Lai Ching-te, the political brawler who went from a Taiwan mining village to the presidency

The house itself is a modest, two-storey dwelling on a larger parcel of picturesque land. Mist floats down from the jungled hills behind, settling in the narrow lane that winds towards the rundown remnants of a mine. The only people there on the day the Guardian visits are curious tourists. They are there for one thing: to see the family home of Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's next president. Lai was one of seven children born to a working-class mining family in Wanli, a small hillside village near Taiwan's north-east coast. His father, Lai Chao-chin, died in a mining accident when Lai…