The Government Information Office (GIO) has lodged a protest with the Venice Film Festival for labeling Seediq Bale (賽德克巴萊), which has been nominated for the Golden Lion award, a film made by “China, Taiwan” and demanded a correction.
Chu Wen-ching (朱文清), director of the GIO’s Motion Picture Affairs Department, said the protest was presented by the Taipei Representative Office in Italy on Friday.
FUNDING
Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times
ARS Film Production (果子電影公司), the producer of the film, also wrote a letter to the festival organizer, asking it to correct the name of the country of production. ARS said the film was not funded by China and did not employ Chinese actors.
The epic Taiwanese film directed by Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) features the uprising by the Seediq tribe against Japanese colonizers in the 1930s, known as the Wushe Incident (霧社事件).
“It’s a pure Taiwan-made film and not a film made by Taiwan in cooperation with China,” producer Huang Chih-ming (黃志明) said.
Huang said the film had a budget of NT$700 million (US$24.29 million), with NT$350 million coming from the Central Pictures Corp (中影公司) and the remainder funded by Wei and a government subsidy.
INTERNET CAMPAIGN
Netizens have launched a letter-writing campaign to protest the incorrect reference to country of production.
“We are Taiwanese from the country called Taiwan. We are NOT Chinese from the country of dictatorship China,” the letter in English said.
“If I call you Italian as Nazi, would you feel happy or not? If NOT, then DON’T Call our Taiwanese as Chinese or part of China,” it said.
“Taiwan is an independent country. Unless you wish our democratic Taiwan country to become a part of evil dictatorial China,” it said.
“No More China after or before Taiwan. The film Seediq Bale is made by Taiwanese and the country is called Taiwan. NOT china, Taiwan or Taiwan, china.” it said.
“If your organization doesn’t want to change the wrong title of our country, we Taiwanese will have a major protest against your film festival,” the letter added.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS