Jasmine lives in a room crowded together with a dozen other teenagers in a concrete building that lacks running water. She works seven days a week from 8am until 2am removing lint from denim jeans. She earns US$1 a day.
Jasmine, one of the estimated 130 million members of China’s so-called floating population, is the central character in director Micha X. Peled’s 88-minute China Blue, a documentary about migrant labor in China. The film is one of five documentaries being shown as part of the 2008 Anti-Human Trafficking Film Festival organized by the Garden of Hope Foundation (勵馨基金會) to shed light on the issue of human trafficking. The films will be screened in four cities throughout Taiwan beginning today and running until the end of October.
It’s a sad fact that many migrant workers in Taiwan face conditions similar to those of their counterparts in China, a phenomenon documented in Olwen Bedford’s Working for a Better Future. The 24-minute film uses the lives of two Vietnamese workers to illustrate many of the hardships — forced debt, harsh working conditions, low wages — that thousands of migrant workers endure in Taiwan.
Luigi Acquisto takes the viewer on a journey from the streets of Sydney to Thailand’s sex industry in Trafficked. Acquisto follows former police officer Chris Payne, who travels to Thailand to solve the mystery of “Nikki,” a young Thai girl deported from Australia after she was caught working in a brothel. On the way he meets the parents of another sex slave whose death at a Sydney immigration facility caused outrage in Australia.
Looking on the bright side, Meeta Vasisht’s Summer Moon shows how victims of human trafficking can recover and go on to lead fulfilling lives. Vasisht films a group of former sex workers who use their experiences to stage humorous dramas aimed at shaming customers in the human marketplaces of India and Nepal.
And since no film festival raising awareness of a social issue would be complete without famous people showing how much they care, there’s Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special, which enlists well-known celebrities such as Karen Mok (莫文蔚), who narrates a story about the “trafficking chain” that follows a woman trafficked from the Philippines and forced into prostitution, a trafficker who forces women into prostitution, and a woman who runs a shelter for migrants.
The 2008 Anti-Human Trafficking Film Festival Taipei screenings are tonight at 7pm and tomorrow and Sunday at 2pm at the Shin Kong Cineplex (新光影城), 4F and 5F, 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號4-5樓); screenings are also scheduled for Taichung (Oct. 14 to Oct. 16), Kaohsiung (Oct. 21 to Oct. 23) and Taitung (Oct. 24). Admission for all screenings is free. On the Net: www.goh.org.tw/AntiHumanTrafficking. — Noah Buchan
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
In July of 1995, a group of local DJs began posting an event flyer around Taipei. It was cheaply photocopied and nearly all in English, with a hand-drawn map on the back and, on the front, a big red hand print alongside one prominent line of text, “Finally… THE PARTY.” The map led to a remote floodplain in Taipei County (now New Taipei City) just across the Tamsui River from Taipei. The organizers got permission from no one. They just drove up in a blue Taiwanese pickup truck, set up a generator, two speakers, two turntables and a mixer. They
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) attendance at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPP) “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” parade in Beijing is infuriating, embarrassing and insulting to nearly everyone in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s friends and allies. She is also ripping off bandages and pouring salt into old wounds. In the process she managed to tie both the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into uncomfortable knots. The KMT continues to honor their heroic fighters, who defended China against the invading Japanese Empire, which inflicted unimaginable horrors on the
Hannah Liao (廖宸萱) recalls the harassment she experienced on dating apps, an experience that left her frightened and disgusted. “I’ve tried some voice-based dating apps,” the 30-year-old says. “Right away, some guys would say things like, ‘Wanna talk dirty?’ or ‘Wanna suck my d**k?’” she says. Liao’s story is not unique. Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics show a more than 50 percent rise in sexual assault cases related to online encounters over the past five years. In 2023 alone, women comprised 7,698 of the 9,413 reported victims. Faced with a dating landscape that can feel more predatory than promising, many in
RSS