Freddy Lim

Freddy Lim (Chinese: 林昶佐; pinyin: Lín Chǎngzuǒ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Chhióng-chò; born 1 February 1976) is a Taiwanese politician, musician, and independence activist. He is the founding leader of the New Power Party (NPP) in Taiwan and lead vocalist of the Taiwanese heavy-metal band Chthonic. He is also the lead vocalist of the band Metal Clone X started by him and American guitarist Marty Friedman. He served as chair of Amnesty International Taiwan from 2010 to 2014.

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 228 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 on 31 May 2014.

In January 2015, Lim founded the New Power Party. The next month Lim declared his candidacy for the 2016 elections, aiming to contest the Da'an 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.

Taipei 5th Constituency 2016 Legislative Yuan Election

Candidate		Party		Votes	Percentage
Freddy Lim	林昶佐		New Power Party	82,650	49.52%
Lin Yu-fang	林郁方		Kuomintang	76,079	45.58%
You Jui-min	尤瑞敏		Trees Party	4,506	2.69%
Kung Wei-lun	龔偉綸		Independent	1,710	1.02%
Li Chia-hsin	李家幸		Taiwan Independence Party	885	0.53%
Huang Fu-liao	黃福卿		Independent	587	0.35%
Hung Hsien-cheng	洪顯政		Constitutional Conventions of Taiwan	478	0.28%
Source		Total		166,895	100%

Lim favors the abolition of capital punishment, and supports the legalization of same-sex marriage and marijuana use in Taiwan.