Flag flops and fibs
I recently wrote to the UN Postal Administration (UNPA) to find out why 15-year-old Yang Chih-yuan's (
According to the media here, Yang's artwork was rejected after China objected to his painting because it contained an image of the ROC flag, along with the flags of many other countries around the world. The theme of the stamp contest was world peace. However, the UNPA's letter implied that China had nothing to do with the decision to disqualify Yang's painting, since the letter did not even mention China.
The UNPA informed me that Yang's artwork was not used in the end because it was too big to be reduced to the size of a stamp. "In order to see all eight design images at stamp-size to gauge the reproduction quality, the UNPA had printed proofs made, [and] the committee thereafter finally selected just six designs to be featured on UNPA's 2004 Peace Stamps," the UNPA letter stated, without mentioning the role China's pressure on the UNPA played in all this -- if any.
"Unfortunately, Yang's artwork design did not make the final six. However due to an internal misunderstanding and miscommunication, Yang's proof got publicized in error as one of the six stamps intended to be issued," the letter stated.
While admitting that the stamp committee had indeed shortlisted six designs from the 24 merit award winners of the "Lions Clubs International Design A Peace Poster Competition," one of which was by Yang, the committee insisted that Yang's design did not make the final six-winner cut, even though his design had previously been posted on the UNPA Web site as a winner of the stamp contest.
Something's fishy here. Without even mentioning China's alleged role in the flag flap, the UNPA made it sound as if Yang's picture could not reduce very well to stamp size since it was so detailed, and that therefore his artwork was not used in the final cut, whereas the other winning entries had no problem being reduced. Is the UNPA lying? And if so, why?
Dan Bloom
Chiayi City
Calling it like it is
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a banquet held at a Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio for the teams that competed in the championship of 2004 world series of "beeping baseball" for the blind. The event was very touching and I was deeply moved by the boisterous spirit and humor the members of all 14 teams showed during the award ceremony. Every team looked like a winner; you could hardly find a loser in the room.
However, during the team memoir exchange, a team member from Kansas walked to our table and asked what the "CT" stood for on the autographed cap given by "Taiwan Homerun," Taiwan's representative team. I paused and told him it stands for "Chinese Taipei." He asked why Chinese Taipei? I then explained the cross-strait situation in detail for him.
On the way home, I felt proud of Taiwan's team for winning the championship for the first time. And I was more proud that the country has reached such a level of prosperity and humanity that it can send a representative team like this abroad. That is Taiwan's pride.
However, the question from the Kansas member hovered in my head and I realized indeed that Taiwan is still a second-class country in the world community. While the whole world calls you Taiwan, our sports teams competing abroad must call themselves Chinese Taipei. Everyone, including the Americans, rallied for Team Taiwan and cheered "Taiwan Homerun, go, go, go!" during the event. No one called out "Chinese Taipei, go, go, go."
This experience dampened my spirit that night. For too long the Taiwanese people have lived under the curse of the ROC. It is about time the nation asked the whole world to give us fair treatment. But first of all, the Taiwanese and its government offices should stop humiliating themselves by using a bunch of crazy, confused and irrelevant names.
Yang Ji-chang
Columbus, Ohio
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