The outgoing Kuomintang party is not unfamiliar with losing power in Taiwan. With Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party taking office as the island's leader on May 20, the KMT will become an opposition party for the second time since 2000.

But history does not repeat itself.

Compared with its setback 16 years ago, the 122-year-old party and its chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu, who was elected as the party's first female leader on Saturday, face even more daunting challenges and a tougher mission ahead.