Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People 2020 has been announced with Tsai Ing-wen and Xi Jinping both being on the list. It is the second time for Tsai, whereas Xi has been on it every year for the past 10 years. Although this annual list is somewhat routine of Time Magazine for nearly 20 years, this year is indeed slightly different. Its Editor-in-Chief, Edward Felsenthal, said, “...there has never been a year like this. A year of multiple crises, all over the world, all at once.”

A time of crisis could be a time of big transformation, how these people from all spectrum make their influence is also varied from when the time was relatively peaceful. The way Tsai and Xi respond to crises are in fact completely different.

As the world No.2 powerful leader, it is no surprise that Xi is on the list every year. Time Magazine has got Amanda Bennett, former Director of the Voice of America, to write a review about Xi, in which there is not a single good word about him. She criticized Xi that, by using his anti-corruption campaign to purge his rivals, corral ethnic Uighurs into camps, suppress violent anti-China protests in Hong Kong and usher in powerful social-monitoring technology…. She said, “Xi may yet come to regret that he is now effectively China’s leader for life...(but) Xi’s success may not be his final act.”

Bennett is very well respected in the field of journalism, but as her husband Donald Graham, whose family founded The Washington Post, has invested in education in China, the VoA under her leadership was seen to be weak towards China and has caused an uproar when she ordered to stop broadcasting Guo Wengui’s exclusive interview. When even a “China-friendly” media top gun has such hard criticism on Xi, it shows Xi’s arrogant style is not well-liked during this time of crisis.

In comparison, Time Magazine got Ted Cruz to write about Tsai, and it was just all praises from the start to finish. He said positively, “this self-made woman is determined to resist it (China). She does not cower.” He described her as “a signal lamp casting out China’s looming shadow, conveying to the world that Taiwan will not acquiesce to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Tsai and Xi are a big contrast from each other – the strong side bullies the weak side, but the latter refuses to surrender. Cruz pointed out, Taiwan has proved that the virus can be controlled without emulating China’s drastic policies, which was even quoted in Editor-in-Chief Felsenthal’s introduction.

Many people who are not in power have played an important role when fighting against the pandemic, especially women, who are normally being seen as “softer, weaker” than men, have made a huge impact when multiple crises are breaking out. Among this year’s 100 Most Influential People, 54 of whom are female. Apart from dedicating into the works fighting against the virus, many have also immersed themselves in fighting for equality which has changed the world. The “Black Lives Matter” anti-racism movement which shook the U.S., has been initiated by three women.

The toughness and perseverance from “the disadvantaged” ones have become the influence that changes the world. Chi Chia-wei from Taiwan is one of them. He started as a volunteer giving out condoms to gay people who lived in the dark shadow of AIDS and for 20 years, he has been persistently doing what he can as an individual to campaign for LGBTQ+ equality. Who would have thought he, in the end, has helped making Taiwan become the first Asian country that has legalized same-sex marriage.

Xi tries to sustain the order he wants by force, and some others use sympathy and compassion to build a peaceful world, such as world-class cellist Yo-yo Ma. He has uploaded a lot of music video performances online to comfort those who have been hurt emotionally during the pandemic, with the hashtag #SongsofComfort . Many artists have echoed his act and therefore Ma has also made the list of most influential people this year.

Ma has been encouraging dialogues among different cultures. He founded Silkroad the organization and ensemble to promote collaboration among different cultures and stimulate the innovative energy of art – very different from the desire of becoming the biggest, most powerful emperor hidden behind the One Belt One Road initiative. This year is the 300th anniversary of J. S. Bach’s composition of the Six Suites for Solo Cello. Ma has started the Bach Project since August 2018 and wanted to perform all six suites in 36 different locations among six continents. The focal point is not these 36 concerts, but the activities that would also take place in these locations, in which local artists collaborate and citizens would be invited to take part. Ma’s Bach Project is not the invasion of sharp power like the Confucius Institute, but a real cultural soft power that connects the world. Ma, one of the best world-known music maestro, possesses plenty of cultural capital, but his ethnic background has allowed him to view the world from the perspective of a disadvantaged person.

Multiple crises have changed the world order in 2020 but also brought the possibility of the world being turned upside down, and those disadvantaged, persisted ones are right now transforming the world.

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