When Hsiao Bi-khim was appointed to head Taiwan's economic and cultural representative office in Washington in 2020, she relocated there with her four cats, who are always by her side. Outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen (2016-2024), also a cat lover, has two of her own. Once in the United States, on X, she referred to herself as a "warrior cat in the US," a nod to Beijing's offensive diplomacy deployed at the time, notably by a few provocative ambassadors known as "warrior wolves."

"Since I was nominated as vice-presidential candidate [for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), alongside front-runner Lai Ching-te, in the January 13 presidential election], I've spent a lot of time talking to young Taiwanese people, particularly at universities. I took the opportunity to tell the students that I grew up in a family of diverse cultural and linguistic origins, with a Taiwanese father and an American mother," she told Le Monde a few days before the election. "As a child, acting as a 'bridge' between different cultures, I was the family interpreter for my two grandmothers [who lived under the same roof] who didn't understand each other. I encouraged these young people to do the same. All Taiwanese, whatever their origins, can aspire to become bridges between Taiwan and the rest of the world."

The announcement of 52-year-old Hsiao's entry into the race, a few days before the closing of the candidate list on November 20, 2023, introduced a little diversity to an election campaign that had previously been quite homogeneous. The three main candidates for president are all men born in Taiwan over 60 years old. Hsiao, on the other hand, was born in Japan. Her American mother, Peggy Cooley, whose genealogy dates back to the Mayflower (1620), taught organ and music. Her Taiwanese father, Hsiao Ching-fen, an orphan adopted by a Christian couple in the city of Tainan, studied theology in the US, became a pastor and directed the Presbyterian major seminary in Tainan.

"Not only did Hsiao Bi-khim grow up in Tainan, the cradle of Taiwanese independence, but she also came from a Presbyterian family," said Mark O'Neill, journalist and author of numerous works on Taiwan and Hong Kong. "Since its foundation, the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church has strongly defended Taiwanese identity and language, first against the Japanese [who ruled the island from 1895 to 1945], then against the Kuomintang, and now against the Communist threat."

The young Mei-qin, the first name by which Bi-khim is known in Taiwan and the eldest of three siblings, was immersed in Taiwanese nationalism from birth. Even her American mother spoke fluent Taiwanese, which she preferred to Mandarin. It was only for her higher education that Bi-khim moved to the US, first to Oberlin College in Ohio and then to Columbia University in New York.

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