Biography

Education and political career

Chu was born in a mainlander veteran family in Wanhua District, Taipei City and graduated from the prestigious Taipei First Girls' High School and National Chengchi University with a bachelor degree in Chinese literature. After leaving school, Chu worked as a TV journalist for several years before she was elected as Taipei City councilwoman in December 1994 under New Party (NP)'s nomination.

Being the youngest elected Taipei City Councilor in the 1994 vote, plus the well-knownness accumulated during her TV journalist career, she soon gained publicity and has long been noted for her outspokenness, sharp-wittedness, and beauty: in 1995, while fresh in Taipei City Council, she donated a Republic of China's National Flag to then Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian inside the Council, challanging Chen as to "whether Mayor Chen admits the existence of Republic of China or not". In October 1996 Chu held a press conference which deeply depressed Frank Hsieh who just lost in the 1996 ROC presidential election: Chu claimed Hsieh and his wife received 20 million NT$ in donations from notorious local psychic Sung Chi-li(宋七力) and spiritually followed him for long time. Although Hsieh finally won in the coming lawsuits, this event still harmed Hsieh greatly (later in 2001 when Chu was involved in sex scandal, some Pan-Green supporters considered this scandal as a nemesis against Chu). In 1999 a local survey listed Chu among the three Taiwanese female politicians who Taiwanese males wanted to see nude the most, the other two being Sisy Chen and Chiu I-Ying(邱議瑩).

In summer 1998 when her four-year tenure in the Taipei City Council would soon end, Chu sought for re-election but NP did not nominate her due to her controversial image. Fortunately, her boyfriend at that time was then Hsinchu Mayor Tsai Jen-chien(蔡仁堅), and Tsai later offered her the post at Hsinchu City Government until summer 2001 when they broke up. In the lower half of 2001 Chu campaigned under NP for election to the Legislative Yuan's Taichung City electoral district and was seen as a threat to the incumbent Shen Chih-hui(沈智慧), despite a string of high-profile relationships with Tsai Jen-chien, who was 15 years older than she, divorced with 2 teenaged daughters, and a member of the rival Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as well as an October 2001 issue of local paparazzi magazine Next Magazine which reported her alleged promiscuity and hinted a sex tape they had. Chu strongly denied these rumors, but finally still lost in the vote held on December 1, 2001.