Several Montreal-based Taiwanese recently launched a protest campaign against the Gazette, an English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Canada, for its publication of an article on Taiwan, which they said was biased.
The newspaper carried an article about Taiwan under the title “Teaching English: Cultural Shock” in its Feb. 26 publication, in which Lindsey Craig, a Canadian who said she used to teach English in Taiwan, described her seven-month stay in the country in 2005 as “the most difficult experience of my life.”
It angered many Taiwanese living in the city who thought the paper should not have used the three-page article to introduce Taiwan solely based on one person’s subjective view.
However, in the subtitle, the article said: “Like thousands of -Canadians every year, Lindsey Craig moved overseas to teach English in Taiwan — but she’s the one who got some hard life-lessons.”
In Taichung, where Craig said she lived, she said that she couldn’t identify anything during the first week because “the signs on the streets were all written in Chinese” and that navigating the streets was daunting because “some signs were written with letters from the English alphabet, but they were often spelled differently than they were spelled on a map.”
She said she found that “few people spoke English, and often when they could, they refused because they were too embarrassed to make a mistake and ‘lose face.’”
Craig said there were unsettling moments at work, citing the example of the parents of one of her students who thought that the best way to take care of their son’s disruptive behavior was to beat him.
In her article, Craig said that her days in Taiwan “were marked by frustration, shock and disbelief.”
Toward the end, she said that “I now know I was not ready for Taiwan. I did not research the culture adequately enough, and I should have gone only if I’d had a genuine interest in learning the language.”
Montreal-based Taiwanese created a group called “226 protest of media bias Gazette in Montreal” on Facebook, with Su Yu-chun (蘇玉純) calling on foreign nationals living in Taiwan teaching foreign languages to contact the group to lodge a protest against the newspaper.
David Tsao (曹耕臺) posted a letter addressed to the country’s representative to Canada, David Lee (李大維), on Facebook, urging Lee and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada to lodge a formal protest against the Gazette.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,