur in October 2002, resulting in significant fallout, but Twu refused to resign; it was later revealed that he had been confused for another man. Lee apologized.^[5] However, in the wake of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan, he resigned on 16 May 2003.^[6][7]

Mayor of Chiayi City

2009 Chiayi City mayor election

Twu joined the 2009 Republic of China local elections for the position of Chiayi City mayor. The elections were held on 5 December 2009. He eventually lost to Kuomintang candidate Huang Min-hui.^[8]

2009 Chiayi City Mayoralty Election Result
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Huang Min-hui	KMT	69,962	52.20%
2	Lin Sheng-fen (林聖芬)	Independent	2,801	2.09%
3	Twu Shiing-jer	DPP	61,268	45.71%

2014 Chiayi City mayor election

Twu won a party primary held in March 2014, and was named the Democratic Progressive Party candidate for the Chiayi City mayoralty.^[9] In September, Twu asked the voters to choose the best person, not the wealthiest, referring to politicians from Kuomintang who were mostly backed by their huge assets and government resources to work with business conglomerates run by wealthy families to control local political factions and influence election outcomes. He ran his campaign under the slogan Bold leadership, Chuluo, heading up for Taiwan (氣魄 諸羅 台灣頭).^[10] Chiayi was a part of Chuluo County until 1787 when it was renamed.

Twu was elected as the Mayor of Chiayi City after winning the 2014 Chiayi City mayoralty election held on 29 November 2014.^[11]

2014 Chiayi City Mayoralty Election Result
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Chen Hsiu-li (陳秀麗)	Independent	633	0.44%
2	Chen Tai-shan (陳泰山)	Independent	786	0.54%
3	Chen Yi-chen (陳以真)	KMT	66,108	45.50%
4	Twu Shiing-jer	DPP	74,698	51.41%
5	Hsu Wen-chien (許文建)	Independent	330	0.23%
6	Lin Shi-han (林詩涵)	People Democratic Front	2,747	1.89%

2018 Chiayi City mayor election

2018 Democratic Progressive Party Chiayi City mayoral primary results
Candidates	Place	Result
Twu Shiing-jer	Nominated	Walkover

2018 Chiayi City mayoral results
No.	Candidate	Party	Votes	Percentage
1	Hsiao Shui-li	Independent	25,572	17.98%
2	Huang Min-hui	Kuomintang	58,558	41.18%
3	Huang Hung Chen Taiwan Ah Chen World Great Person Rich President (黃宏成台灣阿成 世界偉人財神總統)	Independent	1,822	1.28%
4	Twu Shiing-jer	Democratic Progressive Party	56,256	39.56%
Total voters			212,843
Valid votes			142,208
Invalid votes
Voter turnout			66.81%