The publisher of the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN), Wang Shaw-lan (王效蘭), has stirred an uproar on the Intenet in recent days after saying that Taiwanese people are “detestable.”
Wang made the remarks while commenting on the sovereignty row over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and in the wake of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) saying that the Diaoyutais belong to Japan.
Voicing her opposition to Lee’s statement, Wang said: “You Taiwanese are so detestable (你們台灣人真可惡).”
“I don’t want to live in Taiwan anymore. I get angry when I think of Taiwanese people,” the 71-year-old said on the sidelines of the Cross-Strait Book Fair in Taipei on Friday.
Her remarks were posted on YouTube (http://youtu.be/PxnHu1f90Gg) and quickly went viral, drawing heated discussion.
Wang said she had ignored Lee in the past when Lee greeted her by nodding his head, saying she had also walked away when then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) walked toward her.
In response to her outburst, award-winning screenwriter and author Neil Peng (馮光遠) yesterday posted an article on his blog, saying: “Ms Wang’s decision was commendable and a very honest one. I urge people to go to the airport and send her off with good wishes, as she no longer wants to stay in Taiwan.”
“Many Taiwanese would be quite happy to see her returning to the embrace of her People’s Republic of China motherland,” wrote Peng, whose article was accompanied by a picture illustration of Wang sitting in an airplane.
Peng went on and posed questions to Wang and the paper, such as “Can we accuse her of breaking her promise if she continues to live in Taiwan?” and “When she leaves, will she also take her United Daily News with her?”
“It is a good thing that her departure from Taiwan came from her own willingness. We can all breathe a sigh of relief now,” Peng wrote, concluding his article with: “Goodbye to Ms Wang Shaw-lan. When you arrive in Beijing, you will not be angry anymore. Goodbye!”
Other comments by netizens on Wang’s outburst included: “Wang doesn’t like Taiwanese, but yet she continues to make money from Taiwanese.”
United Daily News spokesperson George Shuang (項國寧) said that Wang was merely expressing her strong opposition to Lee’s position on the Daoyutai Islands.
Her words should not be misrepresented or taken out of context, he said.
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