A star is born in Kaohsiung, and he is a bald, rapier-tongued former school principal who once bashed Mr Chen Shui-bian, the man who would later be Taiwan's president, into submission in Parliament.
Mr Han Kuo-yu, a 61-year-old veteran of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), was largely unknown only a year ago. Now, he commands a rock star-like following, parlaying an everyman charisma and folksy eloquence to smashing effect in a bid to capture southern Kaohsiung, Taiwan's third-largest city.
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