Sports and culture are better tools for a country to win respect than protests, Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) said on Wednesday in response to controversy at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month surrounding the country of origin of his recent film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.
“Instead of constantly protesting why people fail to recognize Taiwan, why not display our own quality and power first? Why not make the whole world feel it is impossible to protest against you?” Wei said at a forum entitled “My Director Dream” in Taipei. “We must let others feel we are their cup of tea and they have to drink it.”
Wei’s remarks were made in -response to a participant’s -question about the controversial “Taiwan, China” label that was given to Wei’s latest film, which was nominated for the 68th Golden Lion Award.
The Taiwanese production was mired in controversy over how it was labeled. The festival originally listed the film as originating from “China, Taiwan,” but after Taiwan’s representative to Italy protested, the listing was changed to “Chinese Taipei.”
Wei’s statement echoed his previous mantra that “the power of arts and culture exceeds that of politics.”
Politics and economics should be limited to domestic strife only, Wei added.
Sports, arts and culture, on the other hand, are the country’s -foundation and the power that can best present Taiwan to the international community, he said.
“If every pitch [the Washington Nationals’] Wang Chien-ming (王建民) throws represents the Republic of China, it would be very stressful. Why leave a problem that a country cannot solve to a film and a pitcher?” he said.
The 42-year-old Wei said being a director was never his dream, adding that he just set out to complete what he wanted to do.
Despite the hard work in the process, he completed it step by step, without being burdened by “doing what others asked him to.”
After his large-scale epic film, Wei said he wants to make a film about baseball and another one about Taiwanese history.
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