Aboriginal groups yesterday criticized CtiTV (中天電視) over what they said were discriminatory remarks made about Aborigines by a guest on one of the station’s popular entertainment shows, urging the cable network to apologize.
A popular entertainment show aired by CtiTV, University (大學生了沒), triggered controversy when one of the guests in an episode aired earlier this week told a “joke” that involves discriminatory remarks about Taiwanese Aborigines.
The guest said in the joke that women in Aboriginal villages in the mountains have nothing to do when their husbands go out hunting, so they have affairs.
After the remarks drew criticism from the public, CtiTV released a statement on its Web site on Thursday, saying it did not mean to offend any particular ethnic group and urged critics to remain “rational.”
“No name of any particular Aboriginal village or particular mountain was mentioned in the joke, hence, it is not discriminatory toward any particular group of people,” the TV station said in the statement.
It added that the guest who told the joke — not the station — should be held accountable.
However, CtiTV’s response led to more criticism.
“If someone told a joke about generals’ wives having affairs in military dependents’ quarters when their husbands are out fighting battles, would anyone think that was acceptable?” Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Policies Association chairman Oto Micyang asked at a press conference yesterday.
“The joke is quite an old one, but that is not the point. The point is, why would you make such a joke about a particular ethnic group?” he said.
If the TV station considered the joke to be problematic, but broadcast it anyway, it also had to take responsibility, he said.
“The producer could have asked the guest not to tell the joke in advance. The host of the show, Momoko Tao (陶晶瑩) — who is a very experienced TV host — should have known to correct the guest and that part could have been be edited out before airing,” Oto said. “The National Communications Commission should do something about this.”
Kaikai Miyagan, an Amis Aborigine who is a member of a TV production team, echoed Oto’s remarks.
“I am a member of a production team, so I know that before a show is aired, every detail is discussed and rehearsed, so the producer and the host must have known what the guest was going to say,” she said. “In the event that something happens that shouldn’t during the recording of the show, it can always be re--recorded, or the offending part can be simply edited out.”
“There are several layers of filtering before a show can be aired, I’m surprised that CtiTV apparently thinks it’s okay to make such a discriminatory remark on TV,” Kaikai said. “It’s not just a show, not just the few minutes when it was aired — the joke can be retold, the show can be shared over the Internet, and it’s going to create a negative image in the minds of its viewers, who are mostly young people.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique