A Government Information Office (GIO) official said yesterday that China had postponed the opening of the hit Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
Frank Chen (陳志寬), director of the GIO’s Department of Motion Pictures, said LS Time Movie, the company that represents Cape No. 7, received an e-mail from its Chinese counterpart on Nov. 19 saying “[Chinese] customs and the publisher still need to negotiate some problems.”
The Chinese-language United Daily News quoted anonymous sources yesterday as saying Chinese officials had scuttled the plan to release Cape No. 7.
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) told a conference in Beijing on Friday that the movie was tainted by its portrayal of Taiwanese who had been subject to “colonial brainwashing” and that traces of Japan’s kominka (assimilation) policy were evident, the paper said.
The paper said senior Chinese officials believed releasing the film could fuel nationalistic feelings, which would be counter to the peaceful atmosphere that Taiwan and China have been promoting.
Cape No. 7 is Taiwan’s most successful movie in years, earning more than NT$231 million (US$6.9 million) since its release on Aug. 22 and becoming the second top-grossing movie after Titanic.
The film is about a failed rocker who returns to his hometown and ends up playing in the opening act for a Japanese pop star and falling in love with a Japanese publicist. A voice-over tells the story of a Japanese man who fell in love with a Taiwanese woman, reading from love letters written by the man just after the end of World War II.
LS Time Movie chairman Wang Ying-hsiang (王應祥) told the GIO it had been asked to delay sending the movie to China, Chen said.
Frank Chen said the GIO would seek the help of ARATS to resolve the matter.
“[We] hope this movie will be released in China as soon as possible so that people in China will be able to experience the charm of Cape No. 7 and understand Taiwanese culture,” he said, adding: “Wang never said anything about it.”
“Cape No. 7 describes the culture of Taiwan and the bonds between people. I believe anyone would be moved by it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said censorship would make it difficult for Chinese to learn about Taiwan’s democracy and pluralistic society. Although Chen Yunlin had a smile on his face during his visit to Taipei, his reaction to the movie showed his real face, Cheng said.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang and AP
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary