With the Taipei mayoral race in its warm-up phase, a radio interview in which DPP candidate Puma Shen crossed into a different ideological bubble has drawn unexpectedly positive reviews — good news for the Green camp, and relatively unfavourable for the KMT's Chiang Wan-an.

• Shen appeared on Broadcasting Corporation of China for an interview with Wang Wei-chung, and by the end of the conversation the host was giving him light punches on the arm, the mood having shifted from tense to warm.
• The first ten minutes featured sharp, ideologically tinged questioning; when asked about Chiang Wan-an's son, Shen said he was unwilling to exploit a child and opposed personal attacks, and the host's attitude softened from that point on.
• Academic Chen Fang-yu commented that this shift shows Shen "can't be stumped," and that the content has a chance to break out of its bubble and reach deep-blue audiences who normally do not listen to what the Green camp has to say.
• Online discussion simultaneously dug up the episode from four years ago in which the same host interviewed Chiang Wan-an, which at the time was described as the host repeatedly feeding him cues while he still answered poorly.
• The hostility has not entirely disappeared, and genuine exchange remained limited, but the physical warmth has been read as a small opening.

Outlook: Shen may step up appearances on non-friendly media, using the same approach to keep loosening Blue-camp voters, while the Chiang Wan-an camp will have to respond to comparisons of how the two handle themselves on the spot.