Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯) is scheduled to visit Taiwan in March, months after the director’s absence from an awards ceremony in Taipei that spurred speculation that Chinese authorities were preventing him from visiting.
Jia and his actress wife, Zhao Tao (趙濤), are set to visit in early March, Joint Entertainment International Inc, the Taiwan distributor of Jia’s film A Touch of Sin, announced yesterday.
The director is scheduled to give a talk at an event organized by the Fubon Art Foundation on March 8. He will use the opportunity to thank everyone for supporting A Touch of Sin, the distributor said.
The company said the trip will make up for Jia’s inability to attend the 50th Golden Horse Awards ceremony in November last year, which it said was caused by schedule changes. It did not mention China.
A Touch of Sin garnered six nominations for the awards show, including Best Feature Film and Best Director. The crime drama picked up the Best Original Film Score and Best Film Editing awards.
The director said “personal reasons” were behind his short-notice cancelation ahead of last year’s awards show. Many drew a connection to the sensitive issue of social injustice that is prevalent in A Touch of Sin, which could have rubbed Chinese authorities the wrong way.
Despite critical acclaim, the film has been seen by few members of the public because it has not been shown in theaters on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
Based on real-life news stories, it explores violence and corruption through the stories of four working-class characters in different parts of China, as they are driven to violent ends in the face of what they see as injustice and exploitation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard