Print

Mail

wiki links

Johnny Neihu's Mailbag

Boot `camp'

Dear Johnny,

What's up with the military recruitment posters along Keelung Road near the intersection of Heping Road?

I'm confused. One shows a picture of a dangerous looking guy in tight shorts and swim mask carting around a Los Angeles gangster's Mac 10.

The caption reads: "Frogmen of Chinese Army." Are the Chicoms recruiting over here now?

Trevor Johnston

Johnny replies: I can never work out what's going on with our military's recruitment strategy. In other countries the dominant message is national pride through discipline, masculinity and physical strength. In Taiwan it seems to be "Join the armed forces and have a fabulous time splashing in the water and wrestling on the beach with other boys just as buff as you."

Still skeptical on the camp theme that underlies the defense of our realm? Watch this old but gold video from our navy boys: bbs.xxoo.net/viewtopic.php?t=1966.

I am particularly fond of the English-language text and one climactic moment where the lads are framed by an explosive ejaculation of steam (or something).

Note also the pastiche of ethnic symbols late in the video. All bases are covered, and presumably loaded, too.

The gangsta image you spotted suggests the strategy is changing, notwithstanding the tight shorts. But one thing that hasn't, sadly, is the fear of using the name "Taiwan" in promotional materials.

Hate from Hualien

To the editor:

The editorial by Johnny Neihu on the Olympics was truly disgusting ("The Olympic decathlon of death," Aug. 11, page 8).

When this person initially began contributing to your paper, I read one of his pieces, was offended by his gutter mouth and decided that the best response was to stop reading his columns and hope he went away.

When I read his editorial on the Olympics I found that not only had he not gone away, but he had become even more foul.

Do you read what this person is writing? Do you understand it? Do you know how puerile his bathroom humor is?

Do you realize that the issues which he makes into sick humor are serious and his treating them as as a topic for ridicule only makes his readers more jaded to the seriousness of these problems?

As a regular reader of your paper for the past four years, I appreciate the breadth of your coverage, including local reviewers such as Bradley Winterthur [sic]. I may not agree with all of your editorials, but their quality is generally pretty good.

By including works of such low caliber as "Johnny Neihu," you are demeaning the status of your newspaper.

You must do something to limit the degrading effect this contributor is having to your publication -- and a good way to start would be by issuing a retraction or an apology for that editorial.

I am tempted to simply stop reading your paper so that whether or not Johnny Neihu goes away will not be my problem.

Name withheld

Johnny replies: Well, dear reader, I have to confess that I raided the recycling bin for normal "letters to the editor" to run this one, and out of respect for my disrespectful reader from Hualien, I have taken his name off it.

But let me make him an offer. If he can give me substantially more money each week than I earn writing this column, I will gladly desist and retire to Penghu.

Until then, the only thing I have to say about this attack on my decency is that I am outraged -- outraged, I tell you -- that my bathroom humor was labeled "puerile." I do my very best to ensure that bathroom humor in my column is well above that level.
This story has been viewed 1814 times.