Huang Hong-cheng

Biography

He holds a name of fifteen characters: 黃宏成台灣阿成世界偉人財神總統. In English it can be rendered as “Huang Hong-cheng, Ah Cheng from Taiwan, World’s Greatest Man, God of Wealth, and President”. He was born, however, simply as Huang Hong-cheng (黃宏成).

He was born on 20 March 1968 in Taoyuan County, in the Neili neighbourhood (Zhongli). He attended Neili Primary School, the private Fuhsing high school and the law department of Soochow University. By his own account, he did a course at the Napoleon Hill Foundation at the University of Virginia in the United States. He sat the bar examination twice and failed both times. He worked in direct sales and legal services, then wrote books and gave lectures and radio talks, preaching “positive success studies”. His first book, on the teachings of Napoleon Hill, appeared in 2004.

From 2006 Huang travelled through the towns and villages of Taiwan on a tricycle, selling his books and kissing the ground, then collecting the soil. By early 2008 this soil had become a one-metre-high “map of Treasure Island Taiwan”. He began his journey at a school in Yunlin County. In Guishan he was hit by a car; he settled with the student driver by asking only that the two of them kiss the local soil together.

In April 2009, at a press conference in Chiayi, he announced a plan: to collect soil from 195 countries over 37 years and make a world map in time for the centenary of the United Nations, on 24 October 2045. He said he had already been to the United States, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and the People’s Republic of China. In 2010 he began preparing a trip through a hundred large cities in the thirty-one provinces of mainland China, hoping to improve relations across the Taiwan Strait.

He changed his name three times. In May 2010 it became “Huang Hong-cheng, Ah Cheng from Taiwan”, in October 2013 “World’s Greatest Man” was added, and on 23 May 2015 came “God of Wealth, and President”. With that he broke the record for the longest name in the country. He explained that this showed freedom of speech in Taiwan: “such a name could not exist in China”. The law on names does not allow further changes; had it done so, he would have liked to add the words “has already been elected”. In June 2020 the record was surpassed by a man who changed his name to one still longer; Huang reported him to the police, and no case was opened.

He has been in politics since 2010, with no party and no campaign headquarters, funded by income from his books. He has never been elected. In 2014 he ran for magistrate of Chiayi County and demanded that the flag he had designed, of the “Great Chinese Taiwanese Sacred Democratic Republic”, be printed in the election bulletin. He was refused. At a candidates’ presentation he appeared in his underpants, with the flag over his shoulders and a horned hat. He received 8,639 votes (2.82%). A court dismissed his suit to have the election annulled, but in April 2016 the law was amended, and candidates were allowed to include pictures in the bulletin.

In 2015, having announced his intention to run for president, he nevertheless registered as a candidate for the Legislative Yuan in Chiayi. At his presentation he wore a God of Wealth costume, sang New Year songs and ate chicken rice. He received a little over two thousand votes.

On polling day, 16 January 2016, he could not find his identity card. He barely managed to vote in time.

In 2018 he ran for mayor of Chiayi, appearing with banknotes and a bouquet of roses, singing and eating. He quoted Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in English, and the election commission cut his sound for almost two minutes: candidates are required to speak the national language. Huang received 1,822 votes. A court dismissed his suit to annul the election on 13 April 2019.

In 2020 he again stood for the Legislative Yuan: he scattered fake money and criticised President Tsai Ing-wen. In September 2020 he announced that he would run in Hualien, with a plan for a tunnel, the “God of Wealth Road”, through the Central Mountain Range. In 2022 he put himself forward for mayor of Chiayi. In 2024 he did not take part in the elections. In April 2026 he announced his candidacy for mayor of Chiayi, and on 31 August he was the first of the candidates to register.