Taiwan’s health minister Chen Shih-chung with a sculpture created by one of his many new fans

SNA (Taipei) — His reputation has grown along with the bags under his eyes. Taiwan’s hardworking health minister is now the country’s most popular man.

Within Taiwan, Chen Shih-chung is the face of the island’s Covid-19 response, which has won international praise for keeping its number of cases low. Before January, the minister of health and welfare was unlikely to be recognized in the street. But Chen’s profile has skyrocketed since he began fronting a daily televised press conference to update the public on coronavirus cases and what authorities are doing.

His calm and reassuring manner has won admirers the length and breadth of the island. Fans have sent him cake and roses, and turned him into a sculpture and a red bean cake. His personal ratings have soared to 93%, according to a poll released on May 7.

A bakery in Taichung created a red bean cake in honor of the health minister

His popularity is linked to the government’s much-praised handling of Covid-19, which Taiwan has used to press its case for a seat at the World Health Organization. It has been excluded from membership, and attending as an observer in recent years, at the insistence of Beijing.

Chen’s newfound fame also reveals a tendency in Taiwan to turn some political figures into semi-cult heroes. “We have these cultish fan bases around politicians that create these kinds of things like cakes and LINE stickers,” said Brian Hioe, editor of New Bloom magazine, which covers politics in Taiwan. “For someone who began as a somewhat colorless bureaucrat from the medical establishment, [Chen] now has… people making cakes in his image and all these crazy things like that. When you do handle something in an effective, efficient bureaucratic manner, you can gain a fanbase in this very unexpected way.”

Chen, 66, is a former dentist who began his political career as an official in the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He helped to draft President Tsai Ing-wen’s medical policies before becoming health minister in 2017. Since then, he has headed Taiwanese delegations to Geneva during the annual World Health Assembly, to draw attention to Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO decision-making forum.

In late January, Taiwan activated its Central Epidemic Command Center, and Chen took the helm. The island of 23.5 million people has fewer than 450 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and six people have died from the virus. There have been no lockdowns, and schools and offices are operating largely as normal, although restaurants, bars and other businesses have struggled with fewer customers.

A key part of Chen’s recent popularity stems from his lack of sleep. As head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center, he is in charge of controlling the virus, which is clearly busy work. With each daily press conference, the bags under Chen’s eyes grow darker.

Reporters occasionally ask the tracksuit-clad minister about whether he has any time to sleep, to which he gently smiles and says, “I always sleep well.”

On some days he temporarily forgets what day it is, but his audience is more than forgiving. He hasn’t missed the daily 2 pm press conference since it started more than three months ago.

One of his many fans is artist Huang Tian-fu, who took time off from sculpting Buddhas to sculpt Chen. He spent seven days crafting a portrait sculpture out of fiber-reinforced plastic. “I just represent the ordinary citizen in expressing a little respect for the minister’s performance in dealing with the epidemic,” said Huang, adding that he sent the sculpture to the minister and he said he liked it.

The 32-centimeter-high sculpture inspired by the health minister’s “unswerving determination”

The sculptor says his work was based on the way Chen sits at the press conferences. “When he raises his hand to invite reporters to ask questions, he has a look of unswerving determination,” Huang said.

Aside from that daily fixture, which has made him into a household name, Chen also fits in reports to the Executive Yuan, visits to quarantine centers, and holds meetings about the distribution of face masks.

In February, eager fans pieced together his schedule from media reports to conclude that on at least one occasion he had worked for 36 hours straight. Concerned Taiwanese poured onto the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Facebook page to leave messages imploring him to sleep with a hashtag that translates as “Minister Chen Shih-chung take a rest.”

Taking advantage of Chen’s popularity, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has created cartoon LINE stickers featuring him. In one, Chen and a Shiba Inu dog call on people to rally together and defeat the virus.

The tendency in Taiwan to fixate on individual politicians is related to the way that political parties and even the government bureaucracy now communicate with the public, says Hioe. “What actually seems to be the most effective way of communicating messages is often times things like LINE stickers and cute memes and videos and being funny and that kind of thing, and so this is a strategy that the Taiwanese government and politicians have adopted,” he said.

Chen, who was too busy to accept an interview for this article, has reaped the rewards for Taiwan’s low number of confirmed coronavirus cases. As of May 10, it has 440 cases, and most of these have been people returning from abroad. Only 55 have been local infections–as opposed to people returning from abroad.

Initially expected to be one of the hardest-hit areas because of its close proximity and links to China, Taiwan quickly sprang into action when it picked up rumors of a mysterious pneumonia circulating in Wuhan. In late December, it had already begun boarding flights from Wuhan to inspect passengers for signs of fever or pneumonia.

In the weeks that followed, it integrated its health and immigration databases, so it could trace cases and alert people at possible risk. It brought in fourteen-day self-quarantine for people who entered Taiwan from affected areas. Authorities make sure they stay in their homes via an electronic fence, which uses mobile phone location-tracking. If they suspect people are venturing outside their homes, authorities aim to contact or visit them within fifteen minutes.

In March, Taiwan closed its doors to most foreigners.

Within Taiwan, the government’s handling came in for criticism in April, when more than 700 Taiwanese sailors were allowed to disembark from a ship that had returned home, despite several having had fevers and respiratory problems. A total of 36 sailors later tested positive for Covid-19. The Navy removed two admirals from their posts and President Tsai Ing-wen apologized and took responsibility as commander-in-chief.

All along, the center’s daily press conferences have helped cement public trust in the government’s handling of Covid-19 and reinforced messages about washing hands and wearing face masks. Chen’s words of wisdom are heralded by the media, and Taiwanese say watching him makes them feel at ease.

“If something is known you can manage it–diligently washing hands will definitely help, avoid crowded places and high-risk areas as much as possible,” he said in March. “But faced with the unknown, with what we can’t measure, we mustn’t scare ourselves.”

President Tsai has praised her health minister’s performance and said Taiwan was lucky to have him. “We see that every press conference has a cool commander,” she said during a visit to the Central Epidemic Command Center last month. “No matter whether the epidemic situation is tense or moderate, his tone is always the same. He makes all Taiwanese feel calm and cared for.”

For breaking news, follow on Twitter @ShingetsuNews