Taiwan has pulled eight movies from China’s leading international film festival, an official said yesterday, citing concerns that festival organizers could use the occasion to assert Beijing’s sovereignty over Taiwan.
The Taipei Film Commission withdrew the works from the Shanghai International Film Festival after noticing that organizers of a recent TV festival in Shanghai identified a Taiwanese TV series as originating in “Taiwan, China,” said Anne Lu, a publicist for the commission.
The commission also canceled a news conference and party featuring Taiwanese filmmakers.
“We are worried that a similar situation to the TV series will recur,” Lu told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The eight films are Monga (艋舺), Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), Hear Me (聽說), More Than Close (近在咫尺), Orz Boys (囧男孩), Yang Yang (陽陽), Three Times (最好的時光) and Tonight Nobody Goes Home (今天不回家).
In other cross-strait news, Taiwanese travel agencies said China has canceled a controversial visa restriction on bald Taiwanese visitors.
Xiamen’s ban on bald people applying for one-year multiple-entry permits was canceled earlier this year, the Travel Agent Association said.
“It would probably have raised the question of discrimination if Chinese customs officials were to ask visitors to remove their wigs,” association spokesman Roger Hsu (?y) said, adding that the rule had mainly applied to frequent business travelers.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) quoted unnamed travel agents as saying that Chinese authorities were concerned that “it was easier for bald people to disguise themselves.”
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
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