About Frozen Garlic

Frozen Garlic takes its name from the Chinese characters 當選 (dangxuan), which means roughly, to be elected.  In election rallies, this phrase is often used in a call-and-response chant with the candidate’s name.  But since the language of most Taiwanese rallies is Taiwanese, not Mandarin, they use the much more forceful-sounding Taiwanese dongsuan rather than the wimpy-sounding dangxuan.  For example,

Emcee: Ma Yingjeou

Crowd: dongsuan!

Emcee: Ma Yingjeou

Crowd: dongsuan!

Emcee: Ma Yingjeou Ma Yingjeou Ma Yingjeou

Crowd: dongsuan dongsuan dongsuan!

To differentiate the two, Taiwanese newspapers have taken to writing the former as 凍蒜 or frozen garlic, which in Mandarin (dongsuan) sounds exactly like the Taiwanese version of dangxuan.