A legion of Taiwanese celebrities, singers and politicians attending a televised fund-raising show on Friday to help the people affected by the disasters in Japan collected more than NT$788 million (US$26.63 million) as of midnight, according to the organizers.
Celebrities were on hand to operate 120 phone lines as viewers called in to make donations that began at 8pm and ran until 1am yesterday.
One of the largest donations came from an anonymous entrepreneur, who pledged NT$50 million for the families of the Japanese workers who have tried to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Jody Chiang (江蕙), the diva of Taiwanese music, sang Hometown at Dusk, a Taiwanese song written by a Japanese musician, to open the Fight and Smile telethon, which was broadcast live via 20 local TV and radio channels.
“I have a very special relationship with the people of Japan,” she said. “I have released records in Japan before, and I am deeply concerned for the Japanese people. Mother Nature is brutal, but we have each other.”
Model-actress-singer Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄), whose career has expanded into Japan, recited the dramatic experience of her Japanese friends, saying many people in Japan found it very difficult to believe what had happened.
“Things will change for the better in Japan if every one of us pitches in to help,” she said.
A piece of work donated by famed Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming (朱銘) was sold for NT$26 million on the show.
Japanese soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata, who joined the telethon and offered his sneakers for charity sale, said he was very touched to see so many Taiwanese showing support for Japan, adding that he would bring back the love to his countrymen.
Friday’s show, organized by Chinese Television, the Taiwan Public Television Service and the Red Cross Society, featured at least 100 singers from home and abroad.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青), Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) also took part in the charity drive by working as phone operators.
Earlier in the telethon, Ma said that of all the reports he had read about the disaster, the story about the emergency workers who are likely sacrificing their lives to -prevent massive leaks of radiation was one of those that moved him the most.
Ma contributed NT$200,000 to the relief effort.
Several of Taiwan’s famed companies also lent their support. Hon Hai Group pledged NT$200 million, Chimei Innolux Corp promised to offer US$2 million, Formosa Plastics Corp NT$50 million, Fubon Financial Holding Co NT$36 million and Yulon Group NT$20 million.
Victims of Taiwan’s 921 Earthquake of 1999 donated NT$110,000.
Yahoo Taiwan also launched an Internet fund-raising event under the name “Fight and Smile.” By midnight, more than NT$16 million had been pledged.
On Thursday, a similar telethon raised more than NT$114 million.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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