A peace group yesterday called on the public and the government to support a campaign to change what they call "discriminatory" Chinese translations for terms related to Islam and Jews.
"There are many Chinese characters for you tai (猶太), or Jew, but they pick the you with the `dog radical' (犬)" said Chien Hsi-chieh, executive director of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan. "In Chinese, [the character] refers to an animal of the monkey species, and has the connotation of `parsimoniousness.'"
A better choice for the word, Chien said, would be you (
Chien also urged that the hui character used in the Chinese translation for the religion of Islam (回教), be replaced with yisilan (伊斯蘭), because hui has a connotation of paganism. The earlier Chinese translation for Islam used a hui character with the "dog" radical.
Chien made the appeal at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning.
Zhou Xun (
"As a matter of fact, the animal radical of youtai indicates the imagined physical difference between the Chinese and the Jews, which is rooted in the tradition of picturing the alien groups living outside the pale of Chinese society as distant savages hovering on the edge of bestiality," she said.
Chien yesterday also lambasted the Presidential Office's Human Rights Advisory Committee, headed by Vice President Annette Lu (
The Presidential Office yesterday said in a statement that the foundation's claim that Lu was using the committee as a tool to benefit her political career rather than promote human rights was a misunderstanding.
The statement said that on Oct. 4, the foundation's petition was submitted to Chen, who ordered the committee convened by Lu to discuss the issue. On Oct. 13, the committee's deputy convener, Liao Fu-te (廖福特), chaired a discussion of the issue with representatives from the foundation, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government Information Office.
The committee members said that the government would gladly help out if civic groups continue to promote the idea, the statement added.
"The petition was filed by the foundation [in Taiwan] rather than by Jewish people. According to the conclusion reached by the committee on Oct. 20, it was unnecessary for the government to take such an initiative. Besides, Taiwan has no official diplomatic ties with Israel," the statement said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS