What's Ma Ying-jeou Up To?

Former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou working in a bookshop for a day

Does former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou have a new gig?

In a recent video the 68-year-old is seen working as a shopkeeper in a bookstore in Taipei. As he's wearing a baseball cap and a black mask, most people don't recognize him at all. When customers approach him at the cashier, he suggests that they buy his memoir that was released in December.



Many say no -- in one case a woman said she hardly reads books anymore. But when he pulls down his mask, people do a double take and are excited to see him. He offers to sign the books for them too.

However he's not quite cut out to be a cashier. One customer asked to use JKo Pay, the local version of Apple Pay, and Ma seems to have no clue what it is or how to process the payment.

He tried to persuade customers to buy his memoir

The video has been seen over 150,000 times since Ma's office posted it on YouTube on Friday. His office explained the video is meant to show another side of the Harvard Law School graduate.

"We want to let the public know that the ex-president is actually an easy-going person, the man next door type," an official from the office said.

But when asked about whether this was an attempt to garner popularity again in the hopes of running for president in 2020, the office was coy.

"This kind of question has been around for some time, you'll have to ask the former president because we have no idea at all," the official said.

He made enough to buy ink and brushes to write couplets

It seems his popularity has risen in the past year or so, in contrast to when he was president, especially in the last few years of his second term which ended in 2016.

When Ma was first elected in 2008, his popularity approval rating was at 68 percent. But his government's mishandling of the economy and issues like the typhoon that killed almost 700 people in 2009, as well as the Sunflower movement -- where hundreds of students stormed the legislature in 2014 -- made him highly unpopular.

And in case you're wondering -- in the end Ma managed to sell 30 copies of his book, enough to buy Chinese calligraphy brushes and ink to write Lunar New Year couplets for his supporters.