Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s newly-elected president, first female president

With her landslide on Saturday, Tsai Ing-wen became the first woman to be elected president of Taiwan, and is poised to be the most powerful woman in the Chinese-speaking world. But the 59-year-old opposition party leader, who can often be seen on the campaign trail with her two beloved cats, first came to Taiwanese politics as an outsider. Called “Little Ying” by local media, Tsai grew up in Feng-gang, a village in southern Taiwan, before moving to Taipei as a teenager. A lawyer by training, she first studied at National Taiwan University, where she once reportedly failed a criminal law class. she kept furthering her law studies with a masters from Cornell University and a Ph.D from the London School of Economics, teaching the subject for some time. She’s speaks English fluently and is regarded as the most internationally-minded leader the island has seen so far.