Racism begone
The very good recent editorial on racism toward Aborigines was well-written and to the point (“Racist remarks cannot be tolerated,’’ May 18, page 8). Racist remarks by any public figure, be he or she a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), should never be tolerated in this multi-ethnic nation.
So shame on Liao Wan-lung (廖萬隆), a member of the KMT, for wondering out loud in public “whether it would be possible to discourage intermarriage between Aborigines and other ethnicities to ensure the preservation of Aborigines’ cultural heritage.’’
And shame on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for his “tepid response [to Liao that] simply did not go far enough.”
Although, to tell the truth, the KMT is not the only party to say racist things about Taiwan’s Aborigines. A few years ago, a DPP legislator in Taipei referred, in public, to Aborigines with the racist word Huan-ah — a slur in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) that literally means “wild savages.” I read about this incident in the Taipei Times, by the way.
One more note, speaking of racism: I have also noticed that sometimes — not always, but sometimes — when a front page or inside photograph depicting Taiwanese Aborigines appears in your newspaper, it is often given a witty yet mocking title and caption, insulting the spiritual beliefs of Aborigines in some instances or gently mocking their clothes, their facial tattoos or their customs.
You would never permit photo headlines or photo captions that mock African Americans or Christians or Muslims, yet for some reason your copy editors (and their supervising editors) sometimes allow photo headlines and photo captions that treat Aborigines in a jocular, mocking and yes, racist way.
If it’s wrong for KMT and DPP legislators to make racist comments about Aborigines, and it is, then it is also wrong for the progressive and liberal Taipei Times to treat Aboriginal customs and beliefs in racist, Han-supremacist ways.
I hope future photo captions and titles will reflect my concerns.
ARRON BECK
Kenting, Taiwan
Raising standards
John Fleckenstein’s letter did not come too late — it just should have popped up as banner headline (Letter, May 17, page 8).
Taiwan’s seemingly helpless Ministry of Transportation and Communications has never tackled the issue of “idling engines,” despite sufficient information and literature about the waste of energy and money, insanity and health damage caused by idling engines.
Taipei’s scooters are only one example. Another is the dozens of tourist buses whose engines are left running with the air conditioning on and the door open (frequently with a sleeping driver inside). One can see this every day at all the tourist spots.
A further example: Families with babies and young children sleeping in their vans and cars as they enjoy a fine Sunday afternoon, with their air conditioning and engine running.
Never heard of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide? Don’t these people care about their fellow citizens or the environment?
Taiwan has enough schools and education institutes, unfortunately populated by many students who are also idling, since learning is intended primarily for exams. How much do Taiwan’s students learn about life or a “life with higher qualities?” What about a life that respects humans and nature or a life with morals, caring for others and responsibility?
Idling scooters are a prominent problem, although just a part of the country’s notorious sub-standards. It’s the duty of everybody to raise these standards.
ENGELBERT ALTENBURGER
Kaohsiung
The Comedy Club on Fuxing N Road in Taipei was vandalized with paint bombs mixed with feces on May 29, allegedly because one of its performers had satirized Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). The incident has triggered concerns about the growing threat from China’s cross-border repression within Taiwan. On the day of the attack, a comedian surnamed Huang (黃), who is known for mocking Xi, was the headline performer. The Comedy Club founder said the assault was obviously politically motivated. China, which Freedom House said “conducts the most sophisticated, extensive and far-reaching campaign of transnational repression in the world,” has
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) at a press conference last week repeated the same, tired line, claiming that Taiwan’s future should be “decided jointly by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots.” The statement is absurd. Virtually every word is incorrect, with some parts mistaken to an astonishing degree. First, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never included Taiwan. When the Republic of China’s (ROC) original five-colored flag was established in 1912, Taiwan was still under Japanese rule. When the PRC was founded in 1949, Taiwan was under the control of president Chiang
Following the outbreak of conflict in Iran, TikTok was flooded with videos targeting Taiwanese users. Many featured artificial intelligence (AI)-generated anchors posing as Taiwanese broadcasters with localized traditional Chinese subtitles. The videos warned of imminent social collapse due to liquefied natural gas shortages, blamed the Democratic Progressive Party and its alleged failed energy policies for a fabricated crisis, and used recycled footage from unrelated events to create the impression Taiwan stood on the edge of systemic breakdown. By saturating the information environment with falsehoods or selectively edited material designed to trigger emotional responses, malign actors can exploit cognitive vulnerabilities and
Taiwan’s leading position in the global semiconductor industry is not, as some claim, based on misconceptions, a result of “stealing.” It was built upon formal, transparent and costly technology transfer agreements between the Taiwanese government and US enterprises half a century ago. According to the oral history of Hu Ding-hua (胡定華), a pioneer in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the origin of Taiwan’s integrated circuit (IC) technology dates back to the “IC pilot factory” in the 1970s. The implementation of this project fully complied with international commercial standards and legal procedures. First, the project completed formal contract signing and payment. In 1975,
RSS