New Taipei City has so many mascots that even its mayor last week admitted that he cannot recognize many of them.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members of the New Taipei City Council displayed a collection of the mascots on a table during the question-and-answer portion of Thursday’s council session and demanded that top city officials take them home with them.
“I do not recognize many of the mascots. I have never laid eyes on them before,” New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) told the DPP council members.
Photo: CNA
The city has more than 40 mascots, yet based on a recent online poll to choose a mascot to feature on the municipality’s Double Ten National Day parade float, none have found favor with residents, the DPP city caucus said.
The mascots that came in first and second in the poll were Taichung’s leopard cat, with 49,000 likes, and Taipei’s Formosan black bear, with 3,300 likes, they said.
New Taipei City’s mascot got just 2,764 likes, even though it is the nation’s most populous administrative division, proving that the city’s mascots are not distinctive, the caucus said.
DPP New Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsu-tien (李余典) said the city’s Water Resources Bureau was particularly egregious in creating mascots, having announced 12 creations in recent years.
DPP New Taipei City Councilor Lee Chien-ping (李倩萍) said many city departments and bureaus created mascots for one-time events, such as the honeybee created by the Civil Service Ethics Office for an anti-corruption campaign that netizens ridiculed as ugly.
“What impact did the mascot make? What is its connection to the event? Did corruption go down because somebody designed a honeybee?” she asked.
Chu said city workers should not be blamed for indulging in creativity, but designing new mascots for one-time events is probably not good a way to make a lasting impression.
He defended the sky lantern baby for the International Children’s Games and the cubed-headed bear for Christmas as relative successes, but said that his government would review its mascots policy.
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