Freddy Lim Tshiong-tso is a Taiwanese politician, musician, and independence activist. He is the lead vocalist of the Taiwanese heavy-metal band Chthonic. and the lead vocalist of the band started by him and American guitarist Marty Friedman. Lim served as chair of Amnesty International Taiwan from 2010 to 2014. He was one of the founding leaders of the New Power Party in Taiwan and represented the party in the Legislative Yuan until 2019. Lim won a second legislative term as an independent in 2020.
Early life and music career
Lim was an ardent supporter of Chinese unification as a student, because he was taught from China-centric textbooks in middle school and high school. A diagnosis of anxiety in middle school made him ineligible for military duty. Lim formed Chthonic in 1995, during his second year of university, when he began identifying more strongly with his Taiwanese identity. Often known simply as Freddy in Taiwan, Lim chose to name himself after Freddy Krueger. On stage, Lim is known as “Left Face of Maradou” and wore corpse paint portraying the Ba-Jia-Jiang in performances until 2011, when the band ended their use of corpse paint. With fellow Chthonic member and wife Doris Yeh, Lim started the Taiwan Rock Alliance, and as co-founder of The Wall, helped organize two music festivals, Formoz and Megaport. Lim's stake in The Wall was bought out in 2012, and amid the resulting dispute, both festivals were cancelled in 2014. They returned in the next year, organized by Lim's Taiwan Rock Alliance. The Taiwan Rock Alliance has also put on a separate concert since 2000. Originally named Say No to China, the concert occurs some time around the anniversary of the February 28 incident. It then used the name Say Yes to Taiwan until 2007, when it was renamed again to Spirit of Taiwan. Lim was elected to lead Amnesty International Taiwan in 2010 and stepped down in 2014. Chthonic was billed to play on the second day of the 2018 On the Pulse of Music Festival, but the performance had to be cancelled because Hong Kong Immigration Department refused to grant Lim a visa. Although the Immigration Department says it does not comment on individual cases, the rejection letter was published by the group's local sponsor, Goomusic. In the letter, officials stated that a person seeking to enter Hong Kong for employment "should, amongst other things, possess a special skill, knowledge or experience of value to and not readily available in the HKSAR", and that the immigration Department was not satisfied that Lim met the criteria. Commentator Stephen Vines questioned the black box operation of an unaccountable bureaucracy, saying it was "no wonder this sort of nonsense was not intended to be made public, otherwise questions might well be asked about whether the newfound musical expertise of the bureaucrats was going to apply to all the very large number of other musicians playing gigs in Hong Kong".
In politics
In January 2015, Lim founded the New Power Party. The next month Lim declared his candidacy for the 2016 elections, aiming to contest the Daan District legislative seat held by Kuomintang incumbent Chiang Nai-shin. A few weeks later, Lim ceded the race to Social Democratic Party candidate Fan Yun, choosing instead to run against incumbent Kuomintang legislator Lin Yu-fang in the Zhongzheng–Wanhua constituency. The Democratic Progressive Party did not nominate candidates in the constituency, choosing to support Lim, who defeated Lin in the elections held on 16 January 2016. Lim was assigned to the Foreign and National Defense Committee after taking office. In October, Lim announced the formation of a Tibet caucus in the Legislative Yuan, with himself as caucus leader.
In August 2019, Lim announced that he would leave the New Power Party to support Tsai Ing-wen in the 2020 Taiwan presidential election. Lim also stated that he would run for legislative reelection as a political independent. He won reelection in January 2020, defeating Lin Yu-fang for a second time.
