The Tourism Bureau yesterday said that, after a mix-up on the leopard cat designs for a theme train unveiled on Tuesday last week, works by Taiwanese and Russian illustrators would be featured in a tourism campaign for Nantou County’s Jiji Township (集集).
Leopard cats are an endangered species in Taiwan.
The train, which cost NT$3 million (US$95,481) to renovate and travels on the Taiwan Railways Administration’s Jiji branch line, is part of a bureau campaign to boost tourism to a town known for having been a collection point for camphor in the Japanese colonial era.
Screen grab from Facebook
Designer Chiang Meng-chih (江孟芝) had her team draw leopard cats to decorate the train, but some people realized that the illustrations were of leopards, not leopard cats.
Chiang later said that she purchased the images from an online gallery.
As a solution, the bureau said that it asked the design team to come up with three leopard cat illustrations.
Experts from the Council of Agriculture’s Endangered Species Research Institute had confirmed the animal’s prominent features: two white stripes on the forehead, white dots at the back of the ears and white stripes near the eye sockets, the bureau added.
Russian illustrator Katya Molodtsova, who had drawn the online leopards, heard about the endangered animal’s plight and volunteered to create three leopard cat illustrations that people in Taiwan could use for free.
The bureau initially refused the offer.
However, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chiang-lung (林佳龍) on Tuesday night said on Facebook that the bureau should not turn away such a generous offer, but should use Molodtsova’s illustrations in some way.
Lin said that he had left a message on Molodtsova’s Instagram account to thank her for the illustrations and for her generosity, adding that he invited her to attend the launch ceremony of the renovated train on Sept. 21.
The bureau yesterday announced that riders would be able to see illustrations by the Taiwanese and Russians designers on board the train.
“The campaign began with a controversy, but has a happy ending. As such, people will realize that the conservation of endangered animals and railway tourism are important,” Lin said. “It could potentially draw visitors from Russia.”
The campaign also raises awareness of copyright and intellectual property issues when using designs in public projects,” he added.
Molodtsova was flattered by Lin’s invitation and the response of Taiwanese, the Representative Office in Taipei for the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation said after contacting her.
The office said it would soon visit Molodtsova to express the government’s gratitude.
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