Kuomintang politician, mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, who led Taiwan from 2008 to 2016. In 2015 he met 习近平 in Singapore, the first meeting between leaders of the two sides of the Strait since 1949.
Cross-strait relations were relatively calm while Ma Ying-jeou was in office.
Tips
culture
Taiwan's press long called him 小马哥, 'little brother Ma', and his appeal to married women earned him the tag 师奶杀手, 'housewife killer'. Rivals called him a 不沾锅, a 'non-stick pan', since no scandal ever stuck to him.
memory
He was born in Kowloon, then British Hong Kong, and one story reads his name as 英 for the British colony plus 九 for 九龙. The family account: 英 is his generation's character, and 九 recalls the nine reflections, 九思, that Confucius asked of a gentleman.
