Foreign Policy (FP) magazine yesterday released a recording of an interview with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Jan. 20, which includes Ko making a remark that he said had been mistranslated.
In the recording, Ko can be heard saying in Chinese: “The longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is. It’s rather embarrassing.”
Ko had denied using the word “colonization” and said it was a bad translation of his comments.
In the recording, Ko can also be heard joking: “What, you mean I shouldn’t speak the truth?”
“It’s not a bad thing to be colonized for a long time,” Ko said in the recording, when the reporter seemed unsure that she had heard him correctly.
Those comments were not included in the Foreign Policy article on the interview.
“Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the [Chinese] mainland,” Ko said in the recording.
Foreign Policy released a statement with the recording on the journal’s Web site to summarize what had happened.
“On Feb. 1, Ko told domestic media he had not used the term ‘colonization’ in his interview with Foreign Policy,” the statement said.
“On Feb. 2, Ko appeared to back off from his earlier statement when he said he would be ‘more precise’ in future interviews, and Taiwan-based Apple Daily quoted a member of Ko’s team saying: ‘It was our mistake,’” the statement said.
“To the extent that any questions remain about the accuracy of FP’s translation, we make available below the relevant portion of the recorded interview with Ko. FP continues to stand by its translation,” it said.
The mayor’s comment regarding colonization drew flak from academics and lawmakers, who said it overlooked the problems and pain created by colonization.
The mayor yesterday said that he had not “clearly explained” his meaning during the interview due to time constraints, adding that he had meant to say “the longer a society comes into contact with a civilization, the more civilized it is.”
“The first time, I thought it was mistranslated into English, but I did indeed say ‘colonization’ in Chinese. I was wrong, and that’s that,” Ko said.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
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