He has not been heard from for over 10 years, but the news of his engagement this month has made a splash from Taipei to (probably) Tiananmen.

Bo Guagua, a once high-profile son of the Chinese political elite whose notorious family drama both shocked and shaped the country’s politics today, touched down in Taiwan last week to make a pilgrimage familiar to many young people: to visit his future in-laws.

Yet the public attention on what should have been a normal rite of passage reveals just how much interest there is in this Communist Party scion once tipped for power.

Taiwanese media quoted a nurse who laid eyes on him (“he is handsome!”), while the office of the former Taiwanese president declared that he had not been invited to the wedding, which is due to take place on Nov. 23.

So who is Bo Guagua – and why is there interest in his marriage?

A princeling ‘hongsandai’

Bo Kuangyi, better known as “Guagua,” is the son of Bo Xilai, once one of the most powerful politicians in China, and his businesswoman wife, Gu Kailai.

His grandfather, Bo Yibo, was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. Guagua was one of a generation of high-profile princelings whose family wealth – gained owing to a connection to the ruling party amid China’s rapid economic growth in the 1990s and 2000s – made them known as the “hongsandai” or “third generation reds.”

From that privileged position, he led a visibly gilded lifestyle that included prime seats at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, a private education at Harrow, the English boarding school, and an enviable network of contacts collected from stints at Oxford and Harvard Universities.

Unlike peers of similar backgrounds – top leader Xi Jinping’s daughter, for example, also attended Harvard but under a pseudonym – Guagua was not shy. He became known as a playboy, hosting parties with guests like Jackie Chan and allegedly driving a Ferrari to pick up the daughter of a diplomat (a story he later denied).

All this came to a sudden, stunning end when the Bo family became the subjects of one of the most consequential scandals in modern Chinese politics— one that has shaped the contours of power in the country today.

Who is Bo Xilai and why was he important?

Before his dramatic downfall, Bo Xilai, Guagua’s father, held some of the most important positions in the CCP, putting him on a collision course with President Xi Jinping, who rose to the position in 2012, the year of Bo Xilai’s ousting.

At the time, the elder Bo had been the CCP party secretary of Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan province. In that capacity, Bo amassed enormous influence as well as personal wealth.

As secretary, he developed a political system that came to be known as the “Chongqing model,” which featured sweeping crackdowns and an emphasis on promoting Maoist, “red” culture.

In early 2012, Bo and his wife Gu Kailai were implicated in a corruption scandal and, shockingly, the death of a British businessman and family friend, Neil Heywood, who Gu was later convicted of murdering. Bo and Gu are now both serving life sentences in prison in China.

What happened to Bo Guagua after his parents went to jail?

When his parents were facing criminal allegations in China, Bo Guagua was in graduate school at Harvard. He was reported to have been smuggled into hiding by U.S. officials in April 2012 as it was unknown whether he would also be swept up by authorities.

Months later, in September, he posted a social media post defending his father shortly after the elder Bo was accused of major offenses, including bribery and shared responsibility for the Haywood murder.

The elder Bo was found guilty of corruption in 2013 and stripped of his party membership the following year.

His son then kept a low profile in the U.S., his whereabouts largely unknown except that he attended Columbia Law School after he finished at Harvard.

Only last week did he re-emerge in public, when he arrived in Taiwan.

Who is Bo Guagua’s fiancée?

The bride-to-be has been named as Hsu Hui Yu, a Taiwanese woman who Guagua is said to have known for years after meeting as students.

One of the details of what has caught the attention of China watchers is the political ties of the bride’s family. Hsu’s grandfather was a prominent political donor and member of the Kuomintang (KMT), while her uncle most recently ran as a party candidate for the legislature in 1992, before turning to run the family real estate and healthcare business.

The family were close to the ex-KMT president Ma Yinjeou, whose government was once accused of helping them improperly secure business contracts.

What does interest in the nuptials tell us?

What might seem like a baroque scandal about a Chinese political insider is still capable of igniting the public imagination..

Slews of news stories have been written about the marriage already, with everything from commentary on whether the marriage of a CCP heir into Taiwan is a good thing to how the Mainland Affairs Council, the Taiwan agency that deals with China, is handling the situation.

It also speaks to the mystery that surrounds the children of senior Chinese leaders, many of whom went abroad, have access to unknown deposits of wealth and influence, and will shape important relationships in the future.

As for the couple, they have not publicly commented. They are expected to make their residence in Canada, where, according to a LinkedIn profile, Bo Guagua is now based. The wedding this weekend itself is supposed to be “low key.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.